Dan and Laura's Wedding!

Ok everyone, Halsted Family The's engines are officially at critical temperatures and need to be shut down! We have just returned from a trip to Little Rock for Dan and Laura's wedding. A great trip but I'll get to that later. We were thinking about it in our many hours of travel and it turns out that little Pres has visited 12 states in 7 different trips in less than a year!! All since our arrival here in SD. Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, California, South Carolina, Arkansas, New Mexico and Texas!! That's a lot of traveling for our little man! I have to say though that he has handled it better than our wildest dreams! Our last one was particularly taxing as we were up at 4AM Little Rock time and didn't get home until 730PM Rapid time! In all that travel he probably fussed for maybe 20min TOTAL! He is so good to us. Anyway, with that being said, I have decided to power down the travel engines to let them cool down for a while and so we don't make Pres think that he is a Gypsy!

SO, why the latest trip for us? Why to welcome a new Sister in Law into the family of course! Dan and Laura tied the knot in Little Rock and I had the honor of being the Best Man. Since airline tickets are outrageous out of Rapid, we decided to try a different route. Southwest flies out of Denver and had FAR cheaper fares than anything we could get out of Rapid so we drove to Denver and flew out of there. In the long run it saved us over $500 but we did have to deal with driving for 6hrs there and back. All in all it was not too bad, exhausting but worth it. We even got to eat at Popeye's which I have been dying for! ANYHOO, we made it in to Little Rock and thoroughly enjoyed all the wedding festivities. It was nice to see some of the relatives again and meet the new ones! Preston had a great time with his distant cousins (my cousin Brad's daughters Lilly and Tabby and Laura's sister's sons Zach and Reese). They seemed to have too much fun with him too, fighting over who would get to walk him around! It was funny to hear them get reminded that Preston "is not a toy". He loved it though. We were worried that he would be bored with all the adults so it was great to have kids there to play with. We were also lucky that he was not a terror for any of the ceremonies! He slept right through the wedding but we were OK with that. Only missed seeing him run around in his little suit!
We were thoroughly impressed with the locations of the wedding and reception. The church was one of the more beautiful that I have seen! The reception was held at a Golf Country Club that was amazing. The locker room was something out of the movies!
Not only were the wedding festivities fun but even our hotel stay was really enjoyable. We were at a Embassy Suites and enjoyed the breakfasts every morning with the whole extended fam. We were there with my Mom and Dad, Sean and Sarah, Uncle David and Aunt Barbra, Brad and Amy and their kids, and even Dan for a part of it. It was also great to partake in the "Manager's social hour" in the evenings, getting drinks for $1! Can't beat that!

It was sad to have to leave all that and start the trek back home. It ended up being a super LONG day as we drove straight through to Rapid after flying into Denver instead of staying a night in a hotel like the way down. Again, Preston was a Saint and allowed us to have a nearly stress free trip home when we thought for sure it would be a disaster!

Aside from the trip, we also started Pres back into swim class! We have only gone once and that did not go too well. He had JUST fallen asleep as we got to the parking lot so he was not happy from the get go. Hopefully next class will be better. I also had the joy of having some minor oral surgery the day after we got back from LR. I had a tooth pulled that has been giving me trouble for over 10yrs! It was the first time I had been put under for anything so that was kinda fun. Pretty surprised how little pain I am having but that might be due to the drugs. Anyway, I will have a fake tooth put in once I recover from the extraction. Should be fun. At least I can finally say that I am done with that tooth!

OK, that is all I have for now I think. Please check the pics for a more entertaining depiction of our recent adventures. Hope everyone is doing well. I'd like to say that we will see you all soon but we have nothing on the books until July! Of course you all are always welcome to come here! (hint hint)
Talk to ya later!

-Love
Regan, Karley, and Expert Traveler Preston