Team Manning and then some: Road trip to Illinois

We were given a key to the city...uh, well...I actually mean a key to a Hampton Inn in the state of Illinois. The Hampton Inn was quick to welcome us to Illinois, but the hotel guests on either wall of our hotel room on Friday night (the room containing one small rug rat to be left unnamed *Reesing*) may not have welcomed us so much as the state of Illinois did. We made the trip to Springfield to help Chris and Leslie celebrate their union of marriage. It was a great weekend and despite one terrible night that Dad describes only as "his worst night ever as a grown adult," due to the antics of my baby sister Reesing, it was a great trip. There will be lots of posts to come over time reflecting on the trip because there was simply too much that happened within four days to be captured in one blog post.

This is Reesing on the car ride up to Springfield. This became the "norm" for Reesing over the weekend - usually 1/2 dressed.

The first stop once we got to Springfield was the tux shop. Here's the groom trying on his tux in preparation for the big day.

Reesing was all smiles to be out of the car. She also enjoyed watching daddy and the rest of the boys model their tuxedos.

Next stop was the race car shop at Uncle Steve's. Home of Urish Racing, the Springfield, IL division.

Here we met some friends. This one is named Jack. How can anyone turn down these big puppy dog eyes?

This dog's name is Pepper. Another sweetie.

See Reesing run. See Jack run.

See Jack catch up to Reesing. See Jack give Reesing kisses.

Reesing also loved checking out the race cars and wanted to know when it would be her turn.

Reesing sharing the couch with Jack.

This is what happens when you try and share Jack's couch...more kisses.

Next stop was to Chris and Leslie's house where we hung out with yet another friend, Tucker. Tuck-Tuck, as we like to call him is a very friendly and lovable dog. He's fun to play with and I asked mom and dad repeatedly if we could bring him home with us. The only way that was happening was if we traded out Duce and Chris said "No" to that.

Once we got to the hotel the next day, some time to swim was on the checklist. Reesing and I ready to go swimming.

No need to show Reesing the way. She'd been watching all of the kids head to the pool and was quick to run that direction.

Dad had the honor of standing up with Chris as a groomsman in the wedding, a very handsome groomsman at that. I wasn't for sure at first who that man was dressed up disguised as my dad, but it turns out that my dad cleans up pretty nice and looks good in a tux. Mom, Reesing & I did our best to cheer him on as he did his job.

While dad was doing his gig, mom spent a lot of time chasing my sister. I was kept busy with the many cousins running around and was thankful for the break from having to hang with my sister too much. Thanks to Aunt Raegs, Uncle Nick, Uncle Mikey, Uncle Willie & Aunt Jen who all helped by giving my mom an extra hand and set of eyes on me and my sister while my dad was busy.