holiday weekend.

This past Memorial Day weekend, Nate and I drove to Kansas for his sister Caitlin's wedding. We had planned to drive Friday, but for some reason on Thursday night it sounded like a good idea to drive through the night. We left Nashville at 8 p.m. By the time we hit Paducah (2 hours out) I was ready to stop and get a hotel room. But Nate was feeling alert so we continued and I slept. I woke up and drove from 3-4 a.m. across southern Missouri before I got sleepy again and Nate took over. We hit Wichita around 7:30 a.m. and grabbed a couple hours of sleep at a friend's house.

Friday we surprised Nate's family around lunchtime. Nate departed for a bachelor party/camping trip with the guys and I spent the day with the girls running errands. In the evening, I went with the bridesmaids and Caitlin to dinner at Hana's Cafe. I wasn't brave enough to try sushi, so I had chicken yakisoba.

Me and the bridal party

After dinner we drove to Hesston, KS, where there was an arboretum with mason jars full of candles lighting the entire path. We walked around the lake. It was nice.

Nate, me, Caitlin, and Andy

Saturday, I met the rest of Nate's extended family and we hung out in downtown Wichita. We had lunch at Old Chicago with aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was unusually cold and cloudy so the rehearsal was moved indoors at a hotel, and then we went to a great rehearsal dinner.

Sunday we got up and went with Ryan and Ashley to Olivet Baptist Church and then had lunch with Ashley's parents. Then we headed over to Eberly Farm, where Caitlin and Andy were getting married. They couldn't get in until two hours prior to the wedding so we helped with some speed decorating. The wedding was wonderful and there was dinner and dancing afterward.

Before we left, we packed my car with as many wedding decorations as we could fit. We will reuse them for our wedding in July! Reusing decorations saves us a ton of money. I have a long to-do list but I'm not stressing out yet about wedding. Not yet.

Sonic ... or used to be.

We stopped in Burlington to see my parents and buy some Luther's beef jerky (the best jerky in the world) before we headed back via KC and St. Louis. We looked for a Sonic in Missouri to get drinks during Happy Hour, and this is where my Garmin took us. My Garmin maps are from 2008 ... but it costs about as much for map updates as it does to buy a new GPS. Someday.

Super Nate

Wonder Alyssa

We filled up the car with gas in Metropolis, IL. Apparently this is where Superman is from, so we couldn't resist a couple of pictures at the gas station.

Extremely packed weekend. We were in Kansas for 3 days but with everything we did, it felt like a week. It was a great weekend.