BUSY vacation!

Today was another "mad rush" kind of day with breaks of relaxing and enjoying visiting with people. We started off by doing a little shopping and then came back to Mom's house to make lunch. Three "old" friends drove down to Quincy, and we all got together at Mom's house for lunch and a good visit. One of my friends, Sara, drove all the way down from Michigan. Her sister's wedding showers are tomorrow, which was great timing for us to be able to see each other. The last time we got together was about five years ago when she and her husband drove down to Chicago (we were there for Jason to run the Chicago marathon). Sara and I were born on the same day and grew up together -- same church, same school, best friends. My other two friends, Lisa and Colleen, drove from the Peoria area (about three hours away) with their two-year-old boys. Lisa and I became friends in junior high school, and we met Colleen when we started going to our church camp close to Peoria. We hadn't all gotten together since we couldn't even really remember when -- maybe seven years ago. It was SO nice to share lunch, watch the boys play, and catch up on each other's lives!

The boys played so nicely!

The "Camp Point Girls" -- as were called in high school when we went to certain church events (we all went to church in Camp Point).

After our afternoon visit was my brother's reahearsal and reahearsal dinner. Everything went very smoothly. We were the first ones to the church -- a huge, high-ceiling, beautiful Catholic church. Seth tried out the acoustics before anyone else got there, coughing and yelling to hear the echo :-) During the opening prayer, Seth was drinking out of his sippy cup -- which squeaked LOUDLY every time he stopped drinking to take a breath -- a little embarrassing. My mom helped Seth get through the time of sitting still by feeding him cereal, a job my nephews Nathan and Declan took over when their part of rehearsal was finished :-)

The rehearsal dinner was interesting since my mom and her husband Dale and my dad and his wife Marcia were all there together. It might've been a little awkward, but I was so proud of everyone for being so very pleasant and friendly. We even sat together to eat the DELICIOUS dinner. John made sure that I had a HUGE plate of gluten-free food, even part of the dessert (chocolate covered strawberries -- YUMM!!!). The whole evening was just VERY nice! Seth is pretty much hidden behind a candle at the end of the table because he was confined to his stroller for the meal so that he would sit still, eat, and not get into any trouble.

After dinner, we let Seth run around. Nathan and Declan were SO sweet about playing with him for little bits. Nathan found a nice napkin for Seth to play with (he knew that Seth loves to play with kleenex, but a napkin was a great substitute since no one could find a kleenex), and Declan had some "races" in a big open space with Seth. Seth charmed everyone, especially flirting with one lady who almost wanted to take him home with her :-)

Seth's doing so well with all these schedule changes and long hours with no naps. He gets really excited to talk to Dad, Joel, Makenzie, and Luke on the phone :-) Today on the phone, Jason asked to talk to Seth and said that they all REALLY miss Seth -- they miss me, too, but they REALLY miss Seth. I'm not offended, of course, Seth's such a sweetheart! I'd miss him, too, if I ever let him out of my sight :-)