Mississippi Trip: Part 2

If you missed Part 1, click on that link!  I guess I should preface this trip a little more.  We traveled to Columbus, MS this past weekend to celebrate the wedding of our dear friends Steve and Mandi McNamara.  Brian and Steve were in the same freshmen squadron at the Air Force Academy. I met Steve on my first trip out to Colorado to visit Brian in the fall of 2004 and we became friends after that!  I visited Brian numerous times at the Academy and although Brian wasn't still in the same squadron as Steve we still saw him frequently.  Steve is just a great guy and we all always have a blast together! Steve was in our wedding and in July of '08 after graduation from the Academy we all moved to Columbus, MS together. Steve lived near us so we would hang out quite a bit. While we were there Steve met Mandi who is from Columbus. She's such a sweet, welcoming, wonderful person and we had so much fun hanging out with them. Brian and I left in January of 2010 to come to Omaha and Steve stayed in Columbus as a FAIP (first assignment instructor pilot).  So when we got invited to their wedding and Brian got asked to be a groomsman we were really excited for the chance to see them  and to see our old stomping grounds again.  

Ok now to continue on with our trip....

After our trip to the coffee shop in the morning we had some lunch, I dropped Brian off at the country club to take pictures and get ready, and Mary (Dom's wife) and I went downtown to get pedicures.  I have clearly forgotten how things run in the South so our pedicures took a little longer than expected (read: 2.5 hours!) so we rushed home, got ready, and drove to West Point for the wedding ceremony.

It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony!

Brian walking in with Misty, a bridesmaid

Brian all lined up

Beautiful!

Saying their vows

Exchanging rings

First kiss!

Coolest groom's cake ever!

Cutting the cake

Their first dance

They surprised us with a choreographed dance...so cute!

Brian, Dom, Mary, and myself at the wedding

Brian and the groom

Brian had a little too much fun with the photo booth!

Us at the after party

Some of the East Coast people and Brian

We had so much fun celebrating their wedding...too much fun once again. We didn't get back to our TLF until about 3:30 in the morning, got to bed at about 4 am, and were up at at 'em at 8:30. 

Saint Nana with her grandbabies.  We got the TLF packed up and got ready to hit the road once again.

Brady had to make sure I was in the picture too, thanks bud.

Layla wanted to take as many MS rocks back with her as possible.

We drove to the same park in Olive Branch, played for a little bit, drove to Memphis, dropped Nana off at the airport, and then headed to St. Louis for the night.  There are 2 routes to get from Omaha to MS, one going through Springfield, MO and one going through St. Louis. They're the same time amount but the St. Louis one is a little big further mile-wise.  We thought it'd be fun to go do some sight-seeing in St. Louis but didn't know if we could make it that far. We did make it (barely) and drove downtown by the arch. We tried to find a hotel in that area but that wasn't too easy considering we have 2 loud kids and a dog with us.  We sat on the road near the arch both searching on our phones for a pet friendly (and not too crazy expensive) hotel.  There were tons of scary people walking and driving by our car (mind you it was 9:00 at night), Layla was screaming her head off, we all were exhausted and just done with traveling.  We finally found a hotel 12 miles away so we booked it and settled in to our hotel.  The kids again couldn't settle down and we didn't get to bed until after midnight. 

We woke up at 8 am and everyone was in a pretty horrible mood.  We decided that we'd all had enough of traveling so instead of sightseeing we were ready to go home! We got in the car, the kids napped a little (I swear are my kids the only ones who only sleep in the car for 30 minutes or less?!), and we made our way to Kansas City.

We all needed a break from the car so we stopped by the Royals and Chiefs stadiums which were right off the highway. This is the Royals stadium

And the Chiefs Stadium

Everyone had a good time stretching their legs

And walking on different surfaces....

until it wasn't fun anymore.  We made it home and man oh man it's good to be home!

So to summarize this trip:

1. Nana is a SAINT!  The kids were not in the best moods the whole trip and not only did she put up with them, she entertained them, bathed them, and kept them happy.  Not only did she take care of the kids, she cooked, cleaned, and ironed our outfits.  I can't thank her enough. No way could we have done this trip without her!

2. Next time, leave the kids (and the dog!) at home.  They're still so young and 15+ hours in the car both ways was hard on them. They did a lot better in the car than we thought they would but I think everyone would have been happier if we would have traveled without them.  We thought it'd be fun for them to see where we once lived but we were so busy with wedding stuff that we didn't get to do a whole lot with them.

3. It was great seeing old friends, making new friends, and spending time with their families.  They seriously were the best and we had such a great time!

We're still trying to get back on sleeping schedules and get back in the swing of things. We have two more road trips planned for September (luckily these are much shorter ones) so I think we know now what to do and what not to do! Now it's time to go outside and enjoy the 80 degree weather with no humidity! :)