The whole reason we took a vacation this summer.

Finally!  Time to upload some photos of part 2 of our vacation time.  We left Gulf Shores, thankful for air conditioning and ready for some comfy bed to sleep in and family time.  10 hours later, we made it to northern Georgia for some time with my family and Joe and Ethel's wedding. 

Jim and Courtney

Ethel and Joe

Kella with her girl cousins Abbie and Maddie

Andy taught the guys a game.

Marcus oversaw some chess playing.

Bitsy, her kids, me and the girls and Aunt Roseann took a side trip to Babyland General-home of the Cabbage Patch Kid.  We even brought the dolls we had with us.

photo op.

Mother Cabbage.  They even "delivered" a new Cabbage Patch kid while we were there.  You can 

Rehearsal dinner fun and picture attempt.

Hold the phones!  A picture of the whole family!

And, the next day....more pictures.  This time of the Spielman sibs, Mom and Kinley.

The groom and some of his groomsmen.

All the cousins but Everett, who had to go be the ring-bearer.  The picture is so cute, I made it extra-big.

The wedding.

Ushers working hard.

"Choose a seat, not a side.  Your're loved by both the Groom and Bride!"

And, so it begins.

The men.

The bride.

The wedding.

It's like a prom pic-only we're old.

What would a family event be if we didn't try to get a picture of all the cousins and Grammy Pammy?  Why does Kinley always have to cry during these pictures?  

The end.

our first road trip of summer

Last week, we took our first road trip of the summer.  It also coinsided with Kinley turning 3 weeks old, but that was a previous post.  This trip included a wedding and then a visit with Grammy Pammy.  We drove a giant triangle shape over Indiana and Illinois and the kids all travelled fairly well, even Kinley, until the very last hours in the car on our return trip.

The wedding was up by Chicago and was a cousin of Andy's.  It was a nice chance for lots of family members to meet Kinley.  I managed to get a few photos of the meet and greet.  I will say that the drive up took longer than we allowed for, and we totally missed the wedding, but instead checked into the hotel and went to the reception. The kids did okay.  They were pretty tired and were ready to go as soon as we got there.  Thank you eastern time zone.  But, we got them fed and sugared up and I think they mostly had a good time.

Kinley meets Erica.

The "C" cousins-Cale and Cassie

Kinley meets Uncle Ron,

and Grandma Jean (and Aunt Sharlyn, Uncle Bob, Laura, Zac, Aunt Maura, Grandpa Jerry, and the Clemons family)

After a long night of little sleep in the hotel (for Kella and me, mostly), we met up with everyone for breakfast the next morning.

 

Liam liked that his pancake was a big smiley face.

Then, for us, onto Grammy Pammy's.  But first, we made a stop to see Aunt Eileen and my cousin Dan since it was on the way.  I'm glad Kinley got to meet them, too, while she was little.

We got to Grammy's later than I thought we would (story of our trip), but made everyone was nice enough to wait for us to eat.  And, Kinley got to meet Uncle Eric, Aunt Bitsy, Maddie, Abbie and Jacob.

A lot of driving for the first two days of our trip.  We were glad to be done with that for a while.

Oh the dancing!

Once the lights dimmed, it was time to party!  The kids were like moths to a flame with the lights on the dance floor.  Ewan and Liam had some awesome moves to share with everyone.  Liam's dancing was made more awesome by the 20-some strands of beads around his neck.

no-nap Kella appreciated all the dancing action

Cale eventually made it to the floor

Ewan and Kella danced together

My aunt broke out the glow sticks.  The kids thought that they were way cool.  We ended up with a bunch of them in the car that evening.

solo dancer