Wedding

We left my parent's house in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday, July 1, to drive to Renton, Washington where Greg's sister was getting married on July 4. Natalie's fiancee Bret's parents live there and they were getting married in their beautiful yard. Bret's parents arranged for us to stay with their next-door neighbors which was wonderful! They were so hospitable to us and it made thing so much easier with the kids also. We could walk back and forth for naps and bedtime without having to drive back to a hotel, etc.

Saturday afternoon they had the rehearsal and dinner and we enjoyed that. Greg's role in the wedding was to ask “who gives this woman to marry this man?” since their Dad was walking Natalie down the aisle as well as being the pastor who performed the service. The kids and I didn't have any specific roles aside from providing support and help where needed.

Kyler spent most of his time playing with Bret's children: six-year-old twins, Brandon & Amelia. Natalie assigned me the job of putting together a scrapbook of photos of her and Bret growing up which I gave my best effort as that is not my area of expertise. And, on the day of the wedding, I provided minimal assistance to the person arranging the flowers. Otherwise, I just tried to keep my children happy and quiet and out of the way. I wanted Natalie's wedding to go just as she hoped.

The wedding was to take place at 3 pm on Sunday, July 4. The weather forecast predicted rain that day. Natalie was really hoping that it would hold off long enough for them to get pictures and have the ceremony outside. All the reception tables were set up outside as well. And, just in case, they had a large pavilion tent set up that could house everything.

The rain cooperated long enough for everything to be set up and for the wedding and most of the pictures to be done before it started misting. It was pretty light for awhile but then it started getting heavier. Despite that, we were all able to enjoy most of the reception outdoors without cover without getting too wet. Umbrellas were used by many people toward the end though. And, quite a few people migrated underneath the tent when they were done eating. Overall, it was a beautiful day and Natalie was gorgeous.

When everything had pretty much wrapped up, Greg & I packed up the car and headed out of town. We decided to drive to Monmouth, OR that night and stay overnight with our good friends there. That way we were that much closer to getting home and would make our drive on Monday a little shorter.

We left Kyler with Greg's parents on Sunday night because he is staying with them for the next two weeks. He is at their house in Medford this week and next week they are taking him camping. He has been looking forward to that for awhile. So, Sunday night, we just had Caden with us when we drove south.

The drive went relatively quickly and we got to enjoy many beautiful fireworks displays along the way as people celebrated Independence Day. There were times it felt like we were under attack because the fireworks were so close to the road! The best displays were as we were crossing the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon.

We spent some time with our friends on Monday morning before making the drive the rest of the way home. It is so much easier to travel with one child instead of two. Caden was a great traveler all the way home. It is so good to be home and now we're playing catch up.