The Main Event (and the rest of our Chicago time)

So yeah, I thought that before the summer flies by, maybe I should finish my post about our trip to Chicago and Abby and Neil's wedding!

Picking up where I left off....

The wedding was Saturday June 21.  Abby and I had appointments in the morning to get our hair done at the Twisted Scissors in Bucktown (I think?).  Wow, this place was interesting, to say the least!  The decor was..... a lot of skulls and other deathly things.

Yep, that's a baby mannequin thing gnawing on its own foot.  Now if that doesn't say "Happy Wedding Day!" then I don't kow what does.

Anyway, Abby and I both tried to stay awake while the other got her hair done.  And the gal did a really nice job!  I have the bag full of bobby pins to prove it! :)

Getting started.

Almost done-- adding the veil! :)

The wedding was at 3:30 in the afternoon, and it was just beautiful.  Abby looked beautiful, The church was gorgeous, and not too terribly hot (since there was no AC!), and I think everything went as planned, for the most part!  If you were looking for a ton of pics, sorry to say that I have very few.  I even had to steal a few off of Facebook in order to get one that included the groom.  Oops.  But seriously, the matron-of-honor job plus keeping an eye on the ring-bearer kept me busy!  Adam and I were both able to snap a few pics from before the wedding:

Abby and Mom

Ring bearer, flower girls, and scripture readers.  So cute!!

Mom and her girls

Sadly I have no pics of myself walking down the aisle or of J doing his ring bearer duty.  I made it about half-way down the aisle before the tears started to fall, and then I turned around and saw my boy coming down the aisle.  THAT certainly didn't help!  But thankfully I was able to get it together for the rest of the ceremony.  I DID steal a FB pic of the more important one walking down the aisle!

Dad and Abby

After the ceremony we had time to get a few more pics, and the photographer took some formal family pics in the church as well.

Mr. and Mrs. Okuley!

Our little family :)

Me and the cutest ring bearer EVER

 J is holding paper airplanes in that pic.  Instead of throwing rice, we threw paper airplanes (many of which were made by my own 2 hands).  J was happily part of the airplane clean-up crew!

Bride and groom with the cuties!

The reception was held at La Luce in the West Loop.  I think the only thing that may have not gone as planned was probably the torrential downpour that happened right as people were arriving at the reception!  Plus that meant no outdoor pics of the wedding party-- bummer.  I have exactly 0 pics of the reception. :(  But let's see-- the food (Italian... obviously) was AWESEOME and J loved the cannoli for dessert (he snagged 2).  My matron-of-honor speech went well until I cried..... but that was inevitable!  It was a very fun night, and what was really the best thng about it was seeing Abby and Neil so happy!

J surprisingly lasted until almost 10:00 pm.... but he was pretty much a walking zombie for the last little while.  I was pleased he lasted so long!  Overall it was just such a lovely day!!!!

On Sunday, we were tired.  At least I know I was tired because I was crabby.  But, we hit up the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park in the afternoon.  The kids had more energy than I did, and seemed to have a really good time.  There were tons of hands-on activities and things to do!

Learning about lakes and making dams.

Jeremiah wearing an animal skin.  Gross.

We watched butterflies being released!

Climbing around on a fountain.

That night (thank goodness the pics on my phone are dated-- it's the only way I can remember what we did on each day!) we had pizza special delivered from Piece by Uncle Ben.  Super good pizza!!!  And the kids liked it, too.

Monday was our last full day in Chicago, and it turned out to be kind of a cool, rainy day.  We hit up the Purple Monkey Playroom so the kids could play.  And bonus-- it was walking distance from our apartment!

J always loves a good train table!

Later that day, we headed south to Beverly to my cousin Adam and Jessica's house for a BBQ with our Wiers relatives.  It was so fun to hang out with my uncle and aunt and cousins (and spouses) and all of our kids had a blast playing together!

J loved this water slide!

 Thankfully the weather improved so we could enjoy our time outside!

More than enough vehicles to go around.

J and Evan enjoyed some ice cream!

Jeremiah and Will became fast friends!  Plus, they look alike, don't you think?

It was a really fun evening for everyone!

Then Tuesday was basically packing, cleaning the apartment, and heading out.  Matt and Cheryl did not fly out until about 4 pm that day, though, so we had some time to kill.  Uncle Roger and Aunt Sheryl graciously offered to have us over for some lunch and playtime with Will and Charlie.  The kids did rocket balloons and flew wooden airplanes.... and played in the new basement, too!  I'm pretty sure J would live at "Aunt Roger's house" if we let him!

This hockey game did not go as well as the picture would lead you to believe.

Rocket balloons!

Obviously J loved them!

All too soon it was time for hugs and good-byes and for everyone to head different directions (Matt and Cheryl to CA, Mom and Dad to WI, and us to..... MI.  Yes it was weird not to head west to Iowa!!!!). 

Hugs!

J really misses having his cousins around to play with and get into trouble with!  It was a really fabulous week and we were all sad to see it end! :(