Finally - Momma's Fun Vacation

After spending two fabulous days catering to my spoiled baby dolls, Saturday was upon us and this was the entire reason we headed north - my cousin's wedding.

The wedding was at 3:00pm, so we had a couple of hours in the morning to kill.  We started at the breakfast buffet at the hotel.  BIG NO NO for momma.  After eating scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes and lots of fruit - I barely made it back to my room before my shocked system was cursing at me.  Let me tell you, the next couple of hours were not fun and I thought I was going to die.  I was so worried the few days leading up to the wedding that my dress was going to be too tight, well let's just say, I lost enough weight Saturday morning, I didn't worry about the dress being tight anymore!  Lesson learned - no breakfast buffet on important days.

I was able to sneak a few shots of the kids in the lobby of the hotel.  It has a very "lodgey" decor including stuffed dead animals hiding in all four corners of the room!  A little much - but hey - I expected it.

 Photos Courtesy of Ashely (Budding Photog)



We made a plan to meet everyone down in the lobby at 2:30pm to head over to the church.  Aren't these two just precious?!??!  Love my babies!

The service was short, sweet and beautiful.  I since I'm on some crazy hormone pill for 4 more years, I seem to cry over EVERYTHING!  Nothing worse than having a runny nose and you can't blow it! 

From there we headed over to the Grand Traverse Resort were the reception was being held on the 17th floor.  The views were gorgeous, the food was tasty and the drinks were flowing (maybe a little too much).  It was a nice way to sample some local wines and I was even pleasantly surprised when I requested a glass of Merlot it was semi-chilled and when I requested ice - the bartender didn't look at me like I was insane - he filled my glass up with ice and smiled.  It was good!

Here are a few shots from the scene:



Awesome Candy Bar





The Wedding Cake



 

View / Room

 

My Perfectly Cooked Fillet Mignon!!!

 

My Beautiful Sister & I



The Happy Couple

The dinner wrapped up around 9:00am.  We talked the daddies and grandparents in to taking the kids back to the hotel and then my sister, my cousin, another family friend and I headed over to the casino to continue on with our good time.    



On Our Way to the Casino



I played Black Jack for the first time - and actually won a few times!  I then went and parked myself at the Let It Ride table for the next few hours and walked away with a LITTLE more than I arrived with.  My lucky sister walked away with MORE THAN ME and my cousin actually walked away with an extra $5! 



The Winner's Riding Home



I wouldn't have changed anything about my extended weekend trip.  I got in lots of family fun time, exercise time (the dunes), ate some delicious meals, was able to spend some girl time with my sister and my cousin, which is a rarity, won some money and enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MINUTE!