The Texas Trip (Part 2)

Dallas
March 29-April 1

The morning after the wedding we headed straight for the airport to take a quick flight to Dallas to visit the Patnode family (Todd, Molly, Brendan, and Abaigeal).

It had been about 6 months since the last time we got to see them, and Lily Catherine had so much fun with her older cousins. The week was full with lacrosse games, baseball games, and taking the big kids to school. Lily Catherine even learned to say "MOO" when she saw the cows on the ranches going to and from school.

Lily Catherine and Abaigeal had SO much fun together. We still here her ask for "Abba" or "Abby" almost every day.

On Wednesday, after the kids went to school, we headed towards downtown Dallas to go and visit SMU and McCartneys (the store where I worked during college). Lily Catherine got an SMU pom pom, a hoodie sweatshirt, and a Peruna stuffed animal (Peruna is the SMU mascot). She also rean around around campus going up and down the steps of Dallas Hall with Randy about 20 times and trying to get as close as we would let her get to the fountain.

After a fun trip around campus, we jumped back into the car to go to the airport and head home. Lily Catherine actually walked all the way onto the plane all by herself for the very first time. When we found our seats she looked out the window and kept saying "Bye Bye" to Texas.

We're looking forward to another chance to get back to Dallas soon (but probably not before baby number 2 makes her debut), so that we will have more time to also catch-up with all of our Texas friends.

The Texas Trip (Part 1)

Houston
March 27-29

On March 27th Lily Catherine and I flew to Houston to attend Uncle Erik and Michelle's wedding. Randy had already left the day before, so that he could be there in time for the Bachelor party/Golf outing festivities. Even though we lived in Texas for 5 years. We had never been to Houston before.

We had a great time on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner. Lily Catherine especially liked playing with the balloons with Auntie Courtney.

On Saturday morning we were excited to get to have brunch with Jeff and Robyn Kozan, some friends from Dallas who we haven't seen in awhile. It was great to get to catch-up. Then it was time to go and get ready for the wedding.

As you can see, both Randy and Lily Catherine were in the wedding. Lily Catherine was the flower girl. She was SO excited to go down the aisle that I had a hard time making her wait her turn until all of the bridesmaids had gone down. The plan was for her to meet Randy at the end of the aisle, and then he would walk her back to me, so that I could hold her during the ceremony. I told her she was supposed to go straight to daddy. She ran about 3/4 of the way down the aisle and then decided it would be more fun to have daddy ch6ase her (a game she plays at home all the time). She spun around and ran straight back to me with Randy following her. I scooped her up and we walked to our reserved place in the pew and Randy went back to his spot with the groomsmen.

The problem was that I had told Lily Catherine that she was going to go to daddy, so she spent the next few minutes screaming out "DADDY! DADDY!" Lily Catherine and I ended up in the courtyard outside the sanctuary for most of the ceremony.

At the reception, we changed Lily Catherine into a different "party dress." We mingled outside for a bit before sitting down for a yummy dinner. Thankfully Auntie Sarah took Lily Catherine outside to throw leaves in the pond so that Randy and I would have a chance to eat. Lily Catherine hung in there at the reception for awhile, even leading Randy out onto the dance floor to dance, but when it was time to sit down to watch the newlyweds cut the cake she passed out in my arms and then slept on the table for about an hour until it was time to go.