Aquarium, Wedding, Butterflies

Whew, I've gotten behind with my blogging, so here's a quick update with a ton of pictures. :) Mackenzie, Josiah, and I all headed up to Gatlinburg for a day at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies last Friday. We love that place! Here's the kids checking out the sea horses.
Josiah pointing at the sea horse with Mackenzie standing nearby.

On Saturday night all four of us went to Bryan and Holly's wedding. (David and Bryan work together.) We had a blast! The wedding was at a place called "The Stables." I pictured an old fashioned barn, but it was quite decorated and nothing like I imagined! Above is a picture of the bride and groom leading the train off the dance floor out into the crowd. :)

Here's one view of the inside of the barn. They served a full buffet dinner to all the guests! What a nice surprise.

Here's the dance floor, with the bride and groom's names lit up above and the wedding cake was in the gazebo on the left.

Our kids really enjoyed exploring outside.

Mackenzie near the waterfall area where the bride and groom got married.

Josiah near the same waterfall.

Josiah doing his "holy cow" dance. :) It's a classic at our house.

Random gazebo up the hill from the barn area. Kinda reminds me of The Sound of Music. ;)

Looking down at the barn from the random gazebo. (The chairs have all been picked up, but the area between the barn and the waterfall is where the wedding took place.) Josiah actually slept in my arms through the entire wedding, including the fireworks at the end. He was tired!

Sweet little girl.

Mackenzie found a flower and was putting it in her hair.

Josiah was playing with his shoes.

On our way home, Mackenzie asked if she could get married someday. We said, sure, if she finds the right fellow. She did not miss a beat in saying, "I already have found the right fella." We asked who that was that she found. She said, "Josiah's the one I'm going to marry!" Pretty precious. We explained that she should marry someone that she's not related to...then she replied, "Well, if I can't marry Josiah, then I guess I'll marry Grant Miller, and Laura Miller can marry Josiah! Then we can all live close together." We assured her that we thought that was a great plan. :)

David ordered caterpillars, four of them, a few weeks ago. We enjoyed watching them as they went through the phases to become butterflies! Of the four, three became beautiful butterflies. After watching them for the better part of a week, I was tired of feeding them and their wings kept getting stuck in the liquid (sugar water) that caused them some issues. He, he. Long story short, I was ready for them to go free! We released them last night.

Butterfly on Mackenzie's hand.

Mackenzie loved holding the butterfly.

We took lots of pictures, just before the butterfly flew away!

Josiah waiting patiently for the butterfly to climb on his finger.

Josiah loved holding the butterfly, too.

Poor butterfly. You can see the wing issue. Two of the three butterflies were able to fly away...one was not able to fly. At least we released it into the grass.

Josiah loved those butterflies. Both kids did. They wondered if any of the butterflies would fly to "Awkensaw" to see our family. I do love those cute phrases.

On a side note, just before we headed out to church yesterday afternoon, I headed out to pick the garden. To my dismay, as I reached down to pick the squash I almost picked a snake! Yikes. I pulled back, left the squash there and went to get David. By the time we got back, the snake was gone. Tonight I knew the garden needed picking. I put on hiking boots and gathered my gumption. I'm pleased to announce that the garden got picked and I did not see a snake tonight! Well, the garden got mostly picked....I just couldn't make myself reach the entire garden. :0