Our Latest Trip to the States

Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated!! Quick catch-up: On Memorial weekend, John came home from his 4 (almost 5) month deployment. Yes, that's why he wasn't mentioned in most of our posts this year, he was working his butt off in a small country that I only learned how to pronounce during college because there's an A&M satellite campus there. We spent a week or so together having fun at Shipwreck Beach and in Hirosaki before Annelise and I jetted off to Texas for Melisa and Trent's wedding with John following about a week later.



This is going to be kinda disjointed, there's just soooo much to type about...



We had a great time in Texas, my favorite and least favorite part of any wedding is decorating the hall. It's so much fun to hang out with the family and make the hall look beautiful, but it's a lot of work and was very hot. Kyle and my dad spent a lot of time up on the scaffolding and I spent a lot of time with various centerpieces and chopping onions (thank goodness for food processors!). Annelise had a great time playing with her cousins and even tasted her first sno cone!!



The weekend before the wedding we went up to Ft Worth for Melisa's last single night out and had a blast. Annelise came with us to the restaurant/bar for dinner and happy hour and then Mom and Dianna took her home while Lusa and I stayed with everyone else for the disco cover-band. Lots of fun was had, and I even made it all the way back to Dianna's house from downtown without getting lost!



John and his mom flew in on Thursday night and on Friday morning he and Kyle helped my dad on the ranch while the rest of us got our nails done. Sandy had never had a pedicure so she LOVED getting one for her birthday. Annelise liked getting her feet washed and lotioned, but didn't want Lily to come near her with the nail polish. Afterwards we went to lunch and then headed home to get ready for the rehearsal/dinner.



We woke up early on Saturday morning to get our hair done, a friend of Dianna's took care of me, Mom, Dianna, Erica and Mary and it was so nice to be able to sit around the house instead of a salon. Now I know why the celebrities have stylists come to their houses!! We got dressed at the church and started taking pictures, but of course Annelise fell asleep about an hour and a half before the wedding. We woke her up in plenty of time to get over the grouchies, but it didn't help much.



The wedding itself was beautiful, Melisa was a gorgeous bride and Dianna and I cried most of the way through. Annelise was very well-behaved, even if she did try to take every single tissue out of every single pack in the pews.



Once we got to the hall, it was party time!! Jackie did a wonderful job on the cakes and Mike and Larry outdid themselves on dinner, Sandy wanted to have them ship some of the klobase back to Indiana for her. :) We had a great time dancing and hanging out with the family, Annelise was having so much fun that she cried when Sandy took her back to the hotel. She fell asleep as soon as Sandy got her pjs on, she was that exhausted.



John and I got back to the hotel after 1 and then we all woke up the next morning in time to take Sandy to the airport and drive to Oklahoma City for an air show. We have several friends on the Thunderbirds, the Air Force demonstration team, so we were able to get VIP tickets for the show on Father's Day. Because we're a true military family, it was nothing to drive 4 hours the day after an awesome (and VERY tiring) wedding. John loved his Father's Day gift and really enjoyed getting to show the planes off to Annelise.



We drove about halfway back to Ennis that evening and then woke up the next morning and went boot shopping! John's brown boots didn't fit the way he likes and I've been looking for boots for ages, so he and I each left with something. The best part, however, was that we also bought a pair of boots for Annelise! And she LOVES THEM!! Given the chance, that kid would wear her boots every single day.



While we were in Texas, we also made the drive to College Station, I hadn't been there since Erin and Brinson's wedding and was amazed at how much has changed. We ate lunch at Wings n More with Shanna (aka Friend) and Kyle and it was so much fun to see her with her adorable twin belly.



Annelise also got to go swimming at Aunt Tina's house and in her very own kiddie pool at Babi and Grandaddy's.



After all the fun in Texas, we were a little tired and our trip was only halfway done! We flew up to Indy to see John's family and had even MORE fun!