We have had a busy weekend.  Chris' sister got married on Saturday.  All 3 kids were in the wedding.  Here they are with Chris' sisters.

    

Chris came home late on Thursday and woke to the children climbing on him, as it should be.  We went to the rehearsal on Friday night and the kids did great.  Saturday was spent packing for the night.  We decided to rent a hotel room near the reception so we didn't have to drive 45 minutes to drop them off at home and make it back to the reception.  It was amazing how much stuff we had to bring with for a single night stay.  After naps were done, we headed out.  They loved the room since it overlooked an ice rink.  They loved to people watch.  The kids got a bath at the hotel and then we got them dressed (after dressing ourselves first).  And, joy oh joy, Sam's tux still fit!  The girls' tights were way too big but I just pinned them up and hoped for the best.  We got all turned around and arrived a bit later than we were suppose to but it worked out well since the kids didn't have the chance to wreak havok.  They did a great job with Sam leading the way followed by the girls.  Everything was beautiful.

We took the kids back to the hotel after the pictures were done and met the sitter.  A woman from church said she would watch the kids at the room in exchange for a donation to the youth group.  Deal!  She has 3 kids as well, 1 girl then twin boys.  The boys are mid teens now so she was happy to help.  We left before 8:30 (it was a late wedding, 6:30) and headed to the reception.  We got there just as the bride and groom were heading in.  We had a great time and everything was great, from the food to the cakes.  They even had a candy bar.  It was really fun.  Chris and I danced all night.  My feet still hate me even tho I kicked off the shoes as soon as we arrived.  We got back to the hotel room about 12:30 am and discovered that our kids were still up!  Leslie said, "I failed."  The way I see it, we had an even 50/50 shot at them going down and we ended up on the short end.  Oh well.  She left and we put them to bed.  Nat was the last to drop.  I had to crawl into bed with her to get her to sleep.  It was 1 when I climbed into our bed.  They woke up at 6:30 am!!!!!!!!!  We tried to get them back to bed without success.  We showered and checked out by 10 am.  We headed to a restaurant for breakfast then went home.  We had hoped to be able to go to the zoo but the lack of sleep hit us all.  We took a nap instead.

Afterwards we went to a park and let the kids play followed by a trip to Subway for dinner where we ran into Jennifer, the woman we bought our house from.  She is the mother of 4 (the youngest is close to V's age) and is going to nursing school.  She was studying so we didn't talk long.  She is a really nice woman.

We got up early this morning and took Chris to the airport.  He will be coming home for Thanksgiving in 2.5 weeks so not too bad a wait.  The kids are wiped as am I.  We are about to head out and go to Patty and Dan's for dinner.  Patty's mom, Marguerite, will be heading back to St. Louis tomorrow.  At 93, you never know how many visits you will have with her.