bloggers ate my babies: the rehearsal dinner

the long weekend started with family and friends starting to come into town on thursday for jessica and justin's wedding. after mom picked up robin from the airport the family all headed to red robin for dinner.
on friday i had a pretty busy day. it started with jessica, myself, jenn, rainah, robin and teresa all heading over to the reception site to set up a few things. we originally were told there was going to be a wedding in that room on friday so we wouldn't be able to get into it until saturday. with a family full of control freaks, it was hard letting go and trusting other people to set things up exactly the way she had in her mind. so being able to get in on friday morning was a huge blessing.
we set out all of the little gifts at each place setting, set up the candy bar table, wishing tree table, popcorn machine and a few other things. we also took pictures of the process, of course.
after that we all headed back to mom and dad's house where grandma and grandpa and aunt ruth and uncle jeff were there. we hung out for a bit before i had to head to plymouth to get my manicure and pedicure. shortly after i was done with that i headed over to kellogg park with tina to meet up with everyone else for the rehearsal.
justin's brother/best man, jeremy, his wife charise, dawn and rob and their friend dylan were all on a flight from florida that had been delayed and they weren't able to make it to the rehearsal until it was over. then from there, jeremy had to run to the bridal shop to pick up his tux before meeting us all for dinner.
right before the rehearsal started tina ended up having to go sit down in the shade as she started feeling sick.
dylan was the person they had put in charge of all of the sound stuff so without him there, justin had to run around trying to figure out where everything was and trying to get it all to work.
dawn was reading a verse in the wedding and she also wasn't able to take part in the rehearsal.
hayden decided the best place to be was IN the fountain. i figured i'd leave him there as long as he was happy and we'd just have to have a LONG talk about how that was NOT going to happen tomorrow during the wedding!
none of the out-of-town guests brought their invitations or maps for the rehearsal dinner so we were then trying to give directions or figure out who could follow who to the restaurant.
we somehow managed to make it through the rehearsal even though it was a bit of a stressful situation.
we all made our way over to johnny carinos in commerce where jerry and joan cox hosted an amazing dinner.
jessica and justin gave all of the groomsmen their converse shoes that they wore in the wedding and jessica gave all of the bridesmaids a bag with a few things, one of which was a personalized photo book made by her friend nancy. they were so cool and i've already looked at it about 100 times.
after dinner we all made plans to meet up and play some laser tag at the new and improved zap zone. robin graciously watched talan while we took hayden out to play with us.
we ended up playing 3 games (some of the group didn't make it until our second game) and phee was excited to see that they had the same jumping jackpot video game that paradise park has. and this time he actually won the 150 ticket jackpot! way to go phee!!
we ended up not leaving zap zone until a little after 11pm (hayden was SLOWLY picking out prizes with his 385 tickets that he had gotten thanks to everyone that came with us as well as a couple of strangers) and headed home to relive robin and get hayden into bed.
i then rushed around trying to make sure everything was all packed up for the next day, finished up making the cd i was making for jessica and justin and then finally headed to bed a little after 1am.
we had a great time that evening and were so excited for the actual wedding day.

dinner with the family on thursday evening. dad, mom, dave, talan, rainah, jenn, hayden, jessica, robin and teresa:

friday evening:

this is what hayden did the whole evening. he was SOAKED by the time he actually had to walk down the isle:

it looked like so much fun, talan had to try:

waiting to rehearse:

dave was wringing him out:

still soaked:

robin and hayden. how was i supposed to keep HIM out if she got in?!:

phee and teresa:

mo, not sure where his partner was (she was under a tree trying not to puke):

glen and jenn. haha. get it?! it rhymes!:

i was partnerless:

hayden taking a break from the fountain:

talan floating down the isle:

mom was crying:

no idea what made dad's face look like this and jess laugh so hard. but it was funny:

the pretend wedding:

nancy and kristy:

if you look closely you will see that talan is beating dave's head with a stick:

kristy and nancy:

talan taking the fun away:

caca and talan:

getting ready to head to dinner. they don't look stressed, but they were:

hayden and dawn. he LOVES her:

teresa, tina, phee, justin, jessica and jenn waiting for dinner:

the cake:

grandma and grandpa got hayden two new video games which kept him quiet through the ENTIRE dinner. thanks grandma and grandpa! you were the hero's of the nite!: