Mike and Amy's Wedding

We drove to St. Louis on Wednesday after school- and arrived in the wee hours in the morning. Thursday evening was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal party. When we practiced, Anna ran crying up the aisle, sobbing a heart-wrenching, "Mommy!" We were kinda nervous about how she'd do for the wedding...




She recovered quickly and kept telling us that it was "party time"! She was SO excited about the rehearsal party.



My parents had a band and LOTS of food and drinks. Anna danced!



And danced!



And danced!





Then she got really hot and took off her clothes. Notice how she's carrying her drink? That's because she was dancing and Grandma came out to dance with her. Grandma had her drink in hand, so Anna stopped, retrieved hers, then continued dancing!



Heather and Brittany are married to my cousins, Alec and Ned, from the East Coast. I had so much fun seeing them again!



Uncle Mike and "Uncle" Brad danced all night too (and taught Anna some moves)!



On Friday, my parents had a party at our neighborhood pool. Again, there was a band, lots of good food and drinks!



Uncle Steve was a party animal. Anna kept saying, "Uncle Stephen funny!"



My whole family was there, but I did a terrible job taking pictures. Here are the few I took:

Edmund and Kathy (my aunt and uncle)



My cousin Matthew and his girlfriend, Annie.


My cousins Matt, Heidi, and Todd. Jeb is cut off on the right.



Susie (my godmother) and Pearl



My other parents, Joelle and Robert. By the time this picture was taken, Anna had run out of juice. She hadn't charged her batteries very well after Thursday night...



On Saturday morning, Anna put on her princess dress and was ready to go!


My mom looks awesome!



Amy was gorgeous and SO EXCITED!!!



Anna LOVED her flower girl basket, and made it down the aisle! She did such a good job- Shaun was an usher and waited with her in the back. I was a bridesmaid and walked ahead, so when it was Anna's turn, Shaun told her, "Go get mommy!" and that's just what she did. She was mildly interested in all of the guests in the pews, so it took her a while to get there.



All three of us after the wedding. There was a large gap in time between the wedding and reception, so we took LOTS of pictures.



Mike and Amy got a party bus, so we rode around and took more pictures. We had such a good time!


In fact, we had such a good time that I didn't even bother to take pictures at the reception! The band was fantastic, and when my mom and Michael did the Blues Brothers "Shake a Tail Feather" for their dance, they said they had never seen anything like it. It was so funny! If anyone who reads this has video of it, please send it to me!

So, we had a wonderful weekend and are so happy that Amy is now a member of our family!

The Flippy Flopper

On Saturday, we watched the National Gymnastics Championships. After observing several routines on the floor and balance beam, Anna announced, "I go outside". This is what we found her doing!

Summer's Last Fling

Last Wednesday, we went to see Ms. Kelli, who cuts our hair. She even let Anna sit under the dryer!



Since she has been climbing out of her crib, Anna got a "Big Girl" bed. She really wanted the one with steps at the foot, but we got this one because we figured it would be safer... we didn't attach the ladder. We hoped that would deter her from climbing...



This little turkey has figured out how to climb down from the top without a ladder OR steps!



We went over to the Pasquier's house for dinner one night. Anna and Sara had a great time jumping on the bed!




And pretending to go "night night"!





So, now it's back to school for everyone. It has been a fantastic summer!

Quick Trip...

During our last weekend of summer, we took a quick trip to Sandestin. To my bitter disappointment, Anna HATED the beach. She wouldn't go near the water and wanted her hands washed constantly.



Luckily, Anna loves the pool. Our hotel room looked right over the pools, so needless to say, we spent a lot of time in them.



Anna and her "noonale" spent many hours together.



Anna found some toys in the skimmer basket, so now she thinks ALL skimmer baskets have toys in them. I had a tough time dragging her away from them at the YMCA once we got home!



She's a little brown bear now! (Despite copious amounts of SPF 50)


So, it was a nice trip. We went back to work today and the kids come on Friday :-(
We love our jobs, but we love the summer more!

Forget the Firebolt- The NEW Swiffer2009!!

Anna pulled the Swiffer out of the closet to ride during the flying scene of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Unfortunately, Smitty and Fritz have issues with cleaning appliances and tools. Smitty reacts if you just say the word, "vacuum", thanks to Uncle Mike and Uncle Stephen.

Stupefy!

Anna has recently become very interested in Harry Potter. She has watched the first five movies (with all of the scary parts edited out), and her favorite scenes include the flying car and the dueling club. The following videos show what happened when Anna found a magic wand lying around the house!

We LOVE Summer!

We have really been enjoying the summer! Anna's at the age where we can do lots of new and different fun things!
We've experimented with making bread from scratch- with fairly good results. Anna likes to knead the dough, eat it, and wallow in the flour.


Today we drove in to New Orleans to spend the day with Kathy. We went to City Park, which has really come back after the storm, thanks to volunteers, good leadership, and of course, the Schrenks.

First, we rode the carousel. Anna refused to ride on a horse, opting instead to lounge on the bench and watch me get dizzy.



Next, we rode around the park on the train. Anna liked it a lot, and the breeze felt great! If you look closely in the succession of pictures on this post, you can see her get hotter and droopier in each one...







After we finished on the train, Anna drove a dump truck. She took this very seriously. The trucks circled counterclockwise on the track and Anna just kept turning left, left, left.



She also flew an airplane. We showed her how to pull up on the steering bar to make the plane "fly", but at the end of the ride when the planes descended, she kept pulling up and getting mad that she was going down...



Then we went over to Storyland. Anna enjoyed the slide down Jack and Jill's hill. If you click on this pic, it will zoom in and you can see the look on her face. Priceless.



Since Anna liked Jack and Jill's slide so much, we figured she'd LOVE Puff the Magic Dragon's slide.



Not so much, though. It was HOT! Look at all of the Spanish Moss!



Anna really liked the fire truck and drove it very solemnly.



Cinderella's pumpkin coach.



Alice in Wonderland's house.



Omm, this is supposed to be "Le Petit Prince", but it's more like "Corporate Sponsorship"



ARRRRGHHH- on the Pirate ship and hot!



Even hotter on the queen's throne. I think the fleur de lis on each arm is a nice touch.



After the park, we went back to Edmund and Kathy's for lunch and a swim, then drove back when Anna got fussy. Here she is after dinner wearing the shirt that Dingo (Kathy's dog) gave her. It says, "NOLA City Bark".

We really had a great time today and Anna was asleep by the time we got to the end of the block! Thanks to Kathy for such a wonderful day!