The wedding of the century

On September 21, 2012 my sister Hillary FINALLY got married. I say finally because Hillary and Scott are going on 19 years of togetherness. It was a beautiful wedding, it looked as if it took 19 years just to plan. Hillary's dress was exquisite. as was her makeup!

She made her entrance to ceremony in the most charming way, a little London taxi of course.

The music was sweet and wedding venue was lovely with the backdrop of the Redwoods in Los Gatos California. But no elegance could take the place of excitement that for this special day, and yes I felt a little cheesy even typing that, but it is true.

This one is one of my favorites.

This day took so long to get here, I still cannot believe I have real pictures of them getting married. Seriously I never thought this day would come, so forgive me for the picture overload.

As much as I was looking forward to seeing them actually get married, I think a close runner up was how excited I was for the dinner at the reception. I ordered the vegan option and it did not disappoint!

The wedding was monemtous for lots of reasons. It was the first time in nearly 6 years that all 7 (counting me) of my siblings were together. I love my siblings and I was truly happy to be with them for even just a day.

(Cocky, Peter, Max, and John)

(sis-in-law Monica, Peter, Cocky and little sis-in-law Sabrina)

My sister in-law Emily is super cute as well, but was particularly camera shy that day. My sisters

I also was able to see my nieces. Here is a shot of Hope and Sabrina. Hope is almost 14! and I love her so much. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up, it is hsonetly hard to live away from this pretty face.

This little girl warms my heart.

Sydney is almost a year and a half old and so smart. I loved hearing her try to get Naomi's attention by yelling "Naynay". She is adorable and funny all at the same time, but I think the thing I love most about her is how my brother John's smiling face is like her shadow, never far away. As a sister, nothing makes me happier than to see my siblings happy.

Richard was unable to get away from his med school obligations and join me at the wedding. I missed him like crazy, however I was fortunate to have two fantastic dates, Optimus Prime and Naomi.

A little back story. A couple months ago my sister Emily bought Levi his Optimus Prime costume. Levi being totally smitten by his new identity ask "is it alright for kids to wear costumes to weddings?". Hillary said it was absolutely okay! I packed appropriate wedding clothes, but Hillary insisted he should wear his costume. I decided to call her bluff, but I was wrong. At no point in the several hours we were there did Levi remove his mask, so Optimus Prime was in fact my date.

= The rest of the night was full of dancing. Emily danced the chicken like no bodies business!

Naomi hit the dance floor with Cocky and then later with cousin Sydney.

It was a very full day of dancing, eating, and celebrating Optimus Prime was exhausted!

I am so grateful my kids and were able to be apart of this epic day.

I know I always start my posts by saying how much we love living in St. Louis, but honestly that is the only way I can think to start my posts. So here goes, We love life in St. Louis! One of the things we love is how many free things there are to do. The weekend before last we checked out the science center. Totally awesome and you guessed it, it is FREE. I have a dream of Naomi playing the harp someday, so I could not resist snapping a picture of her playing the laser harp. Such a beautiful instrument

Levi had fun checking out toy space craft while Naomi entertained herself with gear magnets(okay so that part of the center was not free, but still worth it).

The best part of our visit was when the 4 of us built the arch out of foam blocks. It was a balancing act and it took each of us to make it work. So much fun!!!

After building a pretend arch, it was time the next day to pick up our first house guests Richard's sister Katie and baby Mila from the airport, and go to the real arch.

Baby Mila is so sweet. I loved having here here.

Levi is very fascinated by the arch. He has made us promise we will never go there with out him.

Naomi likes nothing more than open space to plan her escape. The arch park was the perfect setting for her to run around.

Here is a rare picture of me alone, not having to chase my children.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon to picnic in the park with family.

All of us enjoyed having baby Mila visit us, but Naomi was especially happy. Naomi would offer to "change baby dydy". I so badly wanted to tell Naomi that she was born last year and has no business changing diapers. Naomi had no shortage of love for baby Mila.

And just because I have a weird obsession with dressing like twins, Katie and I bought the girls matching dresses.

This last weekend was the St. Louis annual hot air balloon race. The race begins at Forest park and ends which ever direction the wind leads the balloons. The first balloon to be released is the Engerizer Bunny. It is the worlds largest "Hot Hare balloon". The bunny is 166 feet tall and it went right over my back yard. I refuse to admit how long I spent Saturday night learning about the character of the bunny, lets just say I may have been able to get through a whole episode of Dateline. Few things hold my attention that long.

There are something like 76 balloons that enter the race. I am pretty sure a majority of the balloons passed over us.

The balloons were landing all over our neighborhood. Most of our neighbors were out watching and chasing the balloon landings. I through the kids in the stroller and we went in search of seeing a balloon land. We had no luck, but we had a lot of fun trying.

And finally here is a picture I love of Richy and the kids from the firework show the night before.

Saint Louis is still treating us well. Levi is loving school and Richard is managing school. Naomi and I are Going on long walks every morning, often with my friend Kate and her two kids. I LOVE going for walking in the morning. The sun shines through the tree lined streets. Many people are out walking their dogs or children to school etc. Although we live in a condo complex we are surrounded by BIG beautiful houses. Many houses have tennis courts (why anyone would want to play tennis in this climate is beyond me). I want to take pictures of some of the homes, because the architecture is so different from Oregon, it has a different charm. Somehow I feel super creepy just thinking about taking pictures of the houses in my neighborhood. However I did take many pictures of houses in The Dalles as noted in a post a couple months ago. The threshold of acceptable creepy behavior was much different in The Dalles, here I am trying to distance myself from the creepy factor I openly embraced while living in The Dalles. After all I would like to work for the city here at some point. Levi has made a new friend at school named William. I talked to William's dad to invite William over for a play date. He happily accepted, saying his boys would love to come over. I later ask Levi why he did not tell me William has a twin brother. Levi said he wanted to surprise me that "there are two Williams". Yesterday the twins came over and Levi screamed after school to the whole school "IT IS MY LUCKY DAY" over and over. Levi is afraid of dogs and since the twins have a dog Levi has let us know he is not interested in going over to their house. While the twins were at our house I gave the 3 boys a snack. The conversation at the table was based around the twins trying to convince Levi that their dog was not too bad. They used reasons such as he will play with you and he eats your left over food, and he does not bark too loud. To every reason they represented, Levi had a come back as to how Naomi is just like their dog. Mean while Naomi is going around the table from person to person begging for their food.Naomi was not helping her case! College football season kicked off last weekend. I love college football, mostly the Beavers, but I have been known to watch a variety of match ups. This is the first year in a few years that we have not bought season tickets. This is the down side to living in Missouri no Reser stadium. Going to the games has been so much fun for Richard and I. The Fall usually looks something like this. We go out to eat with Richy's parents and sister before the game. Each of us is cloaked in our orange and black. The energy and excitement in Corvallis on game is one of my favorite things. The Beavers have had a rough go the last couple years, bit still I found pleasure in cheering them on. I love Oregon State University, I am not a fair weather fan. Speaking of weather, the Beavers were unable to play their season opener last weekend because of the weather in Louisiana where there opponent would have come from. I am excited to represent the Beavs here in Missouri. I will forever love the memories we have with family at the Beaver games. I cannot wait to be back in Reser cheering on my favorite team.

Notice my sister and niece. They claim to be Duck fans yet there they are at a Beaver game both smiling ear to ear like a buffon!

A good game can make a girl tired!