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Wow, what an amazingly fun and tiring weekend for our family. The weekend started out about 10:30 A.M. Saturday morning, when we packed up the truck and headed for Cherokee. Sophia spent most of the trip watching “The Incredibles” (also know as “Jack Jack” to those close); after it was over, we put in “Finding Nemo”, but she soon fell asleep. Derek also slept most of the trip, except for the small kick he received from Sophia, which of course woke him up. Otherwise, a very “un-eventful” trip.

When we arrived at Kim and Kyle’s house, Emily and Logan were ready to play. Sophia was quite timid and spent quite a bit of time hugging my leg; after a short while, she warmed up and quickly began following Emily all over the place.

It wasn’t long after until Grandma Marilyn, Grandpa Steve, Aunt Karissa, Ben and baby cousin Devin showed up. It was about this time, that we lined up the boys and began taking endless pictures of them. They didn’t seem to mind.

From left to right: Devin, Logan & Derek

Sunday morning was very relaxing and pleasant. That is until we realized we had less than an hour to get to the church. We rushed around the house trying to get the kids ready, as well as ourselves. Once we got to the church, got everything unloaded and everyone settled, there was about ten minutes before church started (certainly cutting it close). The boys were all ready for their big moment and looked rather dashing in the tuxes.

We were very thankful to everyone who was able to make it; the weather was not exactly nice this past weekend. A special thanks to Amy and Auntie Kim for being Derek’s sponsors.

After the service, we had a big family lunch, with a ton of food and a cake made specially for the occasion. Sophia had a wonderful time running around and interacting with her first and second cousins - I think she was even sweating.

Due to the weather (near blizzard like conditions), we decided to spend another night in Cherokee. It was nice to have a little extra time with the family. The kids were so worn out, I think everyone was in bed by 9:30. We did have one small incident: Kim was trying very diligently to get Logan to bed, at about the same time we were trying to get Sophia ready for bed. Unfortunately, when Sophia gets tired, its usually pandemonium; screaming, body being thrown about, etc. Many apologies to Kim.

The next morning, we left Cherokee at about 9:30 A.M. Lynnette sat in the back with the kids (to watch “The Incredibles” again), while I drove through blizzard like conditions (I thought we tried to avoid that). We ended up stopping for lunch at the Wings Truck Stop, which just so happens to be the first time we have had both kids out at a restaurant. The remainder of the trip was just as un-eventful has the trip up. We finally got home around 2:15 P.M., where we were greeted with a leaping, bounding Lexi Lady; I could tell she missed up (if only slightly).

Special thanks to Denise for spending the weekend at our house keeping tabs on Lexi. We hear she was a little distraught and spent most of the time acting like Denise’s shadow.