Luckily my parents came with us, which helped out tremendously. We hauled pretty much everything we owned into a rented minivan (in the pouring rain, to boot) and were en route to Grand Haven, MI with a stop in Indianapolis to visit Lissie's godmother on the way.
The drive up wasn't so bad. The kids were intrigued by their new digs, the excitement of something new was enough to entertain them, and five hours (with the necessary potty stops, of course) was a decent amount of time in the car to keep everyone happy.
We enjoyed seeing Auntie Amy, Uncle Brad, and their newest sweetest baby boy. And we were able to get our rest before chugging on for another five hours to Grand Haven.
It was such a whirlwind of a weekend, as are all wedding weekends - filled with rehearsals, pictures, the ceremony, reception, and other family gatherings. The kids met all sorts of aunties and uncles and cousins and lolos and lolas and were enjoying being passed off to another doting relative throughout the course of the trip.
And the flower girl? We spent a lot of time before the trip practicing what to do - we picked flowers and walked down our made-up aisle and we watched youTube videos galore. The rehearsal went great, but my shy little lady had a bit of performance anxiety the day of the wedding. She woke up crabby from her nap and just wanted to eat, eat, eat. Pictures were taken before the ceremony, and she had quite a freak-out session when her dear Uncle Tim picked her up for a pose. The only thing that could calm her down was good 'ole Daniel Tiger streaming from my phone. And apples. And, of course, she wanted to put neither of them down when the ceremony started. I was starting to think that she wasn't going to be able to do her flower girl duties at all, but she pulled through in the end. She grabbed her basket of petals and just stood there until she spotted me in the front. And it was then that she bolted to the front of the aisle and tossed a bunch of petals in my face. The End. Ehh....I'll take it.
Of course, by Sunday, we were all exhausted and ready to be home. And that made the 8-hour drive turn into a 10-hour one, with crabby kids galore. New books, DVDs, stickers, and quiet activities can only do so much when you're two years old and just need to expend that energy. But we trudged on, and we did it.
All in all, it wasn't too terrible. In fact, we're thinking about taking a few more mini trips before summer's end!
Here are a few more of my favorite family pics in and around Grand Haven:
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