New Mexico

This was definitely the most unconventional wedding I've ever been to.It was unconventional by design; my sister, Emily, has always had her own way of doing things. However, it turned out to be even more unconventional than anyone could have planned. Long story short, the bride and groom's car was stolen in between the wedding and the ring ceremony/reception, along with her dress and his suit and shoes. Funny thing is, I don't think Emily and Greg could have cared any less about the fact that their clothes were stolen - I get the impression that they are glad that it happened the way it did so that they now will be able to top any wedding story ever told! (By the way, their car was eventually found and returned...)

Anyway, since I've been traveling, this is the first blog I've done in almost 3 weeks! So I won't be able to fit everything in here, but I'm going to try to give a good summary of the New Mexico part of the trip. I will start by saying that I don't have very many pictures of the wedding festivities - there were so many pictures being taken that I didn't feel the need to pull out my camera as frequently as I normally do.

My Uncle Doug and Cailyn were good friends over the weekend; he held her every chance he got, and was always able to get some giggles out of her.

My cousin, Sophia, also held Cailyn every chance SHE got.
(There were lots of other arms ready to hold her, as well. Needless to say, Cailyn had plenty of attention!)
We went to White Sands, and Rylee discovered that she could bury people's feet with the sand.

Cailyn discovered that she could stuff her face with the sand.

(Cailyn is making it very clear these days that life is best when there's food, or sand, in her mouth. If there's food or drink in the room, she makes a racket until it's in her mouth.)

Greg's mom has a few horses, so we took the girls over to see them. Rylee loves her new uncle, and loved petting the horse and watching people feed apples to the horses.

My mom took the girls and I to the Farm and Ranch Museum. The highlight of the trip was watching a cow being milked, but Rylee also liked being driven around on a golf cart tour and seeing all the livestock on the grounds.

And she LOVED this see saw with the saddles - she's been aware of see saws for a while now, probably from books and TV, but I think this is the first one that she actually ever saw in real life.

She had a lot of fun "milking" the statue of the cow in the children's area, too.

My best friend growing up, Brooke, brought her 3 kids over to swim. It's really fun because our kids are so close in age.

Cailyn is almost 5 months older than London.

And Rylee is right in between Cooper and Calla.

(This was the next day when we went over to Brooke's house and the kiddos were eating snacks and watching a movie. As we were driving over there, Rylee kept saying "Cooper my friend! Calla my friend, too!"

I totally missed out on getting some of the other pictures that I wanted to get, like ones with Gran, ones with Rylee and Cailyn with their Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave, etc., because I was planning on taking them on Saturday, the day before we left; unfortunately, I came down with a stomach bug (along with my mom, Brooke, Cooper, Calla, and kind of Charlotte) and spent basically the whole day sleeping. But Gran does deserve credit, because she gave up her bedroom for me and Cailyn to sleep in for a week and a half! Oh, and Rylee slept in the room next to us in a toddler bed that Pops made for my mom when she was little that was all decked out in Elmo sheets - she loved it! (Except for when she woke up several times in the middle of the night and came in to sleep with me...oh well.)

Other than that, Rylee spent a lot of time reading books with her Grandma Karen. And Cailyn spent a lot of time eating any food that she could convince anyone to give her (including straight butter from her Grandpa Dave.)

And then we flew to Seattle...