My New York Weekend

Hi everybody!  I'm sorry if this posting will be a bit longer but it's been a few days since my last post and this girl's got a lot of stuff to talk about.  I went to New York with Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Zach to attend my great Aunt Joy's wedding.  My great Aunt Joy got married to a really nice man.  His name is Mark.  This is this actually the second time each of them have been married.  Aunt Joy had been married to a man but that didn't work out.  My Grandpa says he wasn't a bad man; they were just culturally incompatible.  He was very Greek - whatever that means?  And my new Uncle Mark had been married but his first wife died.  Both Aunt Joy and Uncle Mark have been been sad for way too long but now they are very happy.  You can just tell how much they really love each other.  Uncle Mark does nice things for Aunt Joy and says such nice things about her.  It's kind of funny tho, when he does those sweet things my Grandma just looks over at Grandpa and gives him the strangest look.  Grandpa says that's to be expected after you've been married for 29 years but it's a sign that he needs to work harder.  I don't get it but I trust Grandpa.

So like I said, it was a very busy weekend!  Mommy got me up before 4:00 Saturday morning and drove us all to the airport.  Grandpa had been telling me that we were going to go on an airplane but I didn't really know what that meant.  The first thing we had to do was get in this line and put all of our stuff in this machine.  Grandpa said that was to make sure Grandma hadn't secretly put something dangerous inside her cane or her luggage.  You can never tell with Grandma.  She must have looked suspicious because they pulled her off to the side and a big lady in a uniform came over and patted down every single part of her body.  Grandpa thought the security lady may have been the type that enjoyed that a little too much.  Whatever that means - sometimes the things Grandpa says kind of goes over my head.  Finally they let Grandma go and we went to this waiting area and then they let us on the airplane.  The first airplane ride was very short but it was fun.  We went way up high above the clouds; it was very cool.  When we landed in Chicago we got off our plane and got on a smaller plane for the flight to Rochester.  My Great Aunt Lori was there to meet us and she took us to her farm where they were having the wedding.

Besides the wedding the very best part of the trip was getting to see great Grandpa and great Grandma again and to meet my great Aunts/Uncles and second cousins.  I had the best time.  This is my second cousin Abby.  She's going to be one year old very soon and she is walking already.

This is my second cousin Nathan.  He is H.O.T. hot!  What's the dating rule on 2nd cousins?  Nathan seemed to like me too until I drooled on him.  Then he moved away.  Note to self:  Never drool on a boy on the first date.  Nathan never goes anywhere without a hammer in his hand.  I bet he is going to grow up to be a big strong rugged construction man.  Great Aunt Lori and Uncle Keith had a really big tent set up in their backyard for the wedding reception and when the workers came to take the tent down they had really really big sledge hammers.  Nathan thought that was so neat.  Grandpa says boys always want bigger toys.  Whatever that means.

My other second cousin is Micah.  Micah just loves my uncle Zach and my uncle Zach really loves Micah too.  They spent the whole weekend playing together.  I forgot to ask Micah what his secret is because they looked like they had a lot of fun.  Zach is starting to play with me a little bit more.  Grandpa says give him time.  He says Zach will be more interested once I'm a little older and walking and talking.

We stayed at great Grandpa and Grandma's house.  They have a very nice house that backs ups to a golf course.  Great Grandpa likes to play golf but he hasn't been able to because he has a bad knee just like my Grandma does.  They both are using canes to walk around with.  My Grandpa says that when Grandma and great Grandpa are walking together it looks like synchronized limping.  But my great Grandpa's knee wasn't so bad.  He took me for a walk in my stroller.  Don't you love our hats!  It was such a pretty day outside.  We met one of great Grandpa's neighbors.  He said it had been a long time since he'd had babies but from what he could remember, he thought I looked very healthy.  I really had fun with great Grandma.  I gave her some extra special attention this trip because she says babies always prefer great Grandpa to her.  I don't see why.  I think they are both great.  Great Grandma fed me when it was time to eat and we played the piano together too.

The time went by so fast.  I saw my grown up cousins Rachel and Phil and Matthew and Leah and Bethany and Dan.  And my great Uncle John came all the way from Salt Lake City.  They are all very nice.  The weekend was a lot of work for my great Uncle Keith and Aunt Lori.  They fed everybody really well and organized such a really wonderful wedding.  It was sad to leave but I really missed my mommy and daddy so I was ready to go home to St. Louis to see them.  Getting home was really tough.  Our flight was two hours late leaving Rochester but my great Aunt Lori was so sweet, she stayed with us and kept us company until we were sure our flights weren't going to be canceled.  The weekend was really hard on my Grandma's bad knee.  She had to have a wheel chair to help her get around at the airports.  We finally got back to St. Louis and Grandma, Grandpa and I got our luggage but they forgot to put Zach's luggage on the airplane to St. Louis.  Grandpa talked to some people and they said that as soon as they found it they would bring it straight to our house.  We finally got home it was almost 1:00 in the morning.  Mommy and Daddy were so happy to see me.  We missed each other so much.