Wedding Weekend

This weekend, the last of the brothers/sisters got married.  Mat's brother tied the knot and now I have a new sister in law!  That makes it 5 for me - and I am so glad.  I love being part of a big family.

The weekend started for me on Thursday afternoon.  Mat had flown to London for work Monday of last week, and so I was on my own getting to the wedding.  Mat was going to fly in and meet us there (the wedding was in Pennsylvania).  So I decided to do the trip in two days since I was driving myself.  I was pretty proud of myself - no problems and we arrived safe and sound Friday afternoon.

The whole clan (all 23 of us - excluding Zac and Alison) were staying at a hotel Friday night since the wedding was Saturday morning.  My kids were so excited to get to see their cousins.  Most of their cousins live in Florida, so sometimes it can be a year or more that we don't see them.  And it kills us to be so far from all of those little ones (and my sister in laws) so we were glad to have a chance to be together.

Mat was supposed to land at 2pm on Friday.  At 11am he landed in Chicago for his layover to find out that all flights had been canceled.  a disgruntled employee didn't want to be transferred to Hawaii, so he decided to set himself and the control tower on fire.  I kid you not.  As most of you know - Mat has terrible luck when it comes to flying, so here we are again.  He is stuck in Chicago with no flight out in sight.

By 5pm, they decided to start to let a few flights out, so he was getting on a 7:30pm flight to Pittsburgh.  We were so relieved!  That flight turned into a flight leaving at 9pm, but he did fly.  He got into Pittsburgh at 11:30, but then had to sit in 3 hours worth of traffic to the hotel and got to the hotel a little after 3am.  He had been up for a solid 28 hours at this point, but only got 4 hours of sleep before we had to be up and getting ready for the wedding.  Poor guy.  He was a trooper.

The wedding was beautiful.  13 (and a 1/2 - Teen is due any day with number 14) kids looking so cute in their wedding clothes.  Zac and Alison had a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful setting.  It was a fun day.

Enjoy the pictures!

This was at the rehearsal dinner:

 My youngest nieces - Olive and Eden - having a chat:

 Arlington, Finley and my niece Marcail were so excited for the wedding.  Thankfully we had most of this hotel floor to ourselves!

 Arlington loved hanging with my niece, Addie.  

 My nephew Jet.  Arlington the little boy outfits so cute?  They look like little limo drivers.

 My mother in law and father in law - Sally and Ben.  Thought this picture was so sweet of her fixing him up.

 Best buds:

 Crazy girls ready for a wedding:

Wedding time!  She had two bridesmaids:

 My beautiful sister in law, Jess:

 Here come the hoodlums.  First up - my nephews Jet and Eli who were the ring bearers:

 They only got a little side tracked, but we got them back in line:

 So handsome:

 And here come the flower girls:  Arlington, Reese, Marcail, and Finley:

 Marcail and Arlington are only 8 months apart.

 Arlington and Reese:

 My nephew Gabe, and Cainan had a sign that said "Uncle Zac, here comes your bride"

 Time for the bride!  Alison looked beautiful.  I now have 5 sisters:

 Girly girls:

 Some of the kids - they did really well:

The kiss!

 Mr and Mrs. Zac Pletcher

 My favorite picture of the day.  Finley and Marcail Arm in arm:

 Baby Olive said weddings are hard word:

 My niece Reese.  Isn't she beautiful?

 Aunt Alison with her nieces (that were in the wedding):

 My nephew, Lincoln:

 Zac wanted a picture of all the kids together.  This is how you try to get 13 kids under 11 to cooperate:  You don't.

 The girls:

 And the boys:

 Left to right: Addie (running away), Reese, Finley, Eden, Marcail, Olive, Arlington, Bride and Groom, and then Jet, Lincoln, Cainan, Gabe, Eli, Silas.  Whew!

 Arlington and baby Olive:

 Marcail and her sister Eden:

 Uncle Zac and the boys.

 Jet wasn't having it:

 Gramma and baby Olive:

The men were in charge of feeding the babies.  This is about as fun as it gets when you are a dad of small children:

 Arlington and Addie:

 Sally and her sister in law (Joann - who is on the first right) and her nieces Tracy, Jeri, and Patty and Nephew, Doug:

 The bridal party:

 Ben (my father in law) and his family:  Brother Bill and his wife Connie, then Betty, and his brother Barry and his wife Kay:

 Zac with his mom and dad:

 Brothers being weird:

 The 5 Pletcher siblings.  Mat and I started dating when Jess (who is on the far left and the youngest) was 10 years old.  That was 24 years ago.  Jess, Zac, Carrie, Teen, Mat:

 Finley taking a break.

 the kids got tired of pictures and started throwing rocks in the creek:

 Time to eat!

 The cake.  It was creme puffs - so fun!

 The kids did a lot of dancing:

 Back to throwing rocks:

 Cutting the cake.

 Arlington and Jet:

 Cousins:  Doug, Tracy, Teen, Zac, Carrie, Mat, Jess, Jeri:

 Our family.  Aren't we cute?

The two youngest (for now!) Eden and Olive:

 Olive tried to take her out:

 Mat having fun with Eden:

 Gramma and Pappy broke out the bounce house and the kids ran off their energy:

 The baby sitter takes a break: