Uncle Brandon's Wedding: Part IV

Mr. and Mrs. Abel headed off to take more pictures, but the rest of us headed to the cocktail hour. Yummy food, yummy drinks and good times ensued. After cocktails it was time for dinner, which was great, b/c Remi and I got to order our own food, and weren't forced to eat that grownup food. Now the dinner is where Remi and I turned up the heat on mama and daddy. We decided to alternate on who was being difficult and in general not allow either to eat. Remi was flinging ketchup all over daddy and I was making many poop runs to the bathroom, but we got through it, barely...

After dinner is when the fun began... Daddy took Remi up to the cabin b/c she was sick, really sick. Like struggling breathing sick, like going to the hospital the next day if she didn't get better sick, but she pulled through and woke up the next morning and didn't have to work as hard to breath, whew... ok, ok, back to the party. We watched a slide show of photos of brandon and annie from their birth to present time and then brandon danced with anne, anne danced w/ her dad and brandon danced with grandma jo, which was all torture by the way... I had brought my dancing shoes and was ready to light it up on the dance floor. FINALLY, FINALLY, the dance floor opened up for everyone and I tore it up. I created moves that no one had seen before, was swarmed by good looking women and in general had the time of my life! The next morning there was a casual brunch and then the happily married couple went on their way to their honeymoon and we played a bit more golf and then rode on a gondola! We were so high I could almost touch the sky! Very cool.

Thank you BJ and Annie for choosing to have your wedding in such an awesome place!

Yeah, that's right... A plate full of licorice

Daddy and Remi

What are YOU looking at?

my sweet cheeks sister

Hangin' out at the brunch the next day. I was tired...

Uncle Brandon with his favorite niece

The view from uncle brandon's townhouse. not bad, eh?

The gondola station

Do you like our matching sweatshirts? Everyone in the wedding party got them

C'mon grandma, go faster!

all loaded up!

A family pic from the top of lutsen mountain

back to golf... right outside our cabin door

A view from the gondola

Uncle Brandon's Wedding: Part III

In a beautiful outdoor wedding, Uncle Brandon married Aunt Annie, with the ocean (lake superior) behind them and surrounded by 100's of people who love and adore them. The weather was perfect, BJ was handsome and Annie was beautiful!

Albeit a bit under the weather, Remi and I walked down the isle, but got a bit scared when we turned the corner and saw all of the people looking at us, so I asked mama to walk with us. Remi took out some of the wedding flowers with her flower girl basket, but all was good. We walked down the aisle and when it was time to sit down, I went up to Brandon and gave him the biggest high five I could (my own little way of saying I love you). We sat down and were immediately plied with new toys and food that we NEVER would be allowed to eat on a normal day. Remi and I both knew this was important to mommy b/c we got little new toys, gummy fruits and even licorice! Mama is not into the sweets or bribery, but let me tell you, the flood gates opened that weekend! Here are a few pictures of the actual ceremony. If you want to check out some AMAZING photo's, click on the following link and you can see some of the pics their phenomenal photographer took. http://www.photogen-inc.com/blog/

Brandon trying to peek over the hill to see his bride

My great uncle Rick married Brandon and Annie, very cool

Annie's dress was gorgeous!

daddy trying to be artistic

exchanging vows

At 2:32pm on June 26th, BJ and Annie were pronounced husband and wife!

Uncle Brandon's Wedding: Part II

Ok, so these pictures don't really have a whole lot to do with the actual wedding, but they are fun and beautiful. These were taken on one of our many adventures with daddy.

Amazing!

Practicing our walk for the main event

C'mon Rem, you can do it!

Like I said, we stayed in a real log cabin. So cool!

Uncle Brandon's Wedding: Part I

It's official! We have another aunt who is legally bound to spoil us. That's right, uncle Brandon tied the knot with Aunt Annie this past weekend. They were married at Lutsen Resort in Northern Minnesota and let me tell you, that place was awesome! We had our very own log cabin, a golf course right out our front door, a view of lake Superior off of our deck, a beach down the hill and we got to hang out with family. Can't really ask for more than that, huh?

