Thursday, August 25, 2016

Off to Florida

The girls recently took a quick road trip from MI to TN and then flew FL to help with flowers at Cousin Brandon's wedding. It was delightful to accompany our home grown flower girl to her first official job! You will quickly see there are WAY too many pictures in this post and Crosby Virginia (baby of our family and baby GIRL!) was unquestioningly our favorite subject. 
Consider yourself warned!! :)
Despite obvious overpacking tendencies, some still claim they are minimalists. Ha!
Crosby going over her math flash cards during the trek from MI to TN. 
One of those lovely occasions that just called for a Frappa!
All Bowers flights are entirely TOO early!
Crosby's first time on an airplane. She absolutely loved it all!
Quick stop at our favorite consignment store! :)
Carrots and kombucha. What the gals shop for when the guys are in another state!
Kicked off the weekend at Ford's Garage with Bami, Poppy and sweet Aunt Pandy.
Got to meet our newest little cousin Lewis Wolfgang McGuire, a.k.a. Lewie!
Lewie is currently the star of the show.... mostly because of his utterly endearing rolls! 
Our older cousins were fun to catch up with, but only between Lewie shifts. Ha! 
Power walking on the beach at sunset.
Let the wedding projects begin!
Apparently someone said to wear stripes. :)
Carolina adopted the lovely little flower arrangements. 
Crosby adopted....the greens!
Loading up. Everybody needs a good trailer in their world!
One of many labors of love handmade by Pandy. 
Flower Crowns. So sweet. 
Wedding cake tutorial.
Our own June Cleaver working wonders in the kitchen! 
We love Bami and her incredible example to us!
Vintage dinner and dessert plates collected for months and assembled by all! 
Sari and light hanging session. Hosted by the groomsmen.
Or shall we say...attended by the groomsmen?!
Ironing things out. Only 160 napkins in all. :)
The finished product!
Setting up the Tea & Coffee Station
Adding a little "Edison", as we like to say. :)
Bohemian Chic flower set up
Lina. Painting. Again. :) 
And just how do you find your seat? Please consult the numbered plates!
Our favorite subject had boxes and boxes of lovely dishes to arrange!
More Carolina touches.
Laying out the flowers to sew into Monica's veil.
Flower number 59!
Our favorite flower girl staying right on her assigned line. :)
Incredible to see it all come together! 

And it got even better with CANDLES!
Reminded us of our restaurant years and the fun of serving celebration dinners every night.
 Cousin Brandon was our beloved Penske driver when we moved to Tennessee.
You can never have too many teacups!
Loved catching up with our Florida cousins! 
Getting ready!
Love, love, love!
Strawberry cake made by Cass was a Romanian family tradition. 
Apple and cherry tarts with whipped cream for the rest of us. Fabulous!!
Our stunningly beautiful cousin Monica.
Bouquets, bouquets! Can you have too many bouquets?
Flower girls must be sweet to the ring bearer. Especially if his name is CHARLIE!
Staying on her line and concentrating VERY hard on the proper ratio of petals to steps. :)
More love, love, love! So beautiful!
Because Pandy's weddings happen rain, shine or tornado....parasols are a must. :) 
Amber (in the orange) is her faithful sidekick. 
Monica's family is from Romania. Her father Octi was put in prison for his faith during the brutal rule of Dictator Ceausescu. On one life changing day, Christians stood against soldiers coming to bulldoze their church. Ceausescu was later executed. On Christmas Morning 1989, Octi heard Luke 2 being read over Communist radio airwaves in his cell and he was released shortly afterwards.
 It was an enormous privilege to finally meet him.
Enjoying dinner visitin' with Uncle Clicker!
Tried all night to take shifts with Lewie but Aunt Kali is a devoted first time Grandma 
and as such....does NOT share. Yet. :)
Shoeless with a parasol. Perfect!
Toasts and tributes!
Yay! What a happy time working hard together.
Thankful for our Crosby Virginia!
And while the gals were in FL, the men made their way from Detroit to Nashville.
This was their stop at Greenfield Village. Note the wonderful backdrop of history. Ha.
They also stopped at Turkeyville for YUMMY turkey everything, a stay at the Turkeyville campground, swimming, and a relaxing for day or two.  
Research is so much more fun (!) when all the guys give their highly confident input! 
Daddy calls this "The Peanut Gallery", which is a Bowers term for folks with abounding verbiage and a minimal workload. :)   
After several days of Cheerios, they realized who does all the cooking!
In case we haven't mentioned it: 
Each time every part of this bus works on the same day at the same time, 
it is absolutely a MIRACLE!!
The shipping department operates from many unexpected locations! 
The boys made it to TN just in time for the tail end of Dr. Hammond's visit.
We are always so encouraged by his wisdom and stand for truth!
Back together in time for Crockett's orthodontist appointment in Nashville and Chipotle. 
WHAT is this? Testing gravity?
 Crosby was more than thrilled to return to the zip and zoom of life with her wild brothers and we are thankful to the Lord for taking care of all of us.
The wheels on the bus continue. :)