Wedding Weekend Whirlwind

This weekend we headed up to Daytona Beach for Brian and Leona's wedding. Jen and I were in charge of Robert and Karen's baby girl , Anna, because they were both in the wedding party.

Friday I got to play with the sound system as a stand in for the music guy. Then we all went to Harbor Inlet and had dinner. My mom and dad happened to be in Daytona this weekend as well (total coincidence!) so they came over for a while too.

As it got late, the boys headed over to Brian's house and played poker for a few hours. Brian and Leona have great decorating skills, and they do themed rooms just like me and Jen! I stayed at Brian's place; the couch was comfy but leather. I kept sticking to it and nearly yanking my skin off when I tried to roll over!

Karen turned Anna over to Jen before I got back to the hotel, so I was in charge of watching the baby while Jen got a shower. Bad move. I let her sit on the chair while I was polishing my shoes. She was looking at the colorful fabric and cooing--until she somehow pulled a somersault off the chair and into the floor! I freaked out (just a bit) but she was ok. She cried for a while, but a nap helped.

After all of the excitement, we were late getting to the ceremony! It was at the Chapel in the Garden in Port Orange. We used to live just down the street from it, but we'd never been inside (no reason!). The place is very picturesque with fountains, walkways, and tons of little spots perfect for photos. The chapel itself is cozy with extremely squeaky floors. Our mutual friend (and new notary) Matt Cross performed the ceremony beginning with lines from The Princess Bride:

"Mawidge...mawidge is what bwings us togewer today...Mawidge, the bwessed awwangement, that dweam wiffim a dweam..."

No kidding, he did it. And it was the funniest thing! Almost as funny as the fact that everyone stood when Leona walked in, but no one was told to sit down. Ever. The whole ceremony was scripted out and they forgot that part! It really didn't matter as it was a short, sweet ceremony.

Afterwards I helped the picture guy (Kaare's job, but he and Laura and Elizabeth were absent!) get all of the non-wedding party people's pictures [yes, it's odd, but nice] while Jen played with Anna. At the reception we got to see all of out APO brothers and dance to good Howl at the Moon songs. Then we picked up APO brother Isabel and her boyfriend Ray and all went to Howl and danced the night away! Afterwards we ate/played at the Denny's down the street :-) Drunk people are fun to watch!! (I was DD.)

Sunday morning Jen and I had brunch at Aunt Catfish's. It was nice, but too filling. Jen and I both had to take a nap at Robert and Chale's before going home! Then we got stuck in an hour of stand-still traffic due to a tractor-trailer truck catching on fire.

We made it home safe despite rain and had a wonderful time overall!