New York - Day 7 - Wedding Day!

The morning of the wedding was pretty relaxing for us!  We woke up and went downstairs for a nice breakfast buffet.  I took the girls back up to our rooms for baths, and then took the girls over to Whitney's house where I was scheduled to get my make up done.  (Whitney had several beauticians come to her house to do hair and make up and she had asked me ahead of time if I wanted either done.)  The girls ate bagels and walked around mingling with the bridesmaids.  They did sit down and watch a movie too :)  While we were at Whitney's house, the boys went to visit the Orange County Chopper shop in Newburgh, New York while my mom stayed back at the hotel with Austin so he could get a nap!

We headed back to the hotel at about 11:30 where I finished getting ready and then finished getting the girls ready.  Then I got the boys ready (and my mom helped a ton - letting Austin nap in their room, ironing clothes, trimming Hayden's hair, and loaning me bobby pins and long handled combs!).  We had to leave the hotel before 2pm.  The girls were supposed to be there at 2:40 and tthe wedding started at 3!

We ended up getting to the church at 2:43 and changed the girls into their dresses in the parking lot!  The church did have a small bathroom, but since we were already pushing it on time, we decided the parking lot was our best option.  Allie is now cautious about dressing and undressing where people can see and she was really upset about having to change in the parking lot!  She got dressed inside my parents car and it didn't seem to be much of a problem.

We all walked in the church and I stayed with the girls in the back of the church until it was time for the wedding to start.  I left the girls in the back with the lady that was coordinating the ceremony.  I told Krissy when it was their turn to walk down the aisle, they'd just walk to me.  I was wondering if she'd be upset, but I walked away and she did fine.

I was watching the bridesmaids come down the aisle, and I was getting nervous for the girls to walk down!  I knew Allie would do great, but I was worried about Krissy.  And it was for NO reason!  She held Allie's hand, and they held their flowers in their other hand and walked down the aisle perfectly!  I was so relieved.  The other thing I was worried about was my reading.  I had practiced my words about 50 times in the last 24 hours, but I was worried about falling in my heels, Krissy or Austin getting upset I walked away from them, or just flat out messing up the words.  I had thought through every worse case scenario.  And all that was for NO reason either.  The kids did fine, I didn't mess up my words, or fall.  I had worked myself up for no reason.

When the ceremony was over I took a breath for the first time in a few hours and we headed to the reception (after a few pictures of course!).  I had wanted a family picture when we got to the reception, but the kids were just not up for pictures at that moment.

We went into the cocktail hour and it was amazing.  The food was beautiful, the view out of the room was amazing, and I was ready for our second attempt at pictures.  It still wasn't going as planned.

It wasn't until our third try that I got a picture I was happy with!  And the brides dad saw my mom taking our picture and sweetly offered to do one with my parents in it.  One of the matrons of honor helped get the kids to smile (thanks Sarah!) and I was so glad we got these pictures!

 

The reception was by far the most amazing reception I've ever been to.  The food was top notch and delicious, the DJ was fantastic, there was a photo booth that was so fun, and everyone was dancing all night long.  I don't think I mentioned that building itself was gorgeous.  I did a little photo shoot with each of my little flower girls!

Here are some of my other favorite pictures from the night.

It was such a privilege to be part of this wedding.  We loved every second of the day and made so many wonderful memories!

New York Day 5 & 6

After we left DC on day 4, we drove about an hour north and found a nice town in Maryland and got a hotel room for the night.  We woke up on Day 5 and had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  They have a cinnamon muffin that's my fave!  We had four hours of driving to do to make it to our stop in New York.  We went straight to our hotel to unload our bags, and then to my friend Whitney's house.  Whitney was getting married on Friday, which was the point of taking this trip, and she had invited some of her out of town guests over for dinner.  We had a nice evening with several other people that were in the wedding!

The view out our hotel window.

Hayden was being a sweet brother and lifting Austin up so he could see the great view!

We woke up day 6 and had a nice breakfast at the hotel.  Kevin was interested in going to see FDRs house and library, so that was our first stop!  We didn't realize the house tours were scheduled throughout the day, so we were only able to visit the presidential library. 

The kids with Mimi & Papaw and Eleanor & Franklin

Walking to the Presidential library

When you walked in, there was a display of letters that were written to the president.  I wish we had time to read them all.  I loved seeing the penmanship and reading the wording of these letters!  This one started out "The Wife and I" haha.

We let Austin do a little crawling through the library. 

We enjoyed reading about the President's dog, Fala.

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The girls with a state of Fala.

The kids loved playing with the old rotary phones!

There was a little guest book you could sign, so Hayden signed in for him and Allie. 

After visiting the FRD Library, we did a little shopping at TJ Maxx/Homegoods, and also a Goodwill.  I wasn't impressed with the Goodwill, but I did manage to pick up a couple things for the girls.  Kevin also told me to get a new purse for the wedding, so I didn't argue and picked out my favorite :) We had lunch at Panera and made our way back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner!

The rehearsal went well, except for the fact Krissy slept through the whole thing.  I was a little worried about whether or not she'd walk down the aisle, if she'd cry or get scared, so the rehearsal was pretty important to me!  Allie walked down the aisle flawlessly, I practiced my reading, the bride and groom got a run down of how the ceremony would go, and then Krissy woke up.  We let her and Allie practice walking down the aisle just before we left to go get dinner.  She was being a bit shy to everyone who talked to her, so I was getting nervous for the wedding the next day!

