Little Boys in Tuxes

At the end-ish of July the Illinois Burtons headed to Indiana for Cousin Sarah's wedding.
Jack and Alaster were asked to be the ring bearers in the ceremony.
We got them haircuts... packed for a fun weekend away... and off we went!

The car ride there was perfect (except for the traffic and construction!). Everyone was in a good mood, Corey and I were able to talk, the boys were having fun in the backseat... it was grand. Jack was my hero during the trip. He took such good care of Truman! He supplied him with his water, spoon fed him banana, shared blueberries with him, fetched him toys, made him smile... What a good brother!

At one point all 3 of the boys were eating blueberries together. They were being sweet and funny and I took a mental picture in my mind hoping to capture the moment forever. My life is so good!

After checking into the hotel with Gram, Grampa and Tyler we headed to the church for the Rehearsal.

The church was very beautiful and the boys behaved marvelously. It was a much longer process than I thought it would be, and I was proud of them for hanging with it so well!

Hope you like the practice pictures because it was pretty much impossible to get good ones the day of!

Random collage: Truman's gorgeous lashes and kissable lips, dueling cameras, and relaxing after a job well done:

The Rehearsal Dinner (where the boys, especially Truman, charmed the pants off of our table-mates):

After the dinner it was pretty late but we had promised the boys a dip in the hotel pool so we made good on the promise even though it meant an extremely late bedtime.

I stayed in our room with Truman trying to help him go to sleep. Oh poor Truman! He can't fall asleep in a different room of our house let alone a strange hotel room with a strange hotel crib! Truthfully, he did pretty well. And even though it was a rough night I will say that I enjoyed the excessive amounts of snuggling I got to have with my babe.

Being Cute on the Bed in the Morning:

Despite late night snacking in Gram and Grampa's room AND our own we were all starved come morning. Gram and Grampa treated us to IHOP!
Warning: Do not taste the syrups sans pancakes. Ed and I learned this the hard way. Yuck!

After breakfast the boys took one last dip while we got everything all packed up:

We had some time to kill before heading back to the church so Gram and Grampa decided to introduce us to Bass Pro Shop. What a cool place!

They have a pretty fun shooting game:

On the ride back to the church: (Just barely afternoon and we were all ready tuckered out. Did I mention it was a late, rough night?)

Getting all dressed (who knew getting tuxes on is such a complex process???)

The boys had some time to just play before the show started. One of my favorite moments of the day was walking into the room and seeing Alaster with those ridiculous things in his ears while he was all gussied up. The picture doesn't capture how funny it was.

Another funny moment: Alaster running past all the bridesmaids in nothing but his tux socks and underpants to do his last potty break.

A secret: Jack LOVED wearing a tux. This surprised me at first but made sense when I thought about it more. Aly was dying to take his off (and did take part of it off at the first opportunity) but not Jacko. He enjoyed looking dapper! Don't tell him I said so, though, okay???

I am so sad that these were the only pictures I was able to get! Let me assure you: They were perfectly darling and well behaved and adorable. Aly did a little wave to me, and they both had the CUTEST smiles. I think they loved the attention! Not that this picture shows that at all...

Note: Truman was not a fan of the wedding. It terrified him. Corey had to take him out and even from the foyer he was not comfortable.
The thing that did him in: The congregational repetitions. There were scripted sections for us to participate in, and when everyone spoke together it FREAKED HIM OUT. He looked around like "Why would you do that? This is not normal!" and then just started to cry and cry! Poor baby.
But before long the ceremony was over.

Hanging out until the happy couple left:

Can you spot Jack in his favorite hiding spot in the church? And do you like my hair? Cindy helped me. We had great girl time getting ready for it all to begin!

Lots of time to take pictures of people in their fancies:

Jack and Aly (mostly Aly... who was totally charming. Jack, understandably, was D.O.N.E.) handing out bells to ring as the couple "left," (the leaving was just for show and so that other people would go. They came right back for hours of pictures).

Mom's are allowed to snag pictures along with the hired photographer. What handsome boys I have don't you think? And Sarah looked just beautiful!

My Favorite:

A Close Second:

And off to the reception we went!

We only stayed through dinner. What a nice time we had though! I wish we could have stayed for more of the party... dancing and such... but we had to drive back to IL that night and Truman, who had the horrible night of sleep and not one nap during the day, NEEDED to be done.

One very happy surprise happened before we departed. The DJ stopped the music to make an announcement: There was a cake missing an owner at his table. Did anyone know of a little boy turning 5 on Tuesday??? (Aly's ears perked up at this point). "Alaster Burton? Is there an Alaster Burton here???" He shot right off of his chair and walked over. They sat him down and had everyone sing happy birthday while they presented him with his cake.

How sweet! How thoughtful! How nice! Cindy's sister and mother of the bride Missy had gone to the store that very morning (because I'm sure she had plenty of time to spare) to get it for him and arrange the surprise. We couldn't believe it!

He was over the moon, of course.

What a fun weekend! We loved all of the family fun... just our little family, and also with our awesome extended family. We came home with oodles of happy memories.
It was certainly a high point of our summer!

The end!