Round Barn Festival Twilight Parade and Cookout

If you know me, you know that I love doing stuff with family. We headed down to Rochester tonight, where my dad lives, to partake in the Round Barn Festival twilight parade. This was Hadley's first parade, so it was pretty exciting to get to watch her. She was frightened by the loud sirens and it took her a while to pick up on the fact that you were supposed to grab the candy from the street. I think she tried every kind of candy that we got, and she polished off cousin Gabe's green snow cone in no time. After the parade, we stopped by dad's house and then headed over to my Great (Hadley's great great - which I think is pretty cool!) Aunt June's house for a cookout. It was a super fun evening - just the kind that I love!

The kids, plus everyone else, patiently awaiting the start of the twilight parade.

Apparently the Samaritan helicopter fly over signifies the start of the parade. 

My Great Aunt June and Karen anxiously waiting!

I love the picture above of Julianna and Gabe looking down the road at the start of the parade.

Hadley didn't want to stand in the road.  She chose to sit in her stroller to wait.

Her faces crack me up!  You can see her reaction to the start of the parade, and the loud noise that accompanies.

In the picture above, she was a little scared of the loud fire truck and police car sirens.  Poor girl!

The friendly fire dog above cheered her up though!

Hadley wouldn't go into the road to pick up the candy.  Good girl!  In the picture above, Grandpa convinced her that it was okay.

Hadley loved the dog in the picture above, and I did too!  If we were to get a dog, the St. Bernard would get my vote.

They were handing out snow cones, but Hadley didn't get one.  Cousin Gabe was super sweet and gave his to Hadley.  In the picture below, you can see that she was nice enough to share it with Juli.

The Biomet car! 

Getting brave, and picking up a piece of candy on her own!

Like I said earlier...she tried every candy in the candy bag!

Karen Sumpter, on the blue sign above, is the wife of my late second cousin Judd, Great Aunt June's son.

Awe, how sweet!  Me and my baby girl.  Thanks for these awesome pictures, Lex!

My dad recently bought this Midget.  He's wanted a convertible for years, so he decided to buy one.  It's super cool, and tiny!  I don't think Austin would be able to fit inside. 

The kids had a great time playing in Grandpa's yard.  As you can see, Hadley's shorts were a little big for her, and she got wet from the pool.  I was cracking up at the picture below of her trying to pull her pants up.  I ended up going to Walmart and buying her a cheap little outfit so that she could get out of the wet clothes and play some more without having to fight with her pants!

When we got done hanging out at Dad's house, we headed over to my Great Aunt June's for a cookout.  Fred, my second cousin, met us there.  We had some tasty food and enjoyed each other's company.  We were having such a great time, that we didn't leave until around 11:00 p.m.  Ugh!  I have to work tomorrow.

An evening of dinner and boating...

We took the boat out for the second time this year.  We had it out a few weeks ago, but it was still a little chilly.  Tonight it was in the mid 90's, and the water temperature was in the low 80's!  When Austin got home, we grilled brats and packed up a picnic dinner with pasta salad, chips and drinks.  We went out to Irish lake and stopped the boat in the middle.  We ate dinner on the boat, which was tasty, and then we all got in the lake to swim.  Austin and I took turns getting in because we didn't want to leave the boat un-manned.  Hadley had a blast swimming!  She even tried to push me in (unprovoked) because I was taking too long.  She probably jumped off the boat 50 times, and was very angry when we had to go home because it was getting so late.  We definitely have ourselves a water bug, which is good, considering we live on the lake!   

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Moser!

Austin and I left for Indy yesterday.  We came down to attend the wedding of our friends David Moser and Jillian Elliott.  They were married this evening at the Indiana State House with a reception following at the Skyline Club on the 36th floor of the One America building.  It was an awesome wedding, and we stayed just two blocks away at the Hilton. 

Austin and I have been looking forward to this weekend for a few months.  We ate at the Melting Pot last night, I had a spa day today that consisted of a 1 hour massage, manicure, pedicure, hair design and makeup application and then we had dinner reservations for St. Elmo's Steakhouse.  We were going to eat an early dinner, because the reception was serving heavy hor'devours.  However, Austin hasn't felt well since last night, so we cancelled our reservations for dinner and ate appetizers at P.F. Chang's instead.  It was good that we changed things up, because the hor'devours were definitely heavy, just like a dinner. 

The view from our hotel room. The tall building is where the reception took place on the top floor.

Heading out to the wedding, which was held at the Indiana State Building, just across the street from the hotel!

Uncle Zeb was a groomsman in the wedding.  He took a little peak with the groom, from the second floor, to check out the wedding crowd just prior to the ceremony. 

 The groomsmen...

 The bridesmaids with the soon to be wed couple...

You may kiss the bride...

...and I now present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Moser!

Immediately following the wedding ceremony, we walked two blocks to the reception, which was held at the Skyline Club on the 36th (top) floor of the One America Building. It was an awesome view!

There was a short cocktail hour while the wedding party took more pictures...

Shortly before the wedding party arrived, we were moved into a large reception area for the remainder of the party.  It had glass windows all to the side, overlooking the city. 

 The newly married couple.  Check out the view behind them!

The traditional Delta Sig serenade, where the fraternity brothers sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" to the bride.  Oh how I remember my serenade!  How sweet it is and how special they make you feel...

The same view of the city from earlier, but at night.  It's absolutely breathtaking!

A picture of our dinner table with our friends.  I took this picture, and I think the lighting turned out pretty awesome.  One of my favorites!

This is Zeb's million dollar shot.  A little blurry, but still pretty cool!

I guess I'm not worth a million dollar shot.  We couldn't get my new camera to shoot the right brightness again. Austin took this one with his phone while I messed with the camera.  Oh well, you can still see the city!

  

Thanks for inviting us to share in your special day.

Congratulations David and Jillian!