Remind me to follow my instincts.........

We had another wedding to attend this past weekend. It was a 3rd cousin of mine, Tommy, who was marrying his wonderful girlfriend Sara and it was going to be a huge family event. (Brittney LOVES Sara because she taught her to play the piano one summer.)

I kind of thought about having my mother-in-law watch the boys but figured that I'd be surrounded by lots of family and lots of helpers. Right? Well, kind of right.

It started off kinda bad. We arrived at the church with plenty of time before the ceremony started. It was almost TOO much time because the boys started to feel right at home. It was a small little church that Steve said "smelled like a funeral home". When Brittney opened up the door, Jace just ran all the way down the aisle and would have climbed up on the altar if I hadn't snatched him up. So when I carried him out of the church, he was throwing the first official fit of the evening. THE KEARLEYS HAVE ARRIVED!!! My boys haven't seen the inside of a church, unfortunately, since they were baptized at 3 months old. The other times we've attempted to go back to church we tried to leave them in the nursery (notice I said "tried").

Speaking of nurseries, my mom heard from someone else at the wedding that the bride's mother had booked the nursery for young children attending the wedding. I thought this was a GREAT idea seeing as how Jace ONLY wanted to stay outside now and the humidity was at 100%. So we located the nursery and the boys had a great time playing with all the neat toys. Then it came time for us, the adults, to leave. I don't know if I've mentioned the fact that Jace and Cade take a LONG time to warm up to strange people or strange places, but they do. They do not take kindly to change. Once we were out of the room, I waited around the corner b/c the room had a 1/2 door and listened for about 5 minutes. Their cries were slowly dying down. I sent another mom in to tell the nursery worker to just give them food or their drinks. You can usually win them over with food, that's for sure. I swear I didn't hear a peep after that, so I headed into the church.

The wedding ceremony lasted 18 minutes (thanks to Steve's "interest" in weddings. He likes to rank weddings ONLY on the basis of which one is the shortest. The record holder so far is my friend Janna's which clocked in under 10 minutes....Steve was in heaven). So after the wedding party had exited, we made our way to the nursery to pick up two puffy faced, red eyed little boys who had been crying the ENTIRE time they were in there. Of course within minutes of being back in our arms, they were FINE! It just broke my heart!

So, off we go to the reception. Oh my..... let me just show you a picture of what the reception looked like............. (by the way, this is one of the 3 whole pictures I had time to snap.)


Does this look like a place you should let 2 toddlers run loose? Cakes were nearby within reaching height, an ice sculpture was looming around, and tableclothes were EVERYWHERE!! (I'm kind of surprised to say that all of the tablecloths remained in tact throughout the evening). I was on guard immediately. It started off ok. Jace must have put away around 30 strawberries from the serving line. He just wouldn't.stop.eating.them!!! After his belly was full though, he got ancy!!! Cade was pretty content with my mom for the time being....that's why my story is more focused on Mr. Jace.


I decide that Jace needs a place to run around and burn off some energy. So, we head off to where the smokers (and their children) are outside. I do a quick scan of the patio area. It's all closed in and there's railing all the way around....whew! They ran around a little bit and interacted with some of their cousins that they barely know. Then I really don't remember which one of them it was, but whoever it was found a piece of loose railing and kicked it down to the ground one story below. This deck was HUGE and my boys found the ONLY PIECE OF LOOSE RAILING???? I don't know if this a sign of intelligence or what, but if it is ... my boys are GENIUSES!!! Thank God there wasn't water down below us, it was just a one story drop off onto grass. But still.......not so safe to be around.

Of course, now THIS is the place to be! All of the kids are coming over to check it out. So know I'm stuck outside trying to stop any of the kids from falling over, while also trying to find chairs, trash cans, anything to block this area off. Let me remind you too that I'm dressed nicely and AGAIN the humidity was 100%. I am now resembling a wet mop and really ready to get the hell out of here. I then look from the outside into the beautiful reception and see all of my family members, my "helpers", just visiting, laughing and having a good old time. (By the way, they all claim innocence...that they didn't know I was out there dying.) I gathered up my boys, who didn't want to go in yet and start screaming, and enter stage left . THE KEARLEYS ARE HERE!!!!!!!

Our table hadn't even been "released" to the serving line yet, but it was 8 o'clock...their bedtime....and I wasn't even the slightest bit hungry. I hadn't stopped sweating since we left the house that afternoon and I was just exhausted. Brittney, of course, stayed until the wee hours of the morning with my parents and had a GREAT time. It really was a beautiful wedding, I just did not get the privilege of enjoying it.

So, needlesstosay, JACE and CADE...you have attended your last wedding until you're in your teenage years at least! I just don't have the energy to deal with it!