The Explanation of our Surprise!

Sometimes I think our family is Crazy and the things we put our kids through - but then I'm thankful we do it, and it's always worth it.
You see - we have great friends back in PA who were getting married. Our relationship goes quite a few years back with the Bride, and really she is one of the best girls I know! I had the opportunity to invest in her life throughout her last high school years, and then she decided to attend the college right in PA where we were. So our relationship just grew more and more. She loved our kids so much (which is always a way into my heart) and I watched her walk with God grow through ups and downs of college and everything else. And then she started dating an awesome guy who we loved just as much! They got engaged -and we were so happy for them until we realized we would be in CO for the big event and probably wouldn't be able to attend; then we were sad. She wanted to the boys to be in the wedding, and I very very regretfully had to say "no" because in our eyes there was no way we could do a trip like that.

Then someone contacted me shortly before the wedding and, knowing how much it would mean to the bride to have us there, offered to pay for our plan tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the entire family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What?!?!?!! Who does that!!?!?!!?! We were floored, amazed and all together thankful!!!! (how do you say thank you for such a gift as that??!!?) Long story short, we finally got tickets and made arrangements and had it all planned out. We were going to surprise the bride and groom at the rehearsal and the boys would probably still be in the wedding (since she never found a replacement).  I couldn't talk about it so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise.
B/c of the times of tickets and getting off of work, we were only going to be in town a total of 48 hours (which is insane) so we couldn't see anyone who was not associated with the wedding. That made us sad not to be able to see all our friends, but that was life. We were just thankful we could see this wonderful union of this great couple!!!!

Itinerary:
Thursday
2:00pm leave our house, drive one hour to airport, park our car in economy lot
5:20 supposedly take off in airplane. but it was delayed so it was later than that
Friday
12:15 am Arrive in Laguardia Airport, NYC, get picked up by Sandy's cousin and drive 2 and half hours to Scranton PA area. Although we got a little turned around in the city
3:30am finally arrive at Richard's sister's house and crash
7:15AM boys wide awake ready to play with their cousins. (how do they do this, they didn't really sleep at all on the plane, traveled and got in late! and still up, which with the time change was way earlier for them. I dont' get it!!!!)
4:30pm Surprise the Bride and Groom at the rehearsal. Bribe boys with M&M's to walk down the aisle with an adorable sign stating "here comes the Bride". They did great. PHEW!!!!!

This was right after the surprise!!! :)

6:30pm rehearsal dinner. Kids climbing all over the place, on us, asking for cheese, and chocolate and really just managing them and avoiding any major meltdowns. ;)
8:30pm, in bed finally, resting hopefully for the wedding.
Saturday
6:45am - boys wide awake ready to play with the cousins. again! Why don't they sleep in a little bit!!!??!?!

One of their cousins! They look so  much alike!!!!

11:45AM show up for wedding. Bribe boys once again with M&M's to walk down the aisle! they did it and my mother's heart was just bursting with pride for them, and thought they were the cutest thing in the entire world! I'm biased, but they really were cute!

Terrible blurry picture! But still so cute!!!

2:00 pm receptions. meltdown for bridal party pictures. too bad! :( I really wanted them to have good pictures with the boys. but i guess I can only expect so much cooperation from them on such a difficult trip!
4:15pm - finally finished with all wedding stuff. Breathe a deep deep breath of relief that we accomplished what we traveled so far for!
Happy as ever to see this wonderful couple be joined in marriage. The wedding ceremony was so Christ honoring. and it was all just beautiful.
Didn't get any pictures of the couple or the boys with them. But hope to be able to see some from the photographers. (they are friends of ours, so maybe they can let us see some :) )
5:30pm spend some time with friends and cousins for dinner and enjoy catching up with each other

The boys loved playing with eachother, I loved catching up with my
sis-in-law. And it was wonderful to stay with them!!!

Sunday
4:00am leave my sister-in-laws house and drive 2 and half hours to airport

6:20AM - get to Laguardia airport with no problems whatsoever!
8:20am - flight leaves and we're on our way back home
10:35 AM land in Denver. Thankfully boys slept about 2 hours in the flight which literally saved us! I don't think Richard and I had enough energy to deal with them crawling all over us and entertaining them for 4 hours since we were so tired.

11:00 am leaving the airport in our car
12:00 PM made it home, sleep for 2 hours, go to bed before 9:30pm and sleep the entire night! phew! we were tired.

I also didn't mention - A dear dear friend of mine from Boston made the drive out to the wedding. (she knows the bride and her family). We have been dear friends since like Kindergarten. And though I have moved in a million different places, and hardly ever lived close to her, we have made huge efforts to always be in contact and try to see each other. She has taken so many trip to meet up with me wherever I am. I love that we have stayed close. I love her friendship. I love that she is so thoughtful and cares for me. She challenges me, she encourages me, she's honest with me. All the things that real friends are for each other. I love our talks that we have. She is an amazing friend and it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with her on this trip!!!

Now we are back and refreshed and ready to start life here again. When we got back to the car I said to richard "it doesn't even really feel like we left". :) It was a very fast trip! But I would do it all over again in a heart beat to see that wonderful couple!!!