Alex and Laura's wedding

On October 10th, Alex and Laura got married in St. Louis.

We flew out on Thursday so we'd be there in time for the rehearsal. When we got in town, we got our rental car, ate some McAlister's Deli, then went to Mid Rivers Mall to pick up Connor's tux and my tux. Unfortunately, the tuxedo for Connor was terrible. The jacket was a good length on the arms and around the shoulders, but it was surprisingly tight at the waist. Connor's not a chubby boy, but the way the tux fit it would barely button. We also noticed that the crotch on the pants was nearly down to his knees. It did not look good. We ran around the mall to every store we could find to see if we could find a last minute tux, but nobody had anything. At Men's Wearhouse they moved the button for Connor's jacket, but it was all still pretty bad. We took both tuxes with us, and Andrea called around and found another store that was near where we were having the rehearsal dinner.

We went back to the hotel to change for the rehearsal. Everyone else was staying at the Omni, but we stayed at the Embassy Suites instead. It was about half a mile away from the action, but having all the extra space was nice.

Paige and Connor looked extra cute in their outfits.

We went to the Botanical Gardens for the rehearsal. It was a little drizzly and pretty cold when we got there. We also had a long walk through the grounds to get to the area where the ceremony would be. On the way, Chris mentioned that a "youth" had been shot by a police officer on Shaw street, which was right next to the Botanical Gardens. There were protests all over the area and we were pretty concerned it'd disrupt Alex and Laura's big day.

At the rehearsal, Paige and Connor learned their parts, but they were awfully fidgety. They had been sitting still all day, so they weren't really in the mood for it.

Andrea snapped a bunch of nice pics of everyone.

After the rehearsal, we went to Pi Pizza for dinner. Across the street was Savvi Tux shop and thankfully they had a lot of tuxes on site. Andrea worked with Connor and the lady working there to get everything picked out, tried on, and ready to go. She got to the pizza place just as they brought out the food.

The waiter snapped a nice pic of everyone at the table.

We didn't stay too late since both kids were tired.

In the morning, we ate breakfast at Rooster's with Alex, Chris, Grandpa Rick and some of the other guys.

Afterwards, the boys left to get dressed and the girls went to get their hair and makeup done.

Connor liked having the opportunity to place some "Plants vs Zombies" with Uncle Chris.

Connor's new tux looked snazzy on him!

All the boys snapped some pics together.

Just as we were leaving the hotel to go to the Botanical gardens I dropped a backpack that had Connor's iPad and my camera in it. The mount on the camera was sheared off completely and the screws holding it in were stripped out. I haven't gotten an estimate on repairs yet, but pretty sure the camera is toast. I am pretty upset about it, but more upset that we didn't have the camera available for any more pics the rest of the weekend.

At the hair place, Paige got her hair put together with some flowers. She played on her iPad while she waited.

She liked getting all prettied up and did a good job taking care of herself the entire day so her outfit and flowers would look nice.

We snapped a bunch of pictures before the ceremony, but pretty much all with the professional photographers, so right now have nothing to post.

The ceremony was very private and small. We walked in, took our places, and the kids were very cute walking down the aisle together. Laura's father walked her in and Alex and Laura were both excited and emotional. The ceremony went well and thankfully it didn't pour down rain for the time we were there. It sprinkled and got cold, but we made it through. Alex and Laura wrote their own vows, which were very sweet and well done. Andrea did get a short video of everyone walking out after the ceremony.

After the wedding was done, we drove over to the Thaxton for the reception. There were a few hours between the ceremony and the reception, so we got there early and the kids played while we took some pictures with the wedding photographers and a few with Andrea's phone.

Soon, the guests arrived and the wedding party hid upstairs. After most everyone had arrived, we took a freight elevator to a back door, then walked around to the front of the Thaxton and they announced the wedding party and we all made our grand entrance. We partied up for a bit and ate some of the hors d'oeuvres and then it was time for the toast and cake.

The videographers put together a short cut of some of the footage from the day, and it was actually amazingly well done. They captured a lot of the preparation for the wedding, showed some nice shots of the ceremony, and the vows spoken by Alex and Laura. It was very moving and then it was toast time. Laura's sister Elizabeth went first, then I went, and then Chris. I think the toasts went well, and I had been pretty anxious about it, so was happy to be done. Alex and Laura cut the cake and then everyone went back to partying.

Paige was a doll the entire day. She lasted until pretty late, but eventually she wanted me to hold her and tell her a story. Before I'd gotten very far along she was asleep. She had enjoyed dancing for a while and loved the entire wedding process.

Connor had fun too, but has recently gotten a little too shy to dance. He visited with everyone and enjoyed staying up late.

Before we knew it, the night was over! We lit some sparklers, saw Alex and Laura off, and then we all left and went back to our hotels.

In the morning we went over to Chris's house for a get together with some of the Vernon family. It was nice to get to see everyone for a bit longer. Most everyone played board games, and Alex and Laura stopped by later in the day and said hi and opened some gifts.

On Sunday, we got up early and flew home. Thankfully we got up early because the TSA only had one X-Ray machine working and  it took almost 2 hours to get through the security line. A lot of people missed their flights and by the time we got through our plane was boarding. 

