Trip to MO: Columbia Edition

Well, after our trip to Springfield, we headed north to Columbia to hang out with the Price side of the family. One of our youth girls was getting married on that Saturday, so we went up for the end of the week so we could go to the wedding. One of the coolest things was that Jess actually knew the groom, so she and Mike came in from CO to visit at the same time. We so rarely have the whole family together at the same time, it was pretty awesome! Other than the wedding, we didn’t plan too much. Mostly just hanging out at Mom and Dad’s, doing some of our favorite things (or the girls favorite things, since they’re way more opinionated!).

So, some of the girls favorite things…

Wrestling (or beating up on) Uncle Charlie!

Pedis with Aunt Jess! (Audrey’s first)

Watching movies and hanging out with Aunt Ruthie!

And four-wheeler rides and hanging out on hay bales with Uncle Charlie! Yes, even Miss A got a few four wheeler rides, albeit very SLOW ones!

Jess & Mike brought the girls a slip and slide, so we broke that out one afternoon (it was certainly hot enough for it!). The girls are such water babies, that even the colder-than-a-well-digger well water didn’t faze them. Their lips were blue and their teeth were chattering, and they just kept playing. They weren’t actually so good at the sliding, so they had to be pushed down the slide (which means mommy got just as wet… too bad I wasn’t dressed for swimming!). Although Audrey mostly wanted to just stand there and get sprayed by (and drink) the sprinklers coming from the side. However they played, it was an absolute blast, and they loved every second of it!

Just a couple of random pictures…

Audrey’s first ponytail… pretty sad-looking! :)

Sticker-face Laney!

Like I said, Saturday we went to the wedding. It was the 4th wedding we’d been to since March, so Laney has learned all about weddings, and LOVES them (of course). She was so excited to get to go. And it was fun to get all dressed up as the whole family and go. And it’s always cool to see our youth kids grow up and start their own lives. Not quite like it will be when it’s our girls, but something like that… Anyway, on with the pictures!

The Looten family! :)

Laney and Jess… check out the veil on Laney!

We were having some trouble keeping Laney entertained (and off the dance floor) after she was done with dinner. The reception was pretty formal, so there was a full dinner, and Laney was done well before everyone else. To distract her, I grabbed a baggie of mints off of the favor table, and when she had eaten them all, we made the netting into a veil. She was quite thrilled! It’s the simple things in life!

Audrey… not as interested in dancing, much more interested in cake!

Lucky for Laney, the dance floor did eventually open, and she could make her presence known…

Including by dancing with the groom, who didn’t even know her… hilarious. Totally outgoing… which is totally NOT ME! :)

She also danced with her Aunt Jess, though. We didn’t get to do too much dancing, because it was after 10 before the dancing started, and that’s getting towards little girl bedtimes!!

Sunday we went to church, and then went out to Shakespeare’s (yes, please, I miss that pizza!) for lunch. Always a good time… and then it was time for good byes. Which are harder with this side of the family, because we’re not used to living far apart yet.

But, before goodbyes, we had to take a sibling picture, of course… always a good time, as evidenced by this, this, and this previous attempt to get a family picture when Charlie’s involved! (Oh, look, here's another sibling mauling...er, picture)

This time it was my turn to take an elbow to the face (better than when Ruth got keys to the face, I guess).

And then once we were all sufficiently mangled, he finally cooperated for one good picture…

Like I said, the good byes are still pretty hard with my family, but thankfully Charlie always knows how to break the emotional tension…

Anyway, it was a great visit, so nice to see all of our families… and so awesome to have a week to make it a nice long visit. Can’t wait to see everyone again!!