Tulsa and Val's wedding

For the weekend of June 9th, we went back to Tulsa for Valerie and Jeremy's wedding.  Our time there flew by as our schedule was jam packed from the minute we arrived until we left the following Tuesday.  As soon as we arrived on Friday, Shannon was whisked off to get her nails done with the lovely bride, while I went to pick up my tux since I was an usher.  After that, there wasn't much time before we had to get ready for the rehearsal.

The bridal party

After the rehearsal, we went to a lovely dinner at the Olive Garden where Grant began to lay the foundation of him being the life of the party for the whole weekend by telling everyone that the bread sticks were going into his tummy and all the way down to his toes.  This is also where the speeches were given and in my humble opinion, Shannon gave a fantastic speech which she ended with an Irish Wedding Blessing:

May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.

May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.

May the saddest day of your future

Be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

The following day did not slow down as Shannon and Valerie ran off to get their hair done and more getting ready until we had to head to the church for pictures and the big event.  Since Shannon and I were both in the wedding, someone watched the boys for us and we didn't have the opportunity to take any pictures.  I did however get this one of Grant in his suit (thanks Jacob for the hand me downs).

Deep in thought

The ceremony was wonderful... from what I saw.  I had to briefly leave twice to try to get Grant to go to the bathroom.  And thankfully no one heard him screaming from the bathroom that he didn't want to sit on that potty. (!)  A fantastic dessert reception followed where Grant pretty much ran around and gave high-fives to people on the dance floor.  Everyone loved it, including him.

The happy couple

A lovely trio

Papa and Reid still going strong

Too many high-fives later

The following day was the closest we came to slowing down.  The newlyweds and a few other people headed over to Jim and Patty's house in the afternoon to open presents and try to put a dent in the leftover desserts.  Then on Monday we decided to take a trip to the Tulsa Zoo.  I really liked that it felt less crowded than the Denver Zoo, both for us and the animals.  Some of the animals seemed like they had so much room to roam around in. Probably the highlight for everyone was getting to watch the Sea Lion show at the zoo's new Sea Lion House.  The only bad thing was that the day was so humid and muggy.  Colorado's dry air has ruined us because every time we go back I always say that at least one of the days is the 'most humid day I've ever felt in my life'.

Taking a break with Teddy Grahams (from his shirt pocket) while watching the Giraffes

Grant comparing his paws to a Tiger's

Resting in some shade

Very cool Sea Lion show

Then later that afternoon, we met up with Shannon's high school friends, including Sara, Megan and Jen, with their kids at a splash park and ate some delicious pizza while the kids ran around and had a good ol' time.  It was funny to watch Grant try to do everything that the older boys were doing, especially when he went down the slide after getting wet which resulted in him getting shot off the end.  He didn't think it was funny at the time, but that didn't stop him from doing it again later.

Grant watching Christian on top and

Maya showing Grant how its done

Overall, our boys did very well traveling and we got many compliments on the plane.  I think that we've even come up with a new system at the airport that decreased our frustration of lugging around 2 car seats, 3 bags, and 2 kids from the parking lot to the airline counter.  It was a fantastic wedding and such a great trip even though it was shorter than we would like.  Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Hancock!