Whirlwind Charlotte Trip

Saturday we made a quick day trip to Charlotte. We celebrated my nephew, Tucker's, 4th birthday and Ryan was in a wedding.
We got up early and drove to Charlotte, expecting to hit race traffic but missed it all! We went straight to the birthday party and were able to help with some of the set-up. It was a Nascar theme because Tucker loves racing. They had a bounce house set up, a race track for matchbox cars, and my sister even made some cars out of cardboard boxes for the kids to wear and race.

the birthday boy

Hailey loved racing the cars!

 And of course there were cupcakes. My sister let Hailey pick a blue one...but she didn't get any on her shirt!

Ryan said she looked like the Joker

After we left the party we went to my parents house and Hailey took a quick nap before the wedding. When I woke her up we rushed over to the church. Ryan was already there. Hailey did ok at the wedding. The hardest part was that she wanted Ryan and couldn't be with him. When he walked down the aisle during the processional she yelled out "Hi Dad!" It was sweet! Ryan said he didn't hear her say that so hopefully it wasn't too disruptive. We lasted for about half of the ceremony. Not too bad for a two year old.
The fun part was we got to spend a little time with my best friend Jackie and her little girl Charley! We haven't seen them in forever and the girls have spent very little time together...a fact that we need to change. It was sweet to see them interact though.

Hailey and Charley before the ceremony

Hailey had fun coloring at the reception while waiting for Daddy to come in.

And she loved when Caroline took her outside to play in the props from the photo booth. We may have ended up with a few of the beaded necklaces. Oops.

By the end of the night Hailey (and mommy and daddy) was pooped! She was so tired that she just sat and watched a movie in the car most of the way back to Raleigh, which if you know my crazy-active girl is a huge feat. Ryan was carrying her to the car as we left and it was a little windy. Hailey said "I'm chilly Daddy." so he tried to wrap her up in his coat. Sweetness.

Even though it was a busy day, I'm so thankful that we still live close enough to be there for the important moments in our family and friend's lives.