Thursday was our travel day and our flight to Duluth went the way all flights for us do; we laughed, we cried, we made a few friends, but mostly got dirty looks. Then it was a 2 hour car trip further north and while we slept, mommy and daddy drove right along Lake Superior and tell us we missed one of the most gorgeous drives we'll ever see. We got to the resort around 5:30, got settled, had dinner and just hung out for a bit.

Friday was rehearsal dinner day, I, of course, woke up early, ready to tackle the day. Mama and I went down to the lodge early to get clubs for me to golf with and just explored a bit. Later that morning, mama went off with all of the women folk to Anne's Cabin, called "The Box," while we went on adventures with daddy around the resort. After naps, we all get ready for the rehearsal and dinner to follow. Then apparently there was a bonfire on the beach with well over 100 people, but Remi and I were pretty wiped out for the day, so we hit the hay early, after all, we had very important jobs to do the next day and wanted to be at the top of our game.

Remi really liked her jelly shoes

Brandon with Phil, his future father in-law

grandma jo, capturing the rehearsal dinner w/ her camera

A view of the path we had to walk down to get to the ceremony

Me and Mr. Bear, we were buddies

Ahh, good times! This is my very first sip of a Shirley Temple. That's right, I had soda and let me tell you, I loved it!

A pic from the bonfire, the pictures really can't do the bonfire justice, as there were over 100 people meeting each other for the first time or catching up after years of not having seeing each other.

Congratulations Daddy

After 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, and 3 years of fellowship, daddy is officially a pediatric cardiologist! Why stop there, right? One more year of sub specialty fellowship and then we are done! Daddy, we are so very proud of you, of how hard you work and the difference you make in people's lives, especially ours!

Fathers Day 2010

We attempted to make daddy's father day weekend a special one. First off, he got to sleep in BOTH days, which took incredible restraint from Remi and me. I mean seriously, daddy is never home when we wake up and then on a weekend when daddy is home, mommy tells us to let him sleep. C'mon lady, are you crazy?! Saturday morning we got up and slowly started our day and then headed to our favorite nursery to purchase flowers for the house. Sure we were a month late into the planting, but we timed it right, as the nursery just marked all their flowers down by 50%. We took advantage of the swagger wagon's ability to fold down the third row and loaded up the back with flowers.

Then on Sunday, the big day, daddy slept in and we brought him breakfast in bed and gave him our gifts. Remi and I each made a book for him and mommy gave him a kickstand for his bike. After the gifts were given, we once again loaded up the car and headed to Gallup Park, where we embarked on an hour long canoe trip up the river. This was Remi's first time in a canoe and she loved it, or most of it, the last 10 minutes she basically screamed, but still, she lasted for an hour. Way longer than I did on my first canoe trip. Then it was off to lunch and nap time.

After nap we headed back to Gallup park b/c the men in the family wanted to fish. And get this... I CAUGHT MY FIRST FISH!!!! Sure, I've been to a trout farm and caught a fish, but that was guaranteed. This was in the river, I casted it out, saw my bobber go under and reeled it in. We were all so excited. I told anyone who happened to be canoeing by and did several, "I caught my first fish" dances. Of course, we didn't actually plan on catching anything, so we took a ziploc from the diaper bag... instant fish holder. I decided to name my fish mosquito and couldn't wait to take him home and cook him up for dinner. Later on in the afternoon, I caught another fish, well sort of... This one was big, real big, and his name was daddy. Yup, that's right, I caught him with my hook right in the back, needless to say, that ended our trip. Then it was home to cook up mosquito for dinner.

Mosquito was small, really small. So small, we probably weren't allowed to keep him. He did produce about 5 bites of fish, which I gobbled right up. I did decide to share one with Remi and she was none too happy about only getting one.

All in all we had a great father day and we hope daddy did too!

The minivan filled with flowers

Remi's first canoe trip

she loved to paddle

it was so pleasant, we were on the look out for turtles, but found none...

Me and mosquito

Remi got kind of bored fishing

Everybody, meet mosquito

cookin' him up

sharing with remi

YUM!