We spent Thursday through Saturday in Portland for Brian's wedding.
Thursday night, the boys went out for the Bachelor Party, so Parker & I got to visit with my old College Roommate, Nicole. She'd double-booked her evening, so Parker & I got to crash a party. Nicole is a Speech Pathologist working in the schools, so everyone there (but me) was a teacher/advisor/something similar. It was great to see Nicole, and Parker was the hit of the party.
Friday morning we had breakfast with all the Kruger & Reimer kids.
More than anything else, I was nervous about this trip because of Parker's sleeping habits. Up until a few weeks ago, Parker needed to be swaddled, in the dark, in his crib, alone in silence, in-order to fall asleep. So, I was nervous to see how he'd do sharing a room with us.
Turns out, he did great, although he did have his own room...
...kind of.
The closet was perfect.
Friday, we made plans to meet the Needs at the Zoo/Children's Museum. Unfortunately, the parking-lot-to-visiting-cars ratio was totally off, so the Zoo and Museum were out of the question. We ended up driving around in the park and completely accidentally came across a fantastic playground.
Parker got his first try on the slide.
And the bouncy horse thingy.
We also found some hiking trails & wandered around for an hour or so. It's a beautiful park, but I'm not at all certain we could find it again if we ever tried. (Thanks to Margaret for the Ergo, it got a lot of use this week)
Parker's helping Keith write his Best Man's Speech (which Keith totally nailed, BTW)
Friday night, we had the rehearsal dinner at Brian's house.
Fortunately, Keith's Mom had been praying for good weather, and it was a beautiful evening.
Parker loved Brian's (new) hardwood floors, he scooted across them all evening.
He also helped Daddy & Uncle Dwayne with the grilling.
I have several photos like this from the trip, I was just so astonished that he did such a fantastic job of sleeping the whole week.
Now, the wedding...
Actually, I don't have any photos of the wedding, per se. As a general rule, I don't take pictures at weddings. That's why they hire a professional, and I don't really want to get in the way. So, for the entire day (and the only reason we went down there), I just have one terrible picture of Keith & Parker and this one of Dwayne:
Fortunately, Denise actually took pictures of the Bride & Groom so you can know what they looked like.
And, let's be honest, I really only care about taking pictures of Parker, everyone else is secondary. I put Parker down for a nap at noon, and he slept until the wedding was over at 2:30, so I didn't have much to photograph.
It really was a beautiful wedding, Sandi was gorgeous, and Brian was beside-himself-happy. We are super excited to welcome Sandi into the family. And I think everyone (especially Brian & Sandi) is glad the event is over and they can just be married now.
