Tanyon Miller: Kevin & Kelley's Wedding

Early September 8th, we woke poor Tanyon up to take a plane from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles for his Uncle Kevin's wedding weekend. This is the poor guy's reaction to photos so early in the morning...

But, after a juice box...

He was his normal smiley self...

Flying in a plane with a 2 year old is so much more fun than an infant. First of all, Tanyon got his own seat, which he was thrilled about. He loved checking out all of the people, then hearing the plane get started. Right outside of our window were the wing and propellers, so he was able to see them move and prepare for take off. As we crept along on the tarmac, Tanyon let me know that we were going slow and as we picked up speed, he said with an increasingly loud voice, "Faster mommy, faster!" The passengers to the front of us turned around and I was fearful he was being to loud, but they had huge smiles on their faces and said, "We just needed to see the face that matched that sweet little voice." The rest of the plane ride was full of commentary and questions from our little guy.

We arrived early in Los Angeles Thursday morning and hit the ground running.

First, we picked up Paul's family and headed to Venice Beach for a little late breakfast:

Tanyon did a costume change and got on his beach gear for the occasion. Although he was excited to watch the water, waves and surfers, he was hesitant to get his feet in the water. Instead he stood a safe distance from the water's edge and directed myself and Aunt Sheila to run through the waves for him. Right as we were about to leave, he did brave getting his feet wet twice, but decided it wasn't quite for him.

We were then supposed to check out Santa Monica, but Tanyon fell asleep in the car. So, we headed up to the Getty Museum to meet Uncle Kevin. It was a gorgeous museum with amazing landscape and paintings. We rented a stroller there, so Tanyon could rest while we looked around.

The view of Los Angeles from the museum:

When we went back to the hotel, Tanyon discovered the joys of the elevator. Up and down he went with whomever he could find. (By the end of the trip, he was recognizing numbers 1-3, because he was in charge of pressing the elevator buttons and telling us what floor we were on.) That night, he went with Paul and the boys to Mexican food in Manhattan Beach while Nana, Sheila and I went to a girls night for Kelley.

The next day, the family was busy preparing for the wedding. Nana and Sheila worked on flowers and Paul and I started setting up the reception. Stocked with some yogurt, snacks, and games, Tanyon stayed at the hotel with Bapa for the morning. Apparently, they had a great time practicing Tanyon's pitching in the hotel room, watching Dora, and riding the elevator.

That night, we went to the rehearsal dinner where we saw a bunch of Paul's Michigan family and Tanyon met the other nieces and nephews (all 2-3 years old). After dinner, Uncle Kevin used his arms to create a hoop, so the kids could play basketball. Tanyon is trying to copy him:

Ready to show everyone his pitching skills:

Tanyon hit it off with Lucas and Addy right away. They had so much fun together.

The next morning, Tanyon got to spend a little more time with Bapa at the hotel, as the rest of the family finished setting up the reception. After a short nap in the early afternoon and a rest in the car, we arrived at the wedding. Tanyon was still in his jammies, so we spent some time getting ready in the parking lot before heading in. We sat with Sheila and Paul in the 2nd row, and Tanyon really enjoyed the view.

Aunt Sheila explained the exchanging of the rings to Tanyon during the ceremony:

Tanyon did pretty well for his first long mass. The binkie was needed a few times to keep the noise down, but overall he was fine. He enjoyed watching Kelley look like a "princess."

However, what most of the kids were looking forward to the most is dancing at the reception:

Kevin and Kelley groovin' on the dance floor:

More pics from the reception:

Tanyon got tired early on, but seemed to rally a few times to keep dancing and to hang out longer...

There was a fire pit to make smores as the night got later. Tanyon found the table with the ingredients and kept sneaking over to it to steal graham crackers and chocolate.