Melissa and Gary's Wedding

We had an absolute wonderful time at Gary and Melissa's wedding over the weekend!  We were thrilled to be included.  It was a pretty service and fun reception.  I was so happy to get to see Melissa's family!

Melissa's mom and dad are friends from back in the 80s.  Renee was one of my best friends in high school in Hawaii.  I was in Renee and Mike's wedding.  Renee was in ours.  It had been a long time since we had had a chance to catch up.  We made up for lost time this weekend!

Renee and me - May 1988

Senior Year - Ann, Renee, Me, Lika

 

Downtown (Honolulu) with our friend Christy

This was Brennan's first wedding.  We arrived a little early.  He got caught up on his Genesis.

Melissa's bridesmaids.  Second from the right is Melissa's sweet sister Mikayla.

Oh!  I love them!

Heading to the reception

Everything was just beautiful - Melissa's dress, the cake, the decorations.  They thought of everything included a Kids Corner meal for the kids, personalized gift bags for the kids, and a Candy Bar set up.  Thomas and Brennan loved this of course!

Renee and Me

Thomas & Renee

Aw!  Daddy/Daughter Dance

We danced and danced and danced.  Thomas BUSTED A MOVE on the dance floor.  He wanted to stay later with me, but all that macarena'ing/YMCA'ing/electric sliding mixed with the copious amounts of candy from the candy bar and lots of cake sent him back to the hotel a little early with Dad and Brennan. 

The photo booth was a lot of fun.  We got a set to keep and one to put in a scrapbook with a personalized note from Gary and Melissa.

Congratulations Gary & Melissa!

Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering

We went to West Lafayette for Melissa & Gary's wedding this weekend.  I can't tell you what a FUN time we had.  I'll post more on the wedding once I've had time to go through all the pictures and narrow it down to just a few for the blog!

This morning we took the chance to visit the Neil Armstrong building on campus.  Amelia tipped us off that the boys would enjoy seeing the moon rock on display.

The Hall of Engineering is a really pretty building.  Here's Neil out front.

There are moon boot footprints as well.

We learned a lot about Neil when we went to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center last month.  Brennan showing his affection for the first man to walk on the moon.

Inside they had some cool engineering displays.  You know my boys (all 3 of them) never pass up a good engineering display.

The moon rock.  It looks a lot like the piece of Berlin wall that friends gave us that we turned into a magnet for the refrigerator.

Purdue has a beautiful campus!

Anyone for Tennis?

Thomas & Brennan finished two weeks of tennis today.  They enjoyed it.  Thomas has a lot more experience and would really benefit from playing during the school year as well.  Brennan's getting the hang of it and always has fun out there.

101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A People-Watching Place

A People-Watching Place

I did not intend to turn our adventure at Symphony on the Prairie last night into one of our 101 Places to See experiences, but it just turned out that way.  We have not taken the boys to many outdoor concerts and I am not sure they've ever been to something with this many people.  We couldn't get over how many people were there last night.

Brennan was talking to me about how he couldn't believe that many people would come for the same event.  And he thought the people who were in charge must have made a lot of money.  Thomas and I sat together at one point and talked about all the families around us and how everyone had their own activities going on but we were all there for the same reason.

Ginger and I walked around early in the evening just to see everything.  This is a small fraction of the people who ended up coming to the event.  It was packed.

Everyone set up their blankets, chairs, and coolers as we did.

Lots and lots of coolers.

Other things we saw as we talked about "people-watching".  Everyone stood up when the flags came by.  Thomas was impressed by this.

We watched families with grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids, cousins all having a great time.

I watched Thomas as he sang "God Bless America" with his eyes closed and very sweetly.

And here's a man teaching kids to play blackjack.  Oh wait, that's our crew.

We found the Symphony on the Prairie was a great place to People-Watch last night.

From the Book:

#93 - A People-Watching Place

If you were a psychologist or sociologist, you'd call it "conducting behavioral research".  But since you're just an ordinary kid, you can call it people watching:  sitting back and observing what the people around you are doing, what they're wearing, what they're saying.  You can really do it anywhere, but every town has a place that is especially good for people watching.  It might be a park, a certain street, or even the mall.  Pick a good spot, get yourself something to eat or drink, and just watch.  Don't stare of course - that will make you too obvious (and would be rude).  The key to people watching is to blend in with the background so that no one is watching you.  Stay as long as you're interested, then move along - it's that easy.

Happy 4th of July!!

We had SUCH a great time at the Symphony on the Prairie concert last night.  I'd been wanting to go for years, so when our friends invited us for the 4th of July event, we couldn't pass it up!

Trevor, Brennan, and Thomas as we arrived.  Boy, it was HOT but we were glad we got there early - we found a great spot to set up our blankets, food, and chairs.

The Indianapolis Symphony plays at the amphitheater at Conner Prairie (an interactive history park) in the summer.

Here are the Howitzers set up for the William Tell Overture towards the end of the performance.

You can go up 350 feet in the hot air balloon and watch/listen to the concert.  Brennan really, really wanted to do this.

Ginger and me keeping cool.

Cutie patootie.

Aw.

Re-enacters dressed up throughout the concert.  During the salute to the troops, they shook hands with everyone who has served in the military.

Sweet baby.

Trevor and John.

John, Trevor, and Ginger

Finally the sun went down.  There's really something about listening to music outdoors.  It was a really pleasant evening.

Lit up balloon

Beautiful fireworks at the end of the performance.

Happy 4th of July!