County fair rodeo

Totally in awe. 

He loved the horses, cowboys, cows, trucks and trailers. 

And, of course, he wore his cowboy boots. 

Brad & Michelle's Wedding

These blurry photos capture what it was like to put a 2 1/2 year old into a tuxedo that a) he didn't want to wear and b) was WAY too big. 

The shirt sleeves had to be cuffed, but he was still swimming.  The pants were a little short because of his boots (if he'd worn the tux shoes they would have been the right length).  However, the smallest tux shoe was a toddler 8.  He wears a toddler 6.  The waist of the pants were so big they slid right off his butt in two steps.  So to fix that, they gave us suspenders.  But you guessed it - the suspenders were too long.  It all worked and he looked super handsome, but he ahd a lot of safety pins in his outfit! 

Earlier that morning, all of us gals got our hair done. 

Of course, Michelle looked the best :)

Look at my angels - all lit up by the spotlight. 

Steve, Brad, Connie.

The Perry boys. 

Here comes that other handsome Perry boy! 

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And there he goes! 

Wait, Lucas, come back! 

Phew!  There's Papa!

Hey, he knows them. 

Much better - the best seat in the house.

Beautiful bride.

Brad looks giddy.

Uh-oh.  He wasn't supposed to sneak up there during the ceremony.

Aunt Susan has fruit snacks!  You can see just how we rigged up the pieces on his tuxedo.  We even had to safety pin the tie because it was so long it hung passed the jacket. 

With this ring...

More Perry boys!  Great Pa (Ed Perry), Papa (Steve Perry), Daddy (Brent) and Mr. Lucas.

Hitched!

The wedding party.

A little fun.

A lot of cute.

Uncle Brian and Lucas.

While the wedding party went in a limo, Lucas rode in his car seat with Uncle Mike, Aunt Susan, Aunt Joan and Great Pa.  There must have been some discussion about the toe incident.

A tired Lucas and Great Pa.  By the time they arrived at the reception, Lucas had shed half his outfit.  The rest was about to be shed. 

First dance.

Nama, Lucas and Mommy. 

He lasted much longer than anyone expected, but eventually he did crash.  He was such a good boy the whole weekend and did a wonderful job as ring bearer. 

Brad & Michelle's Wedding Rehearsal

What a fun weekend we had celebrating with Brad and Michelle! Lucas did awesome on the drive to Chicago. He especially loved the big bridge when we crossed over the Mississippi River. “We up high!” was a favorite exclamation. The river is so wide, he got to turn and look both ways several times before it was gone. We saw lots of boats and he loved it.

By supper time, the excitement of a long road trip had worn off for him. We had supper on the go and Lucas was amazed by curly fries. “Boing! Boing!” the fries were jumping all over his car seat. Who knew Arby’s curly fries could be so exciting?

As it got dark out the restlessness started. At one point, Lucas wanted my I-touch to play with. It was on lock mode, so I figured it was safe. I watched him UNlock it and push buttons. He got to the music choices and played a song. He held it up to his ear and grooved in his seat. Then he found that some of the songs come with “movies.” Those were the songs with music videos. When the song was over, he’d hand it back to me, “More movies, please.”

We arrived well past bedtime, but everyone was chipper. This was the first time Brent and I had seen Brad & Michelle’s house. It is beautiful! We unloaded some things there and headed to the hotel to start this fun weekend.

When we got to the church for the rehearsal, we had to wait our turn, as there was another wedding party rehearsing. [There were three weddings on June 26th!] Lucas was running around, entertaining everyone and burning off energy. The next thing I know, he is screaming in pain. Uh-oh. There were some big, heavy wooden doors to the “bride’s room” that he had been playing with. He opened one of the big doors and his sandaled foot couldn’t protect him. The door ripped off part of his big toe. OUCH!!! There was blood, screaming, tears. Brent whisked him away and we tried to comfort him in the church restroom – not a perfect place for comfort. We got him calmed down, give him some Tylenol and a bandaid. Bandaids to wonderful things at this age.

At this point, I was pretty sure Lucas was NOT going to be on his best ring bearer performance. Instead, he just went down the aisle with Papa and Nama.

The best men.

Yes, I’m holding Lucas’ sandal in this photo. It was NOT going back on his foot.

Michelle and her dad, Bob.

Still shoeless...

After we had rehearsed everything, Lucas seemed to be in pretty good spirit, so I asked him if he wanted to practice, too.  He certainly did!  We walked to the end of the aisle and he made his way down... he was so excited! 

I thought he might get a little side-tracked by the baptismal font [isn't it gorgeous?] But he kept walking. 

Depsite the toe injury, Lucas managed to limp down the aisle.  Yes, he limped.  Where does he learn this stuff?!?!  I do believe that it had hurt like crazy, but his limping was too cute! 

Praying before the [yummy!] meal. 

Happy family.

Happy couple.

Lucas and Uncle Brian.

Grandma and Brad.

Uncle Brad, Lucas and Uncle Brian.

Uncle Brad, Aunt Michelle and Lucas.

Michelle's parents, Chis and Bob.

Brad and Michelle gave Lucas a Mr. Potato Head and he loved it.  He has also enjoyed lots of hours of playing "Doctor" with his new doctor kit.