Okay, so not trains, but we did travel by planes and automobiles on our trip to Texas last week!
My cousin Emma was getting married and I was in the wedding so my mom, sister, Reaghan and I traveled down to Texas for a few days to celebrate with family. It was Reaghan's first plane trip so I was a little nervous about how she would do, but I shouldn't have been! She didn't have any issues with ear pain, played contentedly in our laps, and didn't have a single meltdown the entire time. I had been praying for this trip for the last several weeks and I'm just so thankful that everything went well.
My cousin Emma was getting married and I was in the wedding so my mom, sister, Reaghan and I traveled down to Texas for a few days to celebrate with family. It was Reaghan's first plane trip so I was a little nervous about how she would do, but I shouldn't have been! She didn't have any issues with ear pain, played contentedly in our laps, and didn't have a single meltdown the entire time. I had been praying for this trip for the last several weeks and I'm just so thankful that everything went well.
We spent the first couple of days in a little town called Lindale, where Emma lives and spent time hanging out with family, getting ready for the wedding and throwing Emma a fun bachelorette party!
We took this picture to send to Mark the night of the party because it was his birthday. We were so sad to be missing his birthday and we're thankful he was home working hard so we could go on this trip.
Emma's sister Olivia set up a super cute photo booth background with props. We also had an ice cream bar, played games and you know, gave wedding night presents and advice. ; )
Reaghan got to meet my cousin Jake's baby, Ada Iris. They are only 10 days apart!
On Thursday we traveled from Lindale to Denton, where Emma and Lloyd were getting married. Emma prepared these adorable welcome bags for everyone staying at the hotel!
My mom was such a blessing! Erin and I were so busy with wedding stuff that she spent most of the time taking care of Reaghan for me. The trip wouldn't have been possible (or it would've been really hard!) if she hadn't of come. I didn't have anything to worry about either, because Reaghan just adores her grammy!
Emma got married at a beautiful venue in Denton, the place was gorgeous as is and they added the perfect centerpieces with wildflowers and lace and candles. This was taken before the decorations were added, but it was pinterest perfect.
Reaghan and I together in the bridal suite.
My cousin Tim's little guy Colton was the ring bearer!
This is how Reaghan enjoyed the ceremony. It was pretty dang hot out in the Texas sun, even at 5pm, but she hung in there pretty well with my mama during most of the service.
The Bride and Groom - officially Mr. & Mrs.!!
Here we are at the Reception with my grandma. Her name is Iris Eileen and both of these little girls are named after her. Ada Iris on the left and Reaghan Eileen on the right. : )
The picture quality is awful but the content is adorable! Reaghan and Colton getting their dance on all night long! They were party animals, and adorably cute ones at that.
The next morning we had a big family breakfast at Cracker Barrel to say goodbye to everyone. Here is my grandma with her great grands that were there at the wedding. We are grateful she's been so involved in our lives and continues to love on the 4th generation. Legacy is a beautiful thing people - especially when your legacy is people.
Our trip home started out great - Reaghan was awesome on the airplane and in the airport during our layovers.
We were happy to be on our way home!
Crawling on the airport floor in New Orleans was definitely not the cleanest thing I've ever done. But when a 2 hour layover turns into 3 1/2 hours - well your 9 month old needs to get some energy out.
Taking Selfies of our tired selves after the layover - ready for our last leg to Atlanta where we were supposed to stay on the plane and let more people on and then continue on to Richmond...
Unfortunately that wasn't what happened.
Our wonderful trip to Texas ended with us waiting around in the Atlanta airport until 1:30am only to find out our plane was cancelled and there wasn't another flight out until TUESDAY at 10pm. I'm not kidding. We then went to get our bags so we could find another way home, only to find out that the airline was going to send our bags on to their destinations in the morning and wouldn't release them to us even though we were in the same airport as our bags at that moment. There were a few hundred angry people stranded in the airport without bags and no flights going out from any airline until at least 5 am. I did coax one employee to go find Reaghan's carseat so we could rent a car to drive home, thankfully they did that for me because they really didn't want to.
We ended up leaving the airport in a rental car at 3am to drive up to Richmond to get our bags the next day. We finally got there at 2pm, where Mark and Erin's husband Adam came and picked us up to drive us home. We were very sad to spend most of Father's day in a car traveling and not with Mark. It's not exactly how I had hoped to celebrate my man on his first Father's day.
But you know what I'm super thankful for???
My precious girl.
She was a trooper. During that whole debacle at the airport - from 9:30pm until we got in the car at 3:30am - she didn't have a single meltdown. Maybe a fuss here or there, but she truly brought smiles to every face that she met and kept a little bit of joy in our hearts during the whole situation! And then she slept most of the car ride home. I couldn't have asked for anything more from her!
Our Texas trip was full of sweet memories and we are looking forward to our next trip in July! We'll be heading North this time to Ohio and we'll be road tripping it for sure! It takes longer, but at least we'll have more control over our travel time ; )