Ryan and Natalyn's wedding!

 My first nephew got married in Ohio last weekend and boy did we have the best of times!!!!  Mike rented a conversion van for our travels and that was so nice to have the extra space, a TV for the kids to watch all the movies they rented from the library and we cruised to the Plain City Thursday morning.

We arrived at the hotel where my entire family was staying, minus Tony's.  They had an airBNB for their family.  The kids all met in the pool area for some exercise and fun.

This was my bed for the time there.  We had a hotel room for the girls and one for the boys in our family!  (How else do you do it with dating children?)  It worked well.  Daisy and Ashlyn had the bed and I had the couch.  

The wedding was on Friday and we gathered first in the workout hotel room and then enjoyed breakfast.  The men and boys walked across the street to Cabela's and us ladies snuck out to TJ Max till it was time to get ready for the wedding.  

Everyone looked their wedding best and we took family pictures in the heat!

The wedding was inside a church in AC so that was great!  It was a beautiful wedding and Ryan and Natalyn said their vows for forever!

The reception was at the church also!

The kids found out that there was a Top Golf around the block from the hotel and wanted to go!  We never did this as a family and we knew that if we went after the wedding, it was going to be a late night!  We made reservations for 10:45 PM!  Crazy!  We almost backed out but went and had a great time!  Matthew drilled every golf ball he hit!  Ashlyn did decide to stay back with cousins but Austin and I joined Mike, Jer, Das, Matt, Daisy, Tony and Ty!  We golfed till after midnight and fell asleep at 1 AM!

Saturday was another packed out day with more travels and fun!  When Ryan and Nata announced their engagement, Dad made the comment of taking an RV out to the wedding and then going to see the ARK in Kentucky.  The RV idea was discarded but the trip to the Ark happened!  My family left early Saturday morning to drive 2 1/2 hours to Kentucky.  We left a bit later and met them there because we needed some extra sleep because of our late night the night before!  Matthew and Daisy headed for home because they had another wedding that night in PA.  Jeremiah and Hadassah hopped in with our travels.

When we saw the Ark in the distance, it was huge!!!!!  When we walked up to the ark it was even bigger!!!!!

It was another HOT day and we toured this massive boat!

There are three levels to the ark.  We met my family after walking through and seeing many cool ideas of how it may have been in the ark many years ago.  I kept thinking of how much of a big YES that was for Noah's wife.  To stand beside her husband and believe what he heard from God and help prepare for this wild boat adventure and take care of all the animals and prepare food for the journey .... it's overwhelming!

I can't imagine how many pots and containers they would have needed to store foods and grain.

There were no live animals in the ark in Kentucky but there sure was a long time ago!  

And these huge doors could have been similar with what God opened and closed!

This caught my eye ... a mother with her baby on her hip trying to grab a hand to get to higher ground as the flood began!  I really can't imagine how horrible that was for everyone on the earth to drown and only eight people alive inside the ark.

There is much to read in the ark but we completed all three levels in good time, grabbed some lunch, walked around to see the live animals outside the ark and then hit the road for another adventure!

Some ideas they have in the ark of how it might have been long ago.

Off to the next adventure ... we were all hot and sweaty and tired but we jumped in the van and drove off to Cincinnati to watch a Reds VS Red Sox ballgame.  This was on Mike's wishlist on this trip and I just didn't know if we could actually accomplish it because I didn't know how long we would enjoy the ark.  We hit the road and tried to refresh on our 40 minute drive to the ball stadium!

We made it before the game began at 4 PM.  It was still very hot and we grabbed seats in the right field side and in the direct sun.  It didn't take us long to look around for some shaded seats and up to the nose bleed section we climbed!  There were empty seats way up but there was a breeze going there and shade!

My parents and Tonys went to the game too!

Trying to stay cool!

Austin was thrilled to watch De La Cruz hit a home run at the game!

 

The Red Sox won and we hit the road again.  I looked up some hotel options but we decided to swing by Panera Bread for a bite to eat and then drive all night till we get home.  Jeremiah was brave and drove a lot!  Mike helped drive too while the rest of us had a party in the back of the van watching more library movies and then sleeping.  We got home at 3:30 AM Sunday morning.  We were all in need of showers from sweating so much at the ark and ballgame and then we flopped into our beds.

The kids did so good this entire weekend!  I don't know how we could have packed anything else into our travels!!!!  Congratulations to Ryan and Nata!