The rehearsal dinner was so good and we had a great evening with the wedding party!

Days 4 & 5 in DC

We left Virginia on Tuesday morning and headed towards DC.  I wanted to make a stop at an IKEA that was outside of DC, so we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, then went across the street to IKEA to shop.  Sidenote:  I have only been to one IKEA one time, and I don't even remember buying anything.  I was so overwhelmed with how much stuff there was and I didn't really know what to look for, so this time I knew of a few small things I wanted and I knew I wouldn't be leaving empty handed. 

Kevin put the boys in a cart, and I put the girls in a cart.  A greeter informed me I needed to go to the cafe since kids eat free every Tuesday.  That would have been lovely to know before we ate lunch, but no sense in dwelling on what can't be changed, so I've stored that away for future trips :)  I left the store $140 poorer, but was so thrilled with all my finds (a new front door mat, new laundry baskets, new cups, new paring knives, a great supply of straws and napkins, new spatulas, and dish towels, and a 2 C liquid measuring cup, and an ice cream scooper).  There was so much we had to say no to because we simply had no room for it in the van.  Womp womp.  

Allie really wanted this pup from IKEA, but we convinced her it would be happier with its litter mates.

DC was about an hour away from the IKEA so we went north to head to the "free" zoo.  It seemed like a fun way to end the day, and the zoo has a panda that I was so psyched to see.  Traffic was a bit nuts on the way to the zoo.  Two lane roads were being used as one way roads, streets were shut down for several minutes at a time then reopened (for no apparent reason), so when we made it to the zoo we were relieved and ready to get out of the van.  Zoo parking was a flat rate of $22, and we didn't see any other parking lots that were free, so I told Kevin since the zoo was "free", that we could just suck it up and pay to park.  So we did. 

We walked into the zoo at about 4:20.  It closed at 6, but we figured it would give us enough time to see all the animals we came to see.  We found a zoo map, and headed towards the panda exhibit, since that's the only reason we went to the zoo in the first place.  Oddly enough, we couldn't find the panda in the enclosures.  Then we realized there was an indoor inclosure-  so we made our way to those doors to find out they were locked.  The sign said the doors closed at 4:30 and it was 4:25.  I was f.u.r.i.o.u.s.  We came all this way to see the panda, and we couldn't!  I was so disappointed.  We all were.  The zoo staff was anything but friendly and we exited the park as quickly as we entered.  We joked about paying $22 to see 2 squirrels (we did see a bison when we walked in), but as much as we tried to make light of the situation, it wasn't funny and we were all bummed.

I didn't want the day to be a total loss, so I talked Kevin into taking us to see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.  Traffic was once again insane.  There were pedestrians everywhere and there were the most complex round a bouts anyone could ever dream up all over town.  However, I did enjoy seeing the random statues in the middle of the round a bouts. 

We did see the White House and Arlington National Cemetery while we were driving, but we didn't get very close.  We found the Washington monument and had no idea that parking anywhere close was a joke.  It was not happening.  We decided to look for a parking garage.  We pulled over to ask a nice police officer if he had any suggestions and he really was no help.  He was friendly, but basically told us just to keep looking.  About a mile away we found a parking garage.  I forget what we paid, but we happily paid and made our mile walk downhill to the monuments.  I was impressed with the Washington monument and really wanted a family picture with it in the background, but people in DC just weren't very friendly.  The first two people I asked to take our picture told me no.  Thankfully the third time was a charm, and the man was thrilled to take pictures for us.

Between the two monuments were a WW2 Memorial and fountain.  It was pretty and drew lots of tourists! 

We kept on walking to the Lincoln Memorial.  Hayden and I climbed the stairs to the top and since there was no stroller friendly way to the top, Kevin stayed at the bottom with the other three kids (and he'd already seen DC before so he wasn't feeling like he was missing out.)

I love these pictures - and Hayden is the only one I attempted this with. 

Hello, Abe.

Can you find Kevin holding Austin standing by the stroller? :) He's the 5th person on the left side of the picture.

I set my camera on our stroller and used the self timer - I didn't want to go through another round of rejection to get a family picture!

The evening came on quick, and so did the cold.  Kevin smartly decided it was time to head back to our van, but we promised the kids we'd stop in at a McDonalds we passed walking so they could get a quick bite to eat.  Lets just say Kevin and I had higher expectations of that McDonalds than we should have.  Kevin had to order by pointing to food since the cashier didn't speak English, and the rest of the crowd in McDonalds were homeless men.  We couldn't exactly just walk out because the kids really were hungry, and we had no intentions of stopping again for dinner, so we ate a few nuggets and fries and left as quick as possible.  Oh, and true story, when Kevin went to the bathroom, two homeless men followed him in there.  I was a little scared for him, and he came back out deciding he didn't have to go that bad.  I was happy to see what we saw, but I don't know that I'm really all that anxious to go back. 

People were taking pictures of this building, so I did too - not sure what it was though.  Kevin was being super dad pushing two kids in the stroller and giving Hayden a piggy back ride!

I think a guided tour would definitely be the best way to see DC.  So maybe one day when I've forgotten all the bad parts about the city, I'll return :)