The Kurz/Kroll Wedding + PJ, K &C!

My cousin Kevin married his longtime girlfriend Julie last weekend, and not only were we ecstatic for those two lovebirds, I was grateful for another reason to see the Carpenter clan again.  We all had a ton of fun at the event, and with Donna & Emil watching Luke & Claire, Matt and I got to cut a rug and enjoy an evening sans kids to care for.  What's fun about Kevin and Julie's romance is that Julie is Kevin's brother's wife's best friend.  So at Brad and Nikki's wedding Kevin was Brad's best man and Julie was Nikki's maid of honor.  They got together soon after that wedding and now that they're married, too, Nikki and Julie are actually sisters!

Silly face! PJ was one of the only kids at the wedding and she was quite a hit.  What a fun time! 

Mr and Mrs Kevin Kurz!

Aunt Penny and Uncle Jay

Cute!!!

The Kurz Family - Hayden, Tracy & baby Nora, Uncle Jay, Julie, Kevin, Aunt Penny, Nikki, Brad

Helping to move the flowers from the church to the reception

The wedding was in quaint downtown St. Charles.  Very cute town on the Fox River.

Drinks and appetizers at a nearby bar between the ceremony and the reception with Uncle David, Anne, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Bob.

Aunt Kathy, Mom and I hit some shops and walked along the river.

Antique shop had this cute hat.  Doesn't it look good on Mom?  She is timeless, like the hat!

Nikki and Brad

Gorgeous outdoor cocktail hour at the venue, a historic hotel.  It was a perfect evening weather wise!

Baby Nora!  Look at those baby blues.  

Siblings:)

Our table.  Luke was originally supposed to come, thus the seat next to me that is open, but we opted not to bring him after the experience wrangling him at Theresa Baranko's wedding.

Poor Dad!  He had emergency surgery on his eye following a detached retina just a week before.   

One of our favorite cousins Warren, who is in the Marines, was able to make the wedding as a Groomsman.   It was so great to see him, as he was deployed earlier this year to the Middle East.   His brother Doug was also asked to be  a groomsman, but Doug couldn't get leave, so we didn't get the pleasure of seeing him.  He is a pilot in the Marines.  

Snuggles

As I mentioned, in addition to the wedding fun, we had a whole weekend to enjoy Kristin, Cory and PJ.  It was a quick trip, but we squeezed in lots of togetherness.  Unfortunately I had some sort of 24 hour stomach flu all day Sunday, so that was a downer, but the kids had a blast playing together and the weather was rainy so plans were not spoiled.  We don't have to say good bye for long, as we will see them again in 2 weeks for our big trip to Disney World!!!

Spinning at the local park

Hugs at Egg Harbor, our favorite breakfast and lunch place in LF.  PJ can actually carry Luke around, although Luke tends to hurl himself on her to be carried which can be a little much when she's not expecting it!

I love how she's checking out the toy options in her basket.

The kids playing in the playroom.  The fort with the Thomas tent was PJ's house and the pink tent was Luke's house.  

Reading stories with Grandma

After the Carpenter's left for the airport Luke played in the rain for a while.  He loves jumping in puddles:)

Claire watched the puddle jumping action from the dryness of the garage in the stroller.

I was "tailgating" watching the driveway puddle action, and Luke liked to join me hanging out in the trunk.  Quite a novel idea to stand or sit in the trunk!

Here's a video of Luke jumping in puddles.  These are the moments I know I'll wish I could get back!

Claire fell asleep in my arms and Luke was trying to talk to her to tell her to wake up.  

Cutie pie is eating rice crackers and puffs these days.  She's getting to be such a big girl!

On the Friday before the wedding Donna and Emil took Luke to a long-awaited tractor show.  This show had quite a build up since it was first offered as an outing in Luke's birthday card, and it did not disappoint.  From what I gathered, and the fact that Luke is still to this day talking about things he saw there with Grandpa & Gram, I'd say it was a hit!

In kid news, not a whole lot to report.  Claire has started cracking herself up by seeing her reflection in the mirror.  She also is playing with a whole new spectrum of toys now.  She can grab and shake and eat almostany toy put in front of her.

Luke is really using his imagination so much more to do pretend play.  I don't know if it is preschool or just a new phase, but it is so wonderful to see this new development.

A couple quotables from the week:

• Holding his toy drill up to me, "Open your mouth wide and I'm going to drill in it" (Joe Richardson, is this a sign of a budding dentist?)

• "Iso says I can never take my penis out when I'm outside.  Then she sprayed me with the hose."  Upon further probing we learned that these were two separate and unrelated events, but it sounded funny when he said it like that!  We continue to see that Luke has developed a fascination with having no pants on and having his penis out. All I have to say is, I was only supposed to have girls!  I'm unprepared for this stuff!