Addison tames the Wild West (days 3-5)

Friday and Saturday, we stayed out at the ranch where the wedding took place.  Before we left Littleton, I drove past Columbine High School.  I'm not sure why, but I just felt like I needed to.  Partly because I was a high school teacher and just can't imagine it happening to my school.  Partly because of what we experienced here at VT on April 16th, I have a strange, painful connection to this little Colorado community.  My mom and I agreed that it's just as unthinkable that something like that could happen in their quiet town as it is to think of what happened here in ours.

After that quick detour, we headed south.  The ranch was in a beautiful setting - I even joked that I wished I'd packed my wedding dress so I could take bridal portraits there!!  With baby on board, I felt like I couldn't quite be as involved as I wanted to, or do as much I could pre-baby.  Still, the bride stayed so relaxed the whole time, which made the days much less stressful for everyone.  Even though I had to be away from Addie more on these days, I knew I could pop back and help with bedtime or naptime (which she fought royally with my mom...)  Again, my mom was SUCH a trooper, enduring 2 long crying sessions in the evenings when Addie was just exhausted but could.not.fall.asleep - I guess too much change of scenery was overstimulating.

my little champion, still going strong

at the rehearsal

check out the patio for our rehearsal dinner!  What a view.  And I had ELK for dinner!

morning runs were pretty sweet.

that's a fox!

mom outside our cabin

The day of the wedding was beautiful, and everything came off without a hitch.  Ashley of course was a beautiful bride.  Sadly I took like 2 pictures, because I was either doing wedding things or holding Addison in between, but hopefully soon I will post some from the professional photographer.  Those will be better anyway!

The hardest part was the last day, heading home.  Unfortunately, there was terrible weather in Atlanta, so our flight was extended as we waited to land.  Addie was doing amazing but wearing thin, and she could not fall asleep on the plane.  :(  Our final flight to Greensboro was delayed 2 hours, and then we had to wait on the runway as 24 planes were ahead of us for takeoff.  I thought I was going to lose it, since we were going on 12 hours of travel, Addie was exhausted, I was exhausted, and she was extra squirmy and flopping all over the place.

It wasn't until the drink cart smashed her little foot that she had a good scream and finally passed out.  Don't worry, she wasn't actually injured... but my mom and I joked that we should've done that a long time ago if that's what it took to get her to sleep.  (I'm an awesome mom.)

Danny waited patiently in NC to pick us up, and drove us back.  We weren't home until midnight, but so happy to see our own beds.

After this quick trip, I've decided that I would DEFINITELY like to do a trip out West with our little family.  Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming... the whole nine yards.  I think traveling with Danny would be even easier for Addie, and I know we'd have such a great time.

So there's the story of how Addison tamed the Wild West.  I couldn't be prouder of my little traveler, or of my mom for coming and helping so unselfishly.