after three days and three nights in austin, we packed up the kids and headed southeast to houston. the drive was a little rough because both ellie and jaden needed naps, but neither one of them slept. jaden had come down with a pretty bad cough, so he was doing lots of that and ellie would cry at the drop of a hat. stopping at sonic for lunch helped, but we were all pretty happy to get out of the car once we arrived at eric and tessa’s house.

thursday night was the bachelor-slash-bachelorette (or what eric’s parents called the “stag and doe”) party where we got to meet lots of eric and tessa’s friends and family. there was an amazing spread of appetizers and plenty of alcohol to be had, so everyone really enjoyed themselves.

we had a few hours to hang out with eric on friday while tessa spent some quality time with her bridesmaids, so he showed us around this super cool shopping center called the woodlands mall. then we had lunch at a place called berryhill. it was delish, and it was nice to spend some time with the groom.

friday evening was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. ellie and jaden were so funny – they wouldn’t walk straight down the aisle at the same time for the life of them! i think we had them try it at least three times, but nope! so, of course, no one had any idea how they’d do the next day at the wedding, when it really mattered. but we’ll save the rest of that story for the next post…

dinner was hosted by eric’s adorable parents, chuck and christina, and was held in a private room at the very lovely chatter’s cafe & bistro in the heights neighborhood of houston. dinner, drinks and good company were aplenty, and both ellie and jaden were incredibly well-behaved despite being out past their bedtimes.

and saturday, of course, was the big day … which i will write about later in the week!