Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Wedding Travel

We went to Ricci and Steve's wedding over the weekend and stayed for Saturday night, thanks to Bonnie and Pat and Shannon and others helping us. Erik, Xander, and Nick all had troublesome head colds, but we decided we could make it anyway.

The wedding was beautiful. There weren't a whole lot of people in the small side room at the Tampa Garden Center. It was a perfectly intimate and beautiful setting on the water. A string ensemble of two violins and a viola, if I'm not displaying my ignorance here, played lovely music. I was ready to cry before I saw any of the wedding party. Leslie looked "like an angel" as I told her husband and her mother. Bailey was the picture of gorgeous flower-girldom. Her long, simple, elegant white dress was breathtaking. She had obviously been told to throw the flowers from her basket on the ground at certain points along the way. She took her instructions literally and walked forward, stopped, threw a flower hard down at the ground, walked forward, stopped, threw a flower at the ground, and repeated. It was wonderful. Ricci could not have looked more elegant or more beautiful. The men and the two young ring bearers looked great in tuxes, but I have to say that most people look similarly great when they're in tuxedoes. I cried. Luckily, Nick began to fuss so I took him out of the ceremony and into a hallway where I was safe. It could have been the glass of wine Heather poured for me before we went to the ceremony...

Xander and Bailey danced in circles together and fell on the floor and kissed and told each other "I love you" and had fun, continuing to be the picturesque Bobbsey Twins. The little boys had energy to burn but at the same time were exhausted to the core. A lot was asked of them! They made it until about 8:00, when Jeremy and I and the four kids and Bonnie went back to the hotel.

I am glad we went. Some things are worth it.

It wasn't easy. Erik felt awful in the morning, no one except me got enough sleep, Nick threw up all over our hotel room floor and his car seat once we were underway and did worse all over his carseat when we were just about home, and I spent over an hour getting things out of the car, doing laundry, throwing some linen and clothing items away, and scouring the carseat with rags and toothpicks. Erik even took the next day off work.

But I am optimistic. It was good that we went and, by my calculations, we should be an easy-traveling family in about a year.

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