Beers Family

My cousin Kevin and his new wife Colleen had a beautiful wedding this weekend. Abby totally loved dressing up for the whole thing and dancing at the reception. She referred to dancing with Kevin and Colleen as "I danced with the Bride and the Prince." Kevin is in the Navy and has now shipped out for two weeks at sea. Not much of a honeymoon week, but they have one planned for later when he has some time off.

All of us dressed up at the reception. Look, no one is crying!

Kevin, Colleen, Aunt Kathy and Uncle David.

Kevin, Colleen and Aunt Kathy with Kevin's nephews Brenden, who was the best man, and Jacob.

Daddy and Libby.

Jacob the cutie pie.

Abby and Gramps.

Libby and Aunt Rhonda.

Mr. and Mrs. Chambers.

The cake.

Cutting the cake.

Abby dancing with "the Bride and the Prince".

Carrie dancing with her boys. After the wedding, Brenden and Jacob came over and stayed the night at our house, because Carrie had another wedding to go to. What are the chances?! Abby and the boys had a great time...so did Bill. There was a nerf gun war at our house that lasted several hours.

I do!

The kiss!

Yay, Enchanted Forest! Anyone who drives the stretch of I-5 south of Salem knows about Enchanted Forest. It sits up on a hill on the East side of the freeway, taunting every parent of a small child who drives by, trying to ignore the chorus of "Mommy and Daddy, can we stop there?" Apparently, Bill's parents never gave in to the begging and pleading. Because of that, I had to introduce him to Enchanted Forest years later, but that's another story. My parents and My Aunt Kathy and Uncle David, on the other hand, did indulge me in a trip to Enchanted Forest. Mom still tells the story of a trip in the summer of 1978, when a three year-old me threw a screaming hissy fit because she, very pregnant with my sister Rhonda, would not crawl through the rabbit hole with me. More about the rabbit hole later... At least today, I had great company for my crazy adventure...my friends Heather Webb (along with her girls Emma & Carly), Robyn Giacchi Carner (along with her daughter Catie), Jen Gonzales (along with her daughters Breanna & Elisa), and Jen's sister Bernadette Milstead (along with her boys, Jacob & Josh) all came along. Abe Lincoln took this picture of all of us. More about Abe later...

Abby & Libby along with Emma & Carly upon our arrival.

Abby making crazy faces. When Heather and the girls arrived at our house this morning, we couldn't believe that Abby and Emma had on the same shirt, but in different colors. Both of them had just gotten the shirts from their grandmas who live in North Bend. What are the chances?!

Emma and Abby peering down the rabbit hole.

Abby and Emma refused to go in the rabbit hole until I agreed to go, too. I can totally understand why my pregnant mother refused to climb through it 30+ years ago. It's not exactly roomy.

Carly the cutie pie. In the years since I had visited Enchanted Forest, I had forgotten that the whole thing is built on a hillside and that most of the trails you walk along go straight up. Pushing Libby and Carly around in their strollers all day was like doing one of those baby bootcamps. I'm sure I'm going to feel that tomorrow!

Emma and Abby in the witches mouth. They both claimed to be afraid to go in until I did it.

More funny faces from Abby.

Emma and Abby on the "Little old lady who lived in the shoe" slide.

Heather's turn on the slide. Mommys need to have some fun, too.

Libby the cookie face!

Emma and Abby in civil war get ups with Abe Lincoln. In an attempt to explain who Abe Lincoln was to the little ones, I commented that he was on the penny. "Abe" replied, "I'm on the 5 dollar bill, too. I look better on the penny, though. Every time they come out with a new five dollar bill, the picture of me gets worse."

Brea, Elisa, and Josh with Abe.

Abby coming down the slide in the tree house.

Josh coming down the slide.

Abby peering into Tom Sawyer's hide out.

Robyn and Brea peering out of the hide out.

Brea, Jake, and Elisa peering out of the hide out.

Jake, Elisa, and Emma watching the fountain show where we had lunch.

Carly being very serious. She and Libby were both so good all day. However, I think Libby took two 10 minute cat naps in the entire 7 hours we were there.