Last Friday, Hubby and I headed out with the boys for another road trip.  Destination:  Cincinnati, Ohio / Covington, Kentucky to attend Patrick’s cousin, Josh’s, wedding.

I should share that on Thursday evening, the boys and I ran out to buy some nice dress shoes for them to wear.  They each picked out their own and Maxim was soooo excited to wear his black shiny shoes, that he. just. could. not. get. enough. of. them.

We left Friday after work and drove to Champaign, Illinois.  Of course, the boys were thrilled that our hotel had a pool. #arequirement

The next morning, they swam for a little bit.

Well, I should tell you that we had good intentions of making the wedding.  We even factored in the time change of losing an hour.  BUT.  We had no idea there would be an hour AND a half of waiting.  I said WAITING.  On road construction.  So…we pulled into Cincinnati at 4:35 instead of our planned 3:00.  We realized that there was no way we’d be able to get to the hotel, change, and get to the church before 5:00.  So, we went to our hotel, changed, and waited in our hotel lobby for a cab.

We felt bad about missing the wedding, but made it to the reception in PLENTY of time.  #wetried  #roadconstructionstinks

I found a pic of Josh and Katie on Patrick’s cousin’s Facebook page…what a beautiful bride and handsome groom!

The cab driver dropped us off at the hotel.  And oh, my.  It was a beautiful reception!  Such a fun evening with Hubby’s family!

The boys had lots of fun with their Uncle Tim, Cousin Tim, and other family members.

Such a wonderful evening spent with wonderful loved ones!

 

The boys had so much fun with their Cincinnati cousins and Cousin Coco in the photo booth.

Nate and Maxim got lots of hugs and smooches from Auntie Ang.  Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dan were proud to see the boys so dressed up and acting like little gentlemen…it was such a fun night with so many cousins and family members!  #goodtimes #rinderrathwedding

After the reception, we took a cab back to our hotel.  As we walked into our hotel, we saw some pretty cool NFL guys.  The Cincinnati Bengals were staying in our hotel (their training camp was just across the river).  The boys were thrilled to get to talk to them (and yes…Hubby mentioned that he IS a Steelers fan, but they were cool with that) and these gentlemen were so nice.

We had a great evening with family and meeting NFL players just made the night complete.  We got a quick night’s sleep (maybe five hours, but who’s counting…??!) and were up before dawn to hit the road.  Hubby wanted to be on the road by 6 (that would be 5 am Iowa time…YIKES!).

When we went to our car, the boys were thrilled to see a COOL CAR parked right beside ours…one of the Cincinnati Bengals players wanted to park next to us 🙂  With his leather Nike backpack in the front seat, we just KNEW it was a Bengals football player’s car.

Then, when stopping to get gas, we saw one more Bengals player and the boys got Margus Hunt’s autograph.  Could this trip be any more perfect??!

And so, we drove the 7.5 road trip back home with happy memories of a great weekend with family.

Congratulations to Josh and Katie and we wish you all the best!!