Congratulations Courtney and Griff!

June 2014

The day after our anniversary, we headed north to Grand Lake in Oklahoma to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Courtney.  We had a fun week planned at the lake with my Mom, Dad, Grandma Dot, and my sister's family, but first, we were excited to celebrate the occasion that brought us together.  We arrived at our lake house on a Friday and quickly changed our clothes to head to the rehearsal dinner.  The wedding was at a ranch with a beautiful view of the lake.  After a full day in the car, all of the cousins were happy for some space to run around, but they mostly decided they liked climbing on this rock:

My Dad got a couple of really cute pictures of Olivia sitting on the rock:

 There were plenty of rocks to hunt, too:

 Grandpa got in on the fun, as well:

 And Ben had fun with silly Uncle Tommy:

 While the lovely ladies admired the beautiful views:

The wedding photographer took some wonderful shots of our family:

 

We had some delicious hamburgers and hot dogs, grilled by the groom-to-be and his groomsmen and headed back to the lake house to get a little rest before the big event!

 

The next day, we headed back to the ranch for lunch and so Grandma could get her hair done before the wedding. While we were there, we heard that some frogs were hiding in a puddle down the hill from the ranch, so we all set off on an adventure:

We found the puddle and there were indeed frogs jumping in and out - it was all very fascinating - and dirty.  It was a good thing we all had time to clean up before the wedding!

We arrived back at the ranch a little early and had some time to relax before the wedding began. Jack loves to play games, so Tommy taught him how to play checkers.  I love his concentration:

The more experienced checkers player, Daddy was the victor this time.  Jack likes losing about as much as his Mommy does:

And some boy time.  I can see many more of these conversations as these three grow up.  So cute!

Finally, it was time to begin.  Courtney was an absolutely beautiful bride!

Her proud Dad walking her down the aisle:

And the beautiful bride and handsome groom say "I do"

Jack was very well-behaved for the ceremony.  Livi, not so much.  She spent most of the ceremony with her Daddy where none of the other guests could hear her :(

We got a few family pictures after the ceremony.  Of course, there were many photos of the bride and groom, but we mostly have photos of our immediate family:

Mom, son and daughter - do you think there's a family resemblance here?

Cousins!!

From the ceremony, we all headed down the path to the reception area:

The reception was in in roofed barn-like building.  They gave everyone bubbles to blow during their first dance:

Livi couldn't quite figure out how to actually blow bubbles, but she had fun trying:

The meal was delicious - chicken fried steak with all the fixin's - and the cutest individual-sized fruit pies for dessert. I wish I would have taken a picture of them!

The shooting range was right behind the reception area and some of the wedding guests had been out shooting clays earlier in the day.  Luckily for us, they were pretty poor shots.  The kids had a ball picking up all of the clays that hadn't been hit:

As Livi learned (much to her dismay), they break pretty easily:

The bride brought along some glow sticks for the kids and our night ended with some fancy moves on the dance floor from Evan, Jack, Ben and Olivia:

Such a fun celebration.  I'm so glad we were all there to celebrate together.  Congratulations Courtney and Griff!