Day 3 - Wedding Day

Sunday morning we stayed at the hotel and let Maddi get some school work done. When you miss school for 2 days, you've got a good amount of work to make up. She wasn't thrilled about doing the work, but she was happy when it was all done and she could enjoy the rest of the trip. I left Brett in the room to work with Maddi while Cade, Emma and I walked around the hotel looking at the pool, waterpark, restaraunts, etc. Then we ate lunch at Bugaboo Creek. I can't believe we forgot to take a picture of Cade with the sign. I have always called him Bugaboo, so we were happy to eat there. It's like a lodge inside with animals on the walls that talk. Then it was time to get ready for the wedding! Brett's cousin, Valerie, was getting married in New Hampshire. It was only a 40 minute drive which is so crazy that the states are so close together on the east coast.

The Happy Couple, Valerie and Paul.

The wedding was at a small chapel and Maddi and Cade did great and Brett said they enjoyed it. Emalyn and I only saw the wedding party enter and soon after, we were outside. Emalyn loves to hear her voice echo and she said "aaahhh" two times and we were out of there! At the reception, everyone had a blast! Grace and Maddi were the first on the dance floor.

Since most people were just arriving and seated at the tables, it was a great time for Emalyn to crawl around the dance floor.

Cade and Emalyn were having so much fun playing together!

A random girl named Lilly soon joined the other kids on the dance floor.

Those two adore each other.

It's hard to crawl in a dress, so we tucked it in and showed off her fancy bloomer panties. I think it must be a southern thing to monogram bloomer panties because people always go crazy in Chicago and they went crazy here when they saw her name was on her panties.

The dancing cousins.

Janet with her brother, John. Too bad Jean was in the hospital and had to miss the wedding.

From left to right, Aly and Courtney (Brian's wife), Liam, Brian, Sara, Becca and Todd.

Emalyn has loved beer bottles from a very young age. She likes to put her mouth on them but now she has learned to feed them to Brett. Silly girl.

The kids filled up on appetizers and then when their kids meals came, they were so full they hardly ate any of it. But when it was cake time, they weren't so full anymore.

Brett's cousin, Valerie, with her dad, Uncle John, dancing.

Liam was taking pictures. I think all the cousins used all of the diposable cameras that were on the tables. Nobody else was using them, and the kids found out what they were for, so they went a little crazy taking pictures. They were very confused though why they couldn't see the picture of what they were taking. The camera with film that has to be developed is such an odd concept to these young kiddos.

Brothers with each others kids.

There were yummy cookies along with the cake.

Little Emalyn wore herself out crawling around and watching all the excitement around us. She had to take a little nap to refresh and continue celebrating later.

All the cousins minus Emalyn (who was sleeping), Jacob (also sleeping) and Bridget (at home with a babysitter).

Joel and Brett with their really tall cousin, Jack. He makes them look like such shorties.

Maddi girl.

The Rice Family.

More cousin photos.

3 very special little kiddos.

The McDonald cousins.

Grammy with her grandkids.

3 sweet girls.

Grammy with her granddaughters.

Our family of 5.

Uncle Todd and Wild Man Will.

The Goldsworthy Family.

The McDonald Family.

This is Janet, John and Jean's families all together except for Jean who was in the hospital and Bridget who was with the babysitter.

Jack is 6 foot 8 inches. His son is only 3 months old and you can already tell he will be very tall like his dad. Jack's wife, Amy, is probably close to 6 foot.

Ryan and Cade being mischevious.

Emalyn is giving Rebecca a look like "I'm not so sure of this".

Maddi, Kate and I tearing up the dance floor.

The 3 of us were dancing and stopped for a photo. Emalyn can't take her eyes of her big sister.

Maddi fell in love with Brett's Aunt, Odile (mother of the bride). Odile and Maddi were dance partners.

It was a really fun wedding and so great to see all of the extended family!

Another Fun Day in Boston

Saturday morning we went to Rockport, which is a town that Brett and his family have always visited when they go to Boston. They have so many cute little stores and it's really pretty there. I have to note that they have the craziest roads in the Boston area with little circles called roundabouts, or rotaries. Janet and Sara were both following us and as we pulled into a rotary, Brett cut off a car and a police was right behind him and we got pulled over. Janet and Sara went on while we got a talking to from the police. He was actually very nice and I think when he looked in and saw the baby and kids and heard us talk he knew we weren't from Boston and never even took Brett's license or anything. He explained how the rotaries work and made sure we knew how to get to Rockport. Very nice police man. The kids, Maddi esepcially, were very concerned that we got pulled over and questioned us about it all day!

We saw this cute little labra-doodle and of course we had to stop to pet the dog. Maddi and her dogs....

The crew in front of The Bearskin Neck General Store, our favorite little store. When Janet was a kid, they had penny candy. Now it's more like dollar candy. You fill your bag with candy and they weigh it and you pay by the pound. Janet let everyone get a bag and fill it with as much candy as the parents would allow. Janet of course bought her candy cigarettes, which you'll see later in our trip.

I think this red building is called Fishermans Warf and is the most photographed building or something.

It was a pretty windy and chilly day, although sunny. It's so pretty in Rockport.

Uncle Todd and Emalyn were having some fun together. We bought Emalyn the little giraffe puppet she's holding at one of the toy stores. Cade found it for her because of her giraffe face.

Grammy with the girls.

The kids loved climbing in the rocks.

Our family of 5 blowing in the wind. I'm pretty sure we have pictures on those same rocks without kids and with the kids when they were much younger.

Sara with her kiddos. Joel was on a plane to Boston from Denmark. He was there for work and got to visit the Lego (prounounced Lee go) factory there. The Legos were actually a little more expensive there, which I found interesting.

The McDonald kids with Janet, minus Joel.

When Brett was little, they would take a picture in front of a store each year. We looked and looked, but couldn't find the door that they remembered. So, this is the new spot for taking the little McDonald grandkids pictures.

Not a great picture, but you get an idea of the hecticness at lunch. Eating out with 5 kids is always exciting. Most people got seafood and they all liked it. Even Cade who is not adventurous in his eating, tried clam choweder, lobster, and fried shrimp and loved it!

Maddi and her faces...

Maddi makes this face to Emalyn all the time, and Emalyn cracks up. It's so funny that she knows that it's a different face and finds the humor in it.

Sara with her curly haired mini me!

Brett with his mini me.
After lunch we hit up a few more stores and then Sara left to pick up Joel at the airport. The rest of us went to the hospital to visit Aunt Jean, Janet's sister. A few days before we all arrived in Boston, she had a lot of pain and they realized she needed to have her gall bladder removed. Once they went in they found her pancreas and liver were very inflamed so she had to spend a few days in the hospital on some meds letting the pancreas and liver heal before they could remove the gall bladder. It was a bummer that we only got to see Aunt Jean for a very short visit this trip. She is so funny and we always enjoy being around her.

After the hospital we went to Brian and Courtney's house. The actually live in GG's old house and we hadn't been in it since GG moved in the nursing home. Brett was so happy to show the kids where he spent his summers visiting his grandparents. Grace, Bridget, Maddi and Cade were enjoying the swing set.

Cade's turn to pull the wagon.

Maddi's turn...

The cousins all had so much fun together.

Uncle Todd getting some Emalyn time.

Emalyn's first ride in a wagon!

So cute!

Liam was a great hitter!

Aly pitching to Grace.

Kate and Maddi enjoying the swings. We had burgers and hot dogs followed by a fire in the fire pit with smores. It was another busy and fun day!