Family, Wedding, & Father's Day...Oh My!

This weekend was much needed.  And I did so well with actually remembering to take pictures!

As soon as our work days ended on Friday, we headed to New Boston to visit with family.  My aunt, uncle, and cousins were in from Mississippi.  Mom grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, we watched Finding Nemo, Charly and Mady played with Satchel and Ranger, and we all just visited.  Nick & I didn't get home until past midnight, but it was worth it. :)

My Mady Hope.  Love her!

And she's really good at making funny faces with you. :)

Dad kept staring at Satchel while Satch was chewing on his bone.  Satch eventually got up and left.  He couldn't handle someone watching him eat!

This was after 10:00.  We were all getting sleepy.

But we still visited for a while longer.

Saturday, Nick & I got moving around 9:00.  Nick took the pups over to his parents house.  We were headed to Tyler for a wedding, and we decided to stay the night.  We made a little trip out of it, and got a lot of needed shopping in.  We went to Hobby Lobby, and I didn't buy a single thing I went in for, but left with three items.  :)  Isn't that how it always goes in HL?  I wanted to get some items for a patriotic wreath for the front door, but I didn't like any of the deco mesh they had in the store.  Instead of that, we got two floor lamps and a table lamp in the clearance section.  I was pretty proud of these purchases.  I've been looking for a decently priced floor lamp for a corner of the living room for some time, but I didn't love anything that I've found.  I happened to walk past two in the clearance section (marked to $24 down from $120!) and knew it's what I wanted.  After showing them to Nick, he decided he wanted the second for the drafting table in his office.  I also found a PRECIOUS table lamp for $18 that will be going in Brayden's nursery.  I know they'll be used a lot!

The floor lamp for the living room.

The fishing pole lamp for Brayden's nursery.  The pull chain is a fish!

We ate at Olive Garden for lunch.  We got Nick new tennis shoes and work boots at Academy.  We got him some new clothes at Kohl's, then we headed to the hotel to get ready for the wedding that evening.  The bride, Kelly, grew up with Nick.  She always made sure I felt included when we would all go out together.  She is such a sweet person!  This was our first time to meet her new hubby, Ryan.  They were married at the Villa di Felicita, a very pretty wedding venue in Tyler.

Us with the lovely bride and groom

Quick picture before sending off the couple.

Meagan, Greg, and Nick sending off Kelly & Ryan (with the longest sparklers I've ever seen!).

We slept in a little on Sunday, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, then headed out to do a little more damage in the shopping department.  We hit a few stores in the mall, and also experienced Fresh by Brookshire's for the first time.  It was a very neat store!  We ended up getting some watermelon and grapples.  I just had to try the grapples.  Nick is calling it a pregnancy craving, but who can pass up something that is marketed as an apple that tastes like a grape?!  It actually tasted like an apple that had been infused with grape flavored Dimetapp.  I always liked Dimetapp as a child, but Nick did not.  So he said the grapples should have been named either "crapples" (crap + apples) or "gropples" (gross + apples).  They weren't terrible, but I probably wouldn't buy them again.  We also had lunch at Yamato. I had wanted Shogun, but they didn't serve lunch.  Thank goodness we found this gem.  It was yummy!

Last night, we met up with both of our families at Two Senoritas in Mt. Pleasant to celebrate Father's Day.  We had good food and good visiting.  Alan & Tovah had to head back to Longview, but the rest of us visited a bit more by going to get ice cream at Braums.  Yum!  Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Daddy, awesome father-in-love, and my soon to be Daddy husband.  I love you all!

Dad opening his presents.

Hopefully that shirt will bring the Ranger some good luck. :) 

Yay!  Big Bang!

Joe opening his presents.

A quick selfie with the ketchup-covered, lettuce-eating two year old nephew.  Cute! 

What can it be?

Polos...with pockets!

Dad and his girls. :)

We had a great weekend, but it's back to the grindstone now.  We've got World Changers next week, and our Sunday school class needs to get all of the final details worked out for feeding a crew.  Nick & I are also headed to Waco this weekend for his cousin's wedding.  We've hit wedding season!