Aunt Jillian's wedding

Last week we drove to Ohio for Aunt Jillian's wedding. We left early on Wednesday and ended up making it to Ohio around 12:30AM Central Time. We were able to stop in Indiana to visit Robin's family for dinner and to let the kids play for awhile.


Great Grandma Groves with Bella and Evie















Robin, Great Grandma Groves, Aunt Anne, Evie and Bella












We left after dinner close to the girls bedtime so we could drive the rest of the way. It was nice to be able to drive for an extended period of time with no crying. On Thursday night we went out to the wedding site for the rehearsal. We were able to do some extra practice with Bella after the rehearsal in preparation for her role as the flower girl.






Wedding rehearsal













Afterwards we went out to eat at Jill and Joe's favorite mexican restaurant where the food was really good. It was nice meeting Joe's family and their friends. Thursday was Robin's Birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to her and she got a fudge brownie with ice cream. That may be the most people that have sung Happy Birthday where they found out the person's name about 5 seconds before singing it. On Friday we made it out to the park to play and had a barbecue that night at my parents house with Aunt Lou, Uncle Bill and John and Kristy.

We had cheesecake to celebrate Aunt Lou's Birthday.

When I put Bella to bed on Friday night I told her the wedding would be tomorrow and she said she didn't want to go. I was a little worried with how she would react the next day for the wedding. On Saturday Bella seemed ready to go to and be a part of the wedding. We had a chance to let Bella practice walking down the aisle before the wedding and it was the first time I thought she might actually pull off her duty without anyone's help. Robin got some bribe candy and gave a lollipop to my cousin Maggie who was a bridesmaid to give Bella after she walked down and stood next to her. You can see Bella holding the lollipop. Bella did a good job of waiting for Grandpa to come get her, I had fears that Bella would go to Grandpa as he was passing Jillian to Joe.








The wedding went great and Bella did an outstanding job. She did so well that after the wedding she was offered a repeat role in my cousin Jamie's wedding in August. Below are pics of Grandpa welcoming everyone, me with the girls, and Robin with Evie.




After dinner Bella was a dancing machine she danced until 11:30PM. Evie on the other hand fell asleep on me in her carrier. Below is Bella eating cake and a little while later reacting to Mom and Dad not dancing with her. Bella kept dancing after getting her pajamas on. It was a great wedding and I had fun seeing family.