Whirlwind Weekend continued (7/15-18)

As you may recall, we have just finished Alex's birthday and a family reunion in two days. The next afternoon was my beautiful friend Bethany's wedding. I took a million super cute pictures that demonstrate the creativity of the Howard women and the beauty of this event, but here are just a few.

 

The bride and her dad walking down the aisle... stunning!

Some of the loveliest ladies I know...and the best of friends!

We didn't know any other kids at the wedding, but the flower girls and little boys who were friends of Bethany's family welcomed Olivia right into their little group, and she just played right along with them. They were so sweet!

Gettin' a little handsy on the dance floor!

Poor Paul was nursing a softball injury that looked pretty serious! He was a great sport, but did decline the dancing portion of the evening :).

My sweet high school friends. No matter how much time passes, it always seems so natural to see them and catch up on all the changes in our lives. Love these girls!

After that long day (three in a row with no real nap for Miss O), we headed down to Philomath for a few days with my family. My cousin Gretchen was in town with her husband Tom and 1 year old daughter Amelia, who we hadn't met yet. It was so fun to play and I can't wait until we get to see them again!

Gretchen and Tom had lots of friends and family to see that weekend, so the next morning Grandpa Gary, Great Uncle Larry, Alex, Olivia and I headed to the coast. Olivia hasn't spent nearly enough time near the ocean, so I was really glad for the opportunity for her to experience it Oregon-style (totally foggy and wet). We went straight to the beach, where she walked in the water for the first time with Grandpa.

We spent a lot of time looking at the 'ducks' (okay seagulls but after twenty minutes we stopped trying to correct her) as they ran up and down the coastline. They were hard to spot because it was so foggy, but O wanted to chase them the whole time.

After a while we pulled out the sand castle supplies and got to work. O is a little young to understand making a sand castle, but she did enjoy filling up the bucket and dumping it out, especially when it could go on Dad or Grandpa's feet.

This beach trip was about a week after a large piece of a Japanese dock landed on a Newport beach. I know there was a lot of concern about bacteria and foreign species, but I thought it was pretty awesome, and wished that we could go see it. We did find this weird piece of seaweed, which my dad thinks might have come from Japan as well. There were weird barnacles that had been ripped apart, and although I wouldn't bet on it, I suppose it's possible that it came all the way across the ocean. I did touch it (which I normally wouldn't do) so I could say I've been that much closer to Asia :).

Love this picture of Grandpa and Olivia...they had so much fun!

After the beach we attempted to get cleaned up and headed to the bayfront. We wandered around a bit, stopped in at Belinda's candy shop, and then did a traditional Chinese lunch. I know it should have been seafood, but out of the five people that went to the coast that day, three or four didn't love seafood, so Chinese it was.

When Olivia was just getting too grumpy, we piled back into our sandy car and headed home. Once we got to my parents' we got ready for a little birthday party for Amelia and Alex. Gretchen made these awesome tie-dye cupcakes that tasted amazing, and were bright colors...which makes everything better!

Amelia digging in :) what a cute girl!

After we sang to Amelia and got her started, we sang to Alex as well.

O loved her cupcake, especially that she got it whole with no restrictions or eating from Mom or Dad's plate. She was beyond exhausted and having a rough time with our crazy schedule, so she was just staring out the window while she ate the whipped cream from the top of her cupcake.

Amelia having some bonding time with Great Uncle Gary. My dad is funny about kids, working and bribing until even the most shy kid will play along with him. I love seeing how much Olivia looks forward to visiting, and how they are able to enjoy each other's company. From this picture it appears that Amelia feels the same way :)

The next day we rested at home, took a much needed normal nap, and then headed to Wildcat Park. This park is full of memories for me from my childhood, and even though it has been totally rebuilt, I hope that Olivia will have fun memories from here as well. It's an awesome park with lots of tunnels and secret passageways in addition to the normal playground equipment. Here she is flying off a slide with Grandma.

Yes this is me, three weeks before giving birth to Carter, climbing a rock wall. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get your center of gravity close enough to the wall with a monstrous belly, but I tried my hardest, and had some good laughs.

Olivia had a little more success than I did.

Grandpa is super proud that he was able to climb the four foot rope wall...he honestly was beaming.

Three generations of sliders. If you look closely, you will note that the middle slide is significantly narrower than the two along the sides. If I had known this, I wouldn't have even tried to get my enormous hips down this particular slide, but it was the only one without bumps in the middle, so I chose the lesser of two evils. Needless to say, Olivia went down a lot faster than I did :)

The beginning of hangin off everything. She now hangs off the countertop, any grown up leg that is propped up, her bed, you name it. I attribute that skill to this practice session with Grandpa.

This was our last event of the 6-day-long weekend of craziness, but I couldn't have asked for anything better. It was wonderful to celebrate Alex's 25th, a Wellman reunion, a friend's wedding, spend some time with my parents, and play with Gretchen, Tom, and Amelia. WHEW!