Caryn and Ted's Wedding Weekend

On Friday we headed to Petosky for wedding weekend! We were so excited to celebrate Caryn and Ted. Caryn has spent so much time preparing and making sure each and every detail has been taken care of. I was so excited to see it all put together. We loaded up the car (including Uncle Eric) and we were off. It seemed to be a pretty quick ride. Although it was crazy how my car knew to get off at the Birch Run exit and go right to the outlets for a quick stop. Crazy that my car knows me so well. Jackson needed new shoes, so we ran into Nike for about 10 minutes and came out with exactly what Jackson wanted. Once we were back on the road it was a nonstop trip until we pulled into the hotel. The Perry Hotel was just beautiful. It had so much character and the setting was just perfect. As I said, Caryn took care of every detail. When we walked in we saw Caryn and most of the cousins...let the weekend begin.
We got ready for the rehearsal and headed to the church. The kids got paired up at the church as to who they would be walking with- ALL of the kids were in the wedding! Jackson was a bit upset that he had to walk with Aubrin, he really wanted to walk with Annie, but he got past it. After the rehearsal we headed to dinner. It was a very nice dinner. Ted's dad had a beautiful toast prepared with a heart felt message. Caryn and Ted then handed out all of their thank you gifts to the wedding party. Each of the kids got a piece of luggage keeping with the theme of a destination wedding- it was a hit. We headed back to the hotel and finally got the kids into bed around midnight.
The next day we got ready for the big day. Jackson and Aubrin were so excited to get ready and to see Caryn walk down the aisle. All of the kids did a great job walking down the aisle and sitting through the ceremony.Caryn looked absolutely beautiful. She was full of smiles walking with her dad and walking towards Ted.
After the ceremony we had a few hours. So we went and grabbed some lunch and fiddled around for a while. The reception was at the hotel so all we had to do was head downstairs.
The kids were having a great time ordering "fancy" drinks and waiting patiently for dinner. Caryn and made personalized coloring books for the kids- super cute, to keep them busy.
Michele and Krista did a wonderful job of giving a toast to their little sister. They ended it with singing a  fantastic song- nice work ladies!
We had a great time dancing all night and catching up with people that we have not seen in a long time. The kids were dance machines and didn't leave the dance floor all night. Of course when the reception was over we headed to the hot dog bar downstairs- Every kid should be eating hot dogs at midnight!
The next morning we got up and enjoyed a fantastic brunch. We said our good byes to the new couple and headed home.
It's hard to believe that all of the Miller weddings are over.  Dick announced at the reception that it had been 42 years and 1 week since they started filling their home with children and now the last one is leaving...wow!

Easter and a Chilly Spring Break

We always love our Easter preparations. Making a few decorations, dying eggs and going to mass. Although I have to say lately I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with life. I went downstairs the other day and sitting in the storage room was my bin labeled Easter. Yep, totally forgot to get the decorations out this year. It wasn't even on my radar to get them

 out for two days and them pack them back up. Oh well, there is always next year.
We made a few decorations to put on our windows. Jackson and Aubrin always love a good craft project. It doesn't matter if I give them specific materials and tell them what the end product should look like or I give them a hodge podge of stuff and say, create. It's always a good time.
We also had fun dying eggs. Aubrin was just thrilled to use her "egg scooper" as she calls it. She uses it all year to get salad out at dinner, but it very excited to use it for its actual purpose!
On Easter we got up early and the kids were excited to see their baskets and see what treasures the bunny left this year. We hunted for lots of eggs and found them in record time. Although we were still finding eggs for  a few days in high places. The kids played with their new treasures while I made breakfast.
We headed to mass at noon with the buzz of children every. Most of the littles in mass had some type of trinket they got from the Easter Bunny. After mass we headed to the Miller's for the day. Kaye hid eggs in the yard. Each grandchild had a color coated egg in an area of the yard. The kids had a great afternoon with their cousins.
That next week we all had off of school for Spring Break.We did a few day trips, went to the movies, Tigers opening day and just had a relaxing time around the house. It was nice to spend time together with out feeling like we had to rush around getting things done.