Bryan and Aimee's Wedding !!!

The O'Neal PACK made the long trip to Peoria, IL to watch Phil's baby brother get married. 

We drove Thursday and arrived in time for the rehearsal. 

Friday, we played with Aunt Andi and Aunt Erin, took naps, and then headed over to the vineyard.  We all took turns playing with the girls as we waited for the big event.

The wedding was beautiful. 

The girls enjoyed the reception, eating, dancing and playing with aunts and uncles.

But they got tired pretty quickly. 

Saturday we had fun hanging out with everyone at Mimi and Papa's.

The girls had lots of fun.  Thank you Aunt Andi, Bethany and Erin for being so loving, patient and fun. 

By the end of the trip, the girls were tuckered out and ready to go home. 

St. Louis Trip

Audrey was pretty tired from the trip to Uncle Bryan's, so she crashed on the floor right away. 

Kristen, however, was ready to play.

Eventually she saw the appeal of lying still for a few mins.

but she made her friends join her on the floor.

The next day, we got up early and went to the St. Louis Zoo. 

The zoo had a great Children's area, where the kids looked at bugs, rodents, frogs and bunnies.

Everything was upclose and easy to see.  Very nice.

They even had a play area with a slide that Kristen had to go down a handful of times.

Uncle Ben was nice enough to take Audrey down the slide too.

After we left the Children's area, we were on a mission to see lions, tigers and bears... and elephants.

 We go sidetracked a few times... but we still got to see a lot of fun animals... including a hyenna,

... and a leopard. 

Several of the animals were hiding or hard to see. So luckily we had lots of arms to help us hoist the girls up.

 

The Butterfly exhibit was my favorite.

 I think both of the girls really liked it too.

The hippos and fish were easy to see and big... which was great after trying to peer into a cave hole or look through the bushes to see some of the animals.... but they (the fish and hippos)  were kind of gross.   

 

After carring the kids around for more than an hour, we were done..... 

So Papa and Uncle Bryan rented a stroller. Thank you !!!

Kristen was amazed at the size of the elephants. 

Until we got to the turtles.

"Bye-Bye turtles."

Even though she was just as tired, Audrey enjoyed pushing her big sis around for a while.

The girls enjoyed watching the chimps groom themselves. 

Kristen really likes chimps due to watching "Chimp Eden" with her Nanna.

Kristen enjoyed learning facts about the animals as we toured the zoo.

Aunt Andi informed us that the flamingos are pink because they eat sooo many shrimp. This made Kristen giggle.

The penguins were Kristen's favorite part of the trip. 

The zoo tuckered us all out and the girls napped on the way home. 

Kristen perked back up though when she heard that she could help Aimee with the "dirt dessert."

Amy and Bryan made us a great lunch..... which we had to walk off.

Once we got back, the whole family had fun playing apples to apples.

  Erin- we really missed you, but with your absence.... I won the game!!!

Both of the aunts did a great job of telling make believe (or believe out) stories.

They trip was lots of fun.  Thanks Uncle Bryan for hosting us and thanks everyone else for the great weekend.

A Great weekend... but a little tiring.  ;)