Kentucky Wedding Weekend - #Wheelyoumarryme

Another year, another family wedding to attend in Kentucky! We have been averaging one per year the last several years as all the cousins are getting married. This time, it was Matthew's turn! He married long-time girlfriend, Jackie, and we couldn't be more thrilled. She is beautiful inside and out!

We left for Clarksville on Friday in the Pilot after I took off work and got 2 new front tires and then an alignment. I was told at my oil change on Wednesday that this needed to be taken care of immediately. About 45 minutes into the trip, we heard a slight flapping noise outside Caroline's window that would come and go. I started worrying that something was done incorrectly during all the work we'd had done on the car this week. We made it to Jackson and stopped for dinner and Russ went to figure out the noise...we had a huge chunk of rubber missing from the right rear tire! It's amazing we didn't wreck!

It was clearly not drive-able, so I took the kids inside and ordered dinner while Russ got started on putting on the spare. Wouldn't you know that the handle to the car jack was missing (no idea how because I don't think it's ever been used!), so Russ couldn't change the tire. I remembered that a Sam's Club was 1 exit earlier, so I quickly called them to see if their tire shop was still open. It was, so we loaded up and slowly drove the 1.5 miles on the back roads over there. We made it a few hundred feet away and we just knew we couldn't drive on it any further. I was afraid there would be worse permanent wheel well damage. So, we called Liberty Mutual for our free tow to Sam's, which we could literally see from where we were stopped.

A view of the tire just before the tow. Tire completely off the rim and
you can see the huge chunk taken out at the top of the tire. Crazytown!

Sam's stayed open 1.5 hours later than normal and put on 2 new rear tires for us. Hooray! If you are keeping track, that is 4 new, unplanned for tires at 2 different Sam's Clubs in 1 day. Fun times. The universe clearly wants us to get rid of the Pilot, but that is not in the cards for us right now, so we keep fixing her up and move on. Luckily, Aunt Sandra came to pick up the kids and I and we went back to her house to play while Russ waited for the tow truck and the tires to be installed. So at least the kids got to stretch their legs and have a little fun.

Caroline spilled water all down her shirt and wanted it off, so
she ran around Aunt Sandra's house like this for a while. Ha!

We got back on the road around 8:30p with over 2 hours to go until Clarksville. Traveling with our kids is always so tough, but we made it and we all crashed for the night. Saturday morning, we took our time getting up and getting ready and were on the road around 10:30a for the 3 hour drive to Louisville. Since we got in so late the night before, the kids took baths on Saturday morning. I sponge-rolled Caroline's hair for the first time and she LOVED the attention. I should have used the small ones though for tighter curls because the curl fell out quickly. Her hair is stick straight, thin and fine...just like her Mama's was at her age! And you see my crazy thick and curly hair now, so maybe there is hope! :)

We opted not to stay in the wedding hotel and stayed at an Embassy nearby for free on hotel points. It was a suite so I was excited that we had our our room and the kids had their space and a pull-out couch. To say they LOVED the hotel is a massive understatement. It had a big open area downstairs where the restaurant was with water features and sand...that our kids loved playing in! UGH! And up in the room, they loved climbing on all the furniture and throwing the pillows in the floor, of course.

I wet her hair and tried to re-curl them...it didn't work very well.
I think she needs to sleep in them maybe for it to be more effective??

We got unpacked, settled in and did a little relaxing before we got ready to head out for the wedding. Matthew and Jackie got married at St. Louis Betrand Catholic Church in downtown Louisville. It was a big and gorgeous old church! It was quite the drive from our hotel (which was close to the reception) and Caroline fell asleep on the way there. We sat in the car for a bit and let her sleep since we were early and she hadn't napped all day. Tyler entertained us with his "jokes".

All dressed and ready for the wedding...Caroline did not want to take a picture!

And she did not want to hold Tyler's hand either. Ha! #twoyearoldproblems

Tyler being silly in the car while Caroline slept.

This stinker didn't sleep any on the car ride from Clarksville, so
of course she falls asleep in the car on the way to the wedding!

Beautiful St. Louis Betrand Catholic Church

The wedding itself was beautiful and was 25 minutes in total, tops! And I was elated because keeping our kids quiet any longer was proving to be quite a challenge! But they actually did great and much better than I expected. Jackie was stunning in her dress and Caroline LOVED seeing all the girls in their pretty dresses walking down the aisle at the end.

I grabbed this pic from Jackie's Facebook page...the bridal
party was stunning in their purple dresses and suits.

I love this family so much! :)

We headed back towards the hotel for the reception which was held at Louisville's satellite campus. I was shocked that any Wheeler would hold an event on UofL property since their hate runs pretty deep, but Jackie and her family are Louisville grads/fans, so I guess that explains it! Memphis fans hate Louisville, too, so we were all in agreement there. Everyone was pretty hungry, so we were first in line when the buffet opened up. I kept bribing Tyler with cake in exchange for good behavior and he almost put his hand in their cake when he first saw it!!

Trying to get pictures of this duo is next to impossible!

We made several attempts here...maybe we can photoshop
everyone's best smile together for the perfect shot! :)

Love this pic of Mark and Carol!

Caroline was on the dance floor jumping around pretty much as soon as she was done eating. We had to drag her off when it was time for the bride/groom, father/daughter, mother/son dancing. But she, Tyler and cousin, John Franklin, sat and watched. It was so cute! She tore up the dance floor for HOURS afterwards. She was a sweaty mess when we left!

Jackie and Matthew sharing their first dance.

They had quite the little audience. :)

Mother-of-the-Groom, Margaret, was stunning, too! 

A little Daddy-Daughter dancing! So sweet!

Caroline and John Franklin stole the show together on the dance floor! 

Cousin Jeff getting in on the kid-dancing action!

Notice Caroline's lack of shoes...she was dancing so much that they were rubbing blisters!

My handsome guy!

Tyler got out on the dance floor, too, once they broke out the glow sticks!

They ended the night playing hide-and-seek under the buffet tables! Crazy, tired kids!

I thought for sure she and Tyler would fall asleep in the car, but they were still going strong at the hotel. Caroline kept bugging Tyler and he got really upset because he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. After about 15 minutes, she calmed down. Tyler ended up sleeping on his cot and Caroline was on the couch without the pillows.

The next morning, we got up, dressed, ate our free hotel breakfast, packed up and made the 6 long hour trip home to Memphis. Happy to say, we had ZERO car troubles on the way back! Yippee! Such a fun weekend celebrating Matthew and Jackie. Big congrats to the newlyweds!