Wedding!

Saturday night was the wedding. Here are the beautiful bride and her groom (Casey and Ryan).

And we got to see Paul's grandmother, Gandy! This was the first time Abbey or Juliette have met their great-grandmother and Ben didn't remember her from 2007, so it was definitely a picture moment!

Then it was on to the reception. It was pretty late at this point and the kids were exhausted, but they still had some good food and a good time. Juliette, as usual, found someone to hold her and was just happy cuddling. She doesn't look like it in this picture (she was more giving me a face than this reflecting her temperament at this moment), but she really did enjoy being held by Cousin Arden.

Then Ben took the camera and shot some photos...notice how we are squatting to make sure we made it into the picture from the way Ben was holding the camera- ha!

Caroline was the flower girl and she did a great job! Isn't she beautiful? Abbey is going to have to take flower girl lessons from her because Cousin Samantha asked Abbey to be a flower girl in her wedding next summer and she is so excited about it! Juliette was the only one of our children to make it out onto the dance floor. Ben and Abbey watched from the side (too tired to bust a move) and I think Juliette was too tired to really protest when Caroline took her hand and led her around!

The kids faded fast and we tried to get a family picture, but you can see how it turned out!

Thankfully, Aunt Kerri had arranged for a babysitter for us. So, after a quick trip back to the hotel to put the kids down, we made it back as the party really picked up (thanks so much Aunt Kerri). They passed our mardi gras hats, which was such a cute and fun idea! We weren't quite back yet when they got passed out, but Mama Kay and Papa generously gave us their hats (and don't worry - we were able to find a third hat - we didn't dare bring back 2 hats for 3 kids!)! I had to kiss a frog...

But then I found my prince...

Sisters!!

Paul and his siblings...

What an amazing family I married into...

Theresa and I in our one-shouldered dresses...

After we saw the bride and groom off, we went to Morning Call for some delicious beignets...

It was a gorgeous wedding and we had so much fun seeing everyone. We can't wait for next summer! But, the weekend festivities were over and it was time to head back home. This time, we made sure to stop in Arkansas and take a picture. Here are the kids splitting an icee.

Here is the corn in Arkansas...not as tall as the corn in Illinois...

It was a fantastic weekend, so thank you to all the Dwyer family!