Our Wedding Adventure!

In late February, we traveled to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for my cousin Laura's wedding! This was a big day for Laura & her new husband Chris, but also for our family, since it was the first time we've all been in the same place since my cousin Jenny was married seven years ago!  

So, naturally, we wanted to go to the beach.  It's Florida, right?  Unfortunately, it was only about 60 degrees, with a very brisk wind, so it felt even colder. The girls were underwhelmed.

Bethany wouldn't even put her feet in the sand.

Clara's first trip to the beach.  Massive failure.  We ended up taking the girls back to the car after maybe six minutes.  Some of the Oregon crowd stuck it out a bit longer, since they're used to cold beaches.

I stole this picture from my cousin Beth.  Notice that my cousin Meridith is in a parka.  She was the smart one.

Suddenly, it was wedding time!  Lindsey and I deserve a medal for managing to get everyone there on time when we ended up in a serious time crunch.  Thank goodness for way too many years of ballet, because I ended up using the three bobby pins I could find in my makeup bag to put my wet hair up in about 87 seconds.  It didn't look great, but it was at least presentable.

Bethany made it down the aisle in her first wedding.  She and I have now been in the same number of weddings.  Kudos to my cousin Amy for luring her down the aisle with some carefully concealed M&Ms.  She wore her flowers on her wrist like a champ, and actually stood at the front for a little while.  Then, she sat with Mommy and looked through the missal before falling soundly asleep.  

Laura, Chris, and Uncle Bob.

The beautiful bride!

Flower girls.

This was a serious responsibility.

Laura's whole family.  We're on the far left at the top.

Nana and Clara waiting on the pictures to finish.

The wedding party.  Where's Bethany?  Oh, that's right.  She's the one passed out on cousin Stephanie's shoulder.

Stephanie, woman of steel, held Bethany's dead weight FOREVER during the pictures after the ceremony.

The happy couple.  So sweet. xoxo

Uncle Andrew and Jenn!  (She gets credit for most of these photos - awesome job!)

Then, we went to an amazing reception.  By this point, things were chilly, so keeping Bethany happy during the resulting pictures was tricky.  Also, Clara had had enough.  We enjoyed the great food (including chocolate chip cookies and ice cream in baby skillets) and fantastic band, but had to bow out pretty early.  The dancing went on and on, we hear.  For actual reception pictures, visit my cousin Beth's post about their trip.

The day after the wedding, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Beth hosted a brunch at their house, so we stopped by to say goodbye before hitting the road back home.

Uncle Andrew and Jenn.

Jenny & Mike.

Clara and Steph.

The odds board, created by my dad, on future family weddings.  Obviously, these needed updating.  If you look closely, you can see these have been in progress since 2004.

We're thinking it might be less than seven years before the next wedding...

Our trip was great, but way too short.  I wanted lots more time to talk to everyone, and as I did this post, I realized that we missed a number of photo ops, like Clara meeting her Great-Grandmother, who will be 90 in August!  Just means we have to get together again soon.  :)