Still behind; this is from events on May 17, 2008

Just to add to the excitement of the big day, Jesse was ALSO graduating from college (University of New Mexico) the morning of his wedding.

We figured that Katy wouldn't do well at the graduation ceremony so we went to the zoo instead (sorry, Jesse!) but I'm just as proud of him either way.



He looks relieved yet still stressed at his post-graduation lunch. I can't imagine why!

Late breaking news!

We're moving! We've spent the past week madly searching for a new place closer to the military base. Our current house is functional but small. It's also a long drive in to base every day (sometimes two or three times per day). We wanted something closer.

So, we started with a very short list of villages that would be acceptable and went from there. We found a nice, large house on the back side of a village right by base. (For our safety and anonymity on the internet I won't put the village name here). We now have a fourth bedroom so that we'll have a guest bedroom when people come to visit. I'm excited and nervous about the amount of work that we've undertaken to occur within the next month.

So, as hard as I've worked to catch up on blog posts, I'll now be falling behind again as I spend every spare second packing and sorting.

Anyone local want to help us out the weekend of July 21 or July 28 or any other time? I'll be running small loads during the week starting on the 20th and would love ANY help that anyone wants to offer....

Cross your fingers that everything goes smoothly!

Still behind; this is from events on May 17, 2008

Now comes the impossible task. We needed to entertain Katy for the day, on a gorgeous, sunshiney day, without OVERexhausting her and without giving her a sunburn. A tall order. We met Ryan's Mom for breakfast then headed to the Albuquerque Zoo to see what we could manage.

Wolves!!!



The polar bears exhibit is Ryan's favorite of all time. He's been talking about bringing Katy here for forever. Since before she was born, really (in the "When we have kids, we have to bring them here" sort of way). Katy was amused, but maybe not as excited as Ryan.

She did love checking out the underground caves and giggled hysterically when the bear got close to the glass.





She got to touch a polar bear pelt and tried to steal the skull to take home with her.



She was much more interested in dancing on the noisy grate than looking at the bear above her head.



A quick chance for a photo op with Mamoo.







Then on to some other exhibits. It's hard to see, but the mountain lion is RIGHT on the other side of the glass.



A quick break to play in the grassy shade.



Then Katy decided to join this other family. Since they had 18 month old triplets, they declined her offer to join their clan. But, she had no problem integrating herself right in.



Chasing birds is always fun.



And finally, something we've never been able to do before: CAMEL RIDING.

I made a flip comment about the fact that for once in my life I was light enough to actually be the one going along with Katy, so Ryan sent me instead. What fun; I get to add "camel rider" to my resume.











The train was a big hit; unfortunately, we ran out of time and weren't able to ride it ourselves.



This is what took up the rest of our alloted zoo time; water fun! I guess we've lived in Europe too long. We had absolutely no problem stripping Katy down completely naked (except her diaper) to let her run around. Katy got in once and figured out that she would get sprayed.



Then she made Ryan come with her; she wasn't getting wet alone!



Once they got across he darted back to me to get her to run across on her own.



This is what happened next. She's no fool. She ran precisely along the outside edge of the part that gets wet in order to get back to Ryan. She's a smart one, this one.



So, from then on one of us went with her.



Ryan valiantly tried to dunk her under the streams of water as they shot up.



When Ryan got tired and soaked, she went straight to Mamoo for her next victim.









Then it was my turn to join the fun.



And yes, we all did get wet here.



We could have stayed and played in the water all day. Unfortunately, we needed to get Katy down for a nap so that she'd be refreshed for the wedding itself. That, and I was obligated to show up early and be part of some family photos. Our only task was to remove the "Blues Clues" temporary tattoos that we'd put on her arms several days earlier. Who knew that those things don't always come off in a few days. It took some scrubbing, but we managed to clean Katy up so she'd be fresh as a daisy in the wedding photos.

Still behind; this is from events on May 16, 2008

Rehearsal and the Rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal was chaos, as I think all wedding rehearsals typically are. The problem with this one had something to do with the fact that the event coordinator for the Country Club took one look at Brei's parents as they drove up for the rehearsal and said "I have to go to the bank" AND NEVER CAME BACK. So, no one had any idea even where the ceremony was going to be performed on the grounds. This was not the correct spot; so strike this attempt at rehearsing.



Luckily, Katy and Tyler could have cared less (Tyler was the ring bearer) and had a grand time running around and playing while the adults attempted to sort out the confusion.



Me? I spent an hour carrying around a dress trying to figure out who to hand it to (when they assigned dresses to the girls they assumed that Katy, being the oldest, would be the biggest; that didn't turn out to be true and we had to do a quick swap when the matching dress showed up). But, notice that I'm wearing the dress that I wore when Ryan and I got married. Pretty exciting stuff!



Here we are in closer to the right place. Katy is up doing her flower girl duty (as best she can) and jumping around the bridesmaids. The person directing in the middle is the photographer. Since she had been to a wedding here before she was the only one among us who had any clue what might be going on (and she guessed and directed well).



Then on to the rehearsal dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant.



It was totally unexpected but incredibly sweet. Katy got a "bridal party" gift.



Want to know what it is? So did we. The box had handles so it was MUCH more fun than anything else that existed. Who cared what was inside.



They had a tremendous Italian singer who came and serenaded Jesse and Brei in honor of their special day.



Then we finally convinced Katy that maybe she should open the box. I'm not sure who's more delighted: Jesse and Brei or Katy.



A ballerina Build-a-Bear built especially for Katy. She LOVES it and carries it around everywhere (and at the wedding, which was the point.)



Unfortunately, it had been a long day by that point and we scooted out of dinner before everyone else to put Katy to bed. We were quickly able to meet up with Ryan's Mom, who had just flown in to come to the wedding as well, so she got a quick good-night kiss from Katy and we got to visit for a little bit before she went back to her hotel to crash for the night.

Still behind; this is from events on May 16, 2008

So, what do you do when you have almost all day to kill, have to get a nap in somewhere at the most inconvenient time, and need to have a relatively clean, presentable and happy toddler at a wedding rehearsal at 5pm? Why, you head to the Santa Fe Children's Museum and play with face paint, that's what!

We really didn't care, Katy was happy. We figured that she'd wash off in time (she did; a quick dunk in the bathtub took care of everything). I can't believe that she ignored the face paints the previous two times we'd been to the museum. I knew that she'd love them.



On her legs. On my face. It didn't matter where the paints went; they were magical.





On Ryan's legs...



On Ryan's face...



And as toenail polish. She finally got her toenails painted.



She wanted glasses, so Ryan obliged.



You'd have been hard pressed to find a happier child that day.





Once you add the pipe-cleaner glasses in; she was in heaven.



We had a great visit to the museum and headed off to drive the rest of the way to Albuquerque. The plan was for Katy to sleep in the car on the way but she somehow didn't get that memo. We ended up letting her take a quick but late nap at the hotel and woke her up a few minutes before the rehearsal began.