Alex and Laura also got up early and flew to Hawaii to start their 2 week long Honeymoon! Hope they're having fun!

Paige learns to ride her bike without training wheels thanks to Olivia

Paige has been doing a good job for a while now on her bike with training wheels. For Christmas of 2012 she got the little red bike with no pedals and for Christmas of 2013 she got her new purple bike with pedals and training wheels. She's been doing well on the purple bike for a while, but hasn't shown any interest or any signs of progressing. A few weeks ago I'd tried to raise up the training wheels so they wouldn't necessarily be on the ground at all times and she could practice balancing. My thought was that it'd be a little unsteady, but the training wheels would just be there in case she tipped over. She hated it and I moved them back.

This past week, Olivia was out front on her big girl bike that she'd just gotten recently. It didn't have training wheels and she was zipping around the cul-de-sac and looking pretty cool. She told Paige that if Paige wanted to, she could try her old bike without training wheels. I almost told Paige not to bother since I was worried she'd get hurt and I wasn't excited about going in and putting bandaids on boo-boos. Paige asked nicely though and ran to get her helmet. Olivia coached her through how to do it and I gave Paige a little push to get her going. Surprisingly she stayed up and before I knew it she had ridden the bike past a couple houses. I pulled out my phone and started videotaping it.

Olivia was so sweet about it all, running along side her and telling her what a great job she was doing. We didn't have much longer to play that day, but the next day, Paige begged me to take off her training wheels and I told her I would if she was good. When she got home from school, I popped them off and stood back to see how she'd do. As she did the day before, she did awesome. She needed help at first to get going, but just pedaled and balanced like it was no big deal. At one point she was trying to get started and I decided to just film her and see if she could do it on her own.

Not too shabby! I was pretty surprised I got lucky enough to film her very first time riding without training wheels and also her first time getting started without training wheels.

Before we went in she wanted some pics with Olivia's Halloween decorations.

Paige's special reward for her soccer game

Since Paige did so well at soccer this week, I told her we'd get her a special reward. We always tell the kids that they aren't expected to score goals or anything at soccer, but that we just like to see them try hard and do their best. Paige definitely did that this week and I told her she'd earned something special. Sometimes when Connor earns a reward, we'll let him get orange soda from a vending machine when we eat lunch. After lunch today we were walking past the vending machine and I asked Paige if she wanted a special drink for her reward. She very excitedly told me yes and we were all dismayed when she decided she wanted to have water. We'd just had lunch, and she'd had water at lunch. We were on the way home and we told her that she could have a bottle of water when she got home. Andrea went through the options in the machine, and Paige insisted that she wanted water as her reward, so that's what she got.

She was very pleased with her choice and told me it was very yummy and almost tasted like apple juice. I wasn't thrilled with spending $1.50 on water, but as long as she is happy I guess it's worth it.

Paige and Connor play in the sprinkler in the jeep

Last night was beautiful. Not too hot finally and the kids were able to play outside until it was dark. We took a bike ride and then chilled out in the front yard. The jeep happened to be all charged up, so Connor and Paige drove it around for a few minutes before noticing the neighbor's sprinkler was on across the street. Connor asked if they could drive the jeep through it and we decided to let them do it as long as they stayed on the sidewalk.

Andrea and I cracked up for a few minutes watching them and then I decided I had to get it on video. It is fun to listen to them screaming and laughing. They play so well together, I hope they will always be such good buddies.

Paige dominates at soccer game - I9

This Saturday, Paige had her third soccer game. After her last game where she scored her first goals, you could tell something kind of clicked in her brain and she was ready for action this week.

I dropped her off at Grandpa and Grandma Vernon's house in the morning since I had a match and Andrea had to take Connor to his soccer game. Connor's soccer game ended up getting canceled, so Andrea and Connor were able to go to Paige's game along with Grandma and Grandpa.

Before Paige's game, she did some sidewalk chalk.

She also helped Grandma with some plants out front.

At soccer she did a little bit of drills and then they did a lot of scrimmaging. 

This week Paige showed a lot of growth and progression. She was very aggressive, took the ball from the other team and controlled it well towards and in to the goal. Andrea thinks she got 3-4 goals, but there were a lot of close opportunities and Paige was pretty impressive. She really seemed to enjoy herself and it is neat to see her taking a liking to the sport and having some aptitude for it. We weren't sure at all prior to this whether she'd enjoy it, or hate it and complain about going. You just never know with Paige!

Andrea got one of Paige's goals on video.

Connor doing Basketball Upward drills and skills evaluation

This week Connor had his basketball tryouts for this coming season. He did a few different drills and did pretty well with them. You could really see that the basketball camps over the summer improved his skills.

I thought his most impressive drill was the dribbling drill. He did really well with his right hand and a pretty good job with his left.

Park and soccer practice with the kids

On Wednesday, the weather was nice so I took the kids to the park to play for a bit. Connor's soccer practice had been rained out on Monday, so Paige and I worked with him for a bit on being fast to the ball. During his game on Sunday he missed one opportunity to score because he was a little too slow receiving a pass and then shooting it. While we were at the park we worked on receiving a pass and kicking it quickly to the goal. It was a fun drill and Paige was good about being the goalie.