Vacation days

Last weekend we drove up to Carson City, Nevada, for my brother's wedding. He married a truly lovely girl (lovely inside and out) and I'm so glad that we got to be there for the happy day. Welcome to the family, Jenn! They asked Jonathan to be the ring bearer, and this time he actually made it up the aisle all by himself. Granted, it was at a run with a look of mild terror on his face, but still. :)

The drive north went remarkably well. I'd been talking to Jonathan about our really exciting trip! for weeks. He had helped me order his own special travel tray (thank you SO much to Shannon for the review of this product!) and we had planned what kinds of toys he'd like to bring in the car. We had also practiced his ring-bearing skills, and he was very excited about going to the wedding. Then the day before we left I went to Walmart and picked up a little package of tiny Tonka trucks. He saw them for the first time at 5am as we started driving, and they were a HIT. He probably played with those things for 80% of the time we were driving, and I don't think I'm exaggerating.

Thomas had a few new toys for the trip, too. He wasn't as thrilled with his - but he was completely thrilled with the new-found joys of a pacifier. And when I say "new-found" I mean that he discovered that he liked it about a day before we left. I am so grateful.

We heard the dreaded words five hours and five minutes into the trip: "Dad, are we at the wedding?" We weren't. But he took it with good grace. :) Honestly, we have the best set of travelers ever!

All went beautifully until we got to a stretch of very winding road, about an hour out of Carson. At least, we expected to be an hour. It actually took us more like three, because we found out the hard way that Jonathan gets carsick. Very, very, very carsick. We didn't realize until it was too late that the sudden absence of chatter from the backseat meant "sick" not "sleepy". The result necessitated a 45 minute stop to clean up (as best we could). I was thankful that we had lots of wipes in the car, as well as a change of clothing and some extra plastic bags. I was also thankful that we pulled over right in front of a construction site. So Jonathan got to recover while watching his very favorite machines at work, and we got to clean up the car without trying to entertain him at the same time. If he had to throw up, it just couldn't have been at a more perfect place. God is good to us!

Anyway, the rest of the trip took a long time since we had to keep stopping every time Jonathan's eyes got glassy and he stopped swallowing his saliva (which was about every fifteen minutes - poor kid!) The second time we stopped we bought him some sprite, which seemed to help settle his stomach. And so we made it to Carson, with about half an hour to spare before the wedding rehearsal. Don't we time things beautifully?

(One funny result of the car sickness: now when Jonathan wants soda, he tells me that he's "gonna frow up" and he "needs spite to make my tummy feel better". Clever, child, very clever.)

Pictures from the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner:





Mom and Dad with Thomas


Sarah and FavoriteBoy (her husband is nameless in bloggyland) feeding Thomas his dinner.


The wedding was lovely, and even the wind (which was a bit hard on the sound system!) added beauty - you should have seen all the girls with the wind blowing their dresses and Jenn's veil. I'm sure the pictures will be fantastic. It was weird to watch the groom standing at the front, waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle - I always do that because it is hard to see the bride anyway and it is fun to watch the groom's face - because he's my brother! But nice to watch him and realize that he was so certain, and so in love with the beautiful girl coming toward him on her father's arm. I'm glad that both my married siblings have chosen such great spouses. It is nice to be able to be wholeheartedly happy for them, without reservation.

Another wonderful thing about the wedding was that Mom was able to walk down the aisle, even though it was uneven grass with gusty wind as well! Walking for Jonathan's wedding has been her goal for some months, and it was so incredible to see her achieve that. I'm proud of how hard she's worked to get to this point. Take that, all you doctors who said she'd probably never walk again! :)

We stayed in Carson on Friday night after the wedding, and then met Steve (Gabe's roommate in college) on Saturday morning. He drove out from Elko to spend the day with us. It was such a good, vacationy day! We started at the Nevada State Train Museum, because it was right down the street from our hotel, and we thought it would be neat for Jonathan. I'm glad we went - we got to ride on a real train (built in 1881, one of only two of its kind still running!) and look at all kinds of neat models and real trains in the museum as well. Jonathan was impressed and I think we all had a good time.







Then we drove toward Tahoe and stopped at Spooner Lake on the way.







We had a picnic lunch and then Jonathan, Steve, and Gabe went and played in the lake (until they found a leech, that is!) and Thomas and I took a nap and read in the shade, respectively.



You would not believe how dirty Jonathan got. So I will show you a picture, and then you'll have to. :)



Jonathan was so tired after all this that he fell asleep on the walk back to the car. Isn't he precious?



Both boys slept for a few hours as we drove to Lake Tahoe, and around it to the Northwest side. We ended up at Tahoe House Bakery for iced coffee and pastries - yum! If you are ever in the area, you definitely need to go there. Then Steve headed back home to Elko and we continued on to my parents' house for the night. I'm so glad that we had that day - it was relaxed and fun and I'm glad that Gabe and Steve had lots of hours to catch up and enjoy being friends.



Oh, and when we were getting back in our car, guess what we found on top of it? Anyone know what in the world it is?



Saturday night we spent with my parents and Christopher, and celebrated Christopher's birthday. Then Sunday morning we headed for home. It took us about 12 hours, start to finish. Actual driving was probably more like 8 hours, but I think our boys had had quite enough of driving by this point. Jonathan kept telling us that we had to stop so he could get out and throw up - this on the straight-as-an-arrow I-5! :) So we stopped for a lot of rather lengthy stretching breaks. I guess that's just how you do long drives with babies and toddlers.

So now we're home and I'm working on getting back into normal life. I don't think I'm succeeding very well so far - I haven't done any of my regularly scheduled chores this week. Mostly I've just been taking care of the boys and making sure that laundry is done and food is on the table. Tomorrow maybe I'll get myself back in gear - that's the agenda, anyway - we'll see if it happens. In some ways it is nice to just slow down and ignore dirty floors for awhile. But I don't think I can do it forever - eventually it will start to bug me - and I think I may be about at that point. :)

Well that was certainly a longer post than I intended. Off to bed with me!