Last week, my sister in law and I braved the drive to Nebraska with our littles so we could visit our family and be there for some exciting moments with Miquelle!
I'll be honest, I was pretty worried about the trip with Jaden since he's been so grumpy in car rides lately, but he and Reed were our little troopers!
We made the drive over in about 13 hours, because we all needed some rest stops along the way. The boys had their moments, but over all their crying didn't last long. (Hooray for squeeze pouch apple sauce and puffs! ;) )
Our last stop on the way out was in Sidney, we grabbed some snacks and let the boys run/crawl around and look at the ducks and geese on this pond. Jaden wanted to jump right in with them and play with all the baby ducks! He'd wave at them and say "quack quack" every time we got close to the 'gucks'! :)
Grandpa Coffin continued the tradition of reading "Kiss Goodnight", and Jaden would actually give snuggles while Grandpa was reading. :)
Friday morning Jennifer, Miquelle, Mallorie, Kennedy and I loaded into the car and drove to Grand Island and Lincoln to do wedding dress shopping for Miquelle! I'm so glad we got to be included in her special day, it was definitely one for the books! So many gorgeous dresses, an overly involved bridal consultant at the first store (with her very stylish outfit of black leggings and a cheetah print skirt ;) ), discovering tear ducts (Kenners ;) ), a thrift store experience with very persistent salesperson shadows, a man with fresh kettle corn, and some fabulous 'ugly' sweaters that were not about to be sold for less than $15 each.
We got into Lincoln and checked out a cute boutique, but didn't find anything that really stood out to Kell, so we headed to another bridal store and magic happened! :) She looks absolutely beautiful in her dress, I can't wait for December so you can all see it too! We all got excited when she got to ring the bell and make her wedding wish! :) Such a fun girls day!!
Little did everyone know, Corey was planning his official proposal and needed people with cameras (lucky Mallorie and I, since we had cameras we got to be in on the secret. :) )
I'm so so excited for Miquelle and Corey, they're such an awesome couple!
Saturday morning we played outside and then got ready and went to Kearney for two of the family's friends' baptisms. We grabbed pizza and went to the park (Yanney park, the same one that Matt and I went with our family to last time I was in Nebraska!) to hang out with all the siblings. :) I love that park!!
Sunday we went back to Kearney to listen to Carson give a talk in his YSA ward. He did so great! He talked about families and mothers and made me cry. :) After sacrament Mallorie and I pretty much lived in the hallway with the boys. Sunday school was rough but Relief Society just wasn't going to happen. So they chased each other up and down the hall, Jaden learned how to drink out of a drinking fountain and went back to it approximately 982348236876982734 times. They both discovered the echoing goodness of the gym, and while they were irreverent, they were adorable. ;)
I love watching these two cousins interact. They're going to keep us busy I'm sure!
Monday was so nice, we spent the day just hanging out at the house with everyone. The kids had school so our morning was filled with toddler entertainment. They found tools, and went to work fixing grandma's shelves. :) And each other. And eating the tools.
Grandpa had to go into work for an hour or two but he was able to come home in time to play with the boys before their naps. :)
Grandma and Grandpa got two swings for the boys, and they looked so cute in them!!
Jaden and Reed had their first cousin bath while we were there. I'm not sure who had more fun with it, the boys or grandpa. ;)
Our drive home was pretty eventful. Both boys went through 4 outfits... Reed with blowouts, Jaden peeing through diapers... our car smelled lovely. ;)
Just a little bit after we started driving we discovered Reed had another big blow out, so we were trying to decide where to stop. We pulled into a rest station, but saw that there was a town 11 miles up the road and figured it'd be easier to stop somewhere with a gas station. So we kept driving, and I stayed turned around trying to keep the situation contained. :p
We pulled into this tiny town called 'Dix', and tried to find the gas station/rest area that was shown on our maps... nowhere to be found. So we stopped by a park and changed poor Reed on the grass, while we wiped down the carseat. Reed wasn't happy, we were feeling frazzled, and in the middle of it all the town siren went off. Haha. What a morning! We joked that it was probably their call for the volunteer firefighters in their town, and that we'd make the paper as two crazy moms changing a kid in the park.
Memories, guys. This trip is chalk full of them. ;)
Overall the kids did AMAZING with that much car time, and Mallorie is a trooper for driving the entire trip! I'm so glad that we were able to go out when we did, I loved being able to catch up with everyone and getting to see Miquelle find the perfect dress, and be there for their adorable proposal!!
