Summer Vacation, Day 7

Wedding day!

Last night our dear family friend, my pseudo sister if you will, got married! Bryanna married her Army officer college sweetheart, John, in a patriotic 4th of July wedding in the Texas Hill Country. Talk about perfect!

During nap time, I loaded Cade in the car and started the drive down San Antonio way. He slept solidly for 45 minutes and then dozed/had quiet time for the following hour. We went to my parents hotel for a few hours to get some wiggles out. They took him swimming and he did much better than I expect. It must be the grandparent touch.

Now, my family is pretty low maintenance. We're not fussy people. But still, I think it is noteworthy that we got 3 adults and a toddler ready for a wedding sharing one hotel room in 40 minutes. And we all looked pretty sharp if I do say so myself.

Up the road to the Don Strange Ranch we went for wedding festivities. Cade fell asleep on the 15 minute drive so I sat in the car letting him rest until the last second possible. Cade did really well in the ceremony. A little fidgety, but that's part of being a toddler. My dad sorta walked and rocked him in his stroller to help him make it through and it worked! The only crying was at the very end but we think that was because all the whoopin' and hollerin' from "I now introduce..." scared the wee boy. A mom hug was all he needed to recover though.

A few notes from the actual wedding. The venue had these cool chandeliers made from branches and sticks. They were really pretty. I had heard the ceremony was going to be more formal than the reception but I wasn't really sure how the difference was going to be shown. Um by a FULL BRIDAL PARTY WARDROBE CHANGE that's how. I knew the long skirt on Bryanna's dress detached and she would have a short dress for the reception so I was expecting that. I wasn't expecting the bridesmaids to transition from identical navy dresses to "your own style" red dresses and boots or the groomsmen to go from their navy blazers (in many cases part of their Army dress blues) to jeans and white button downs. Even the mother of the bride transitioned from heels to flats. It was pretty cool. As a final non Cade note, I feel like I had a tiny part in the festivities and their years of good luck. Bryanna's "something borrowed" was my Swavorski earrings from our trip to Austria two years ago. I think they complemented the sparkle in her lace dress very nicely.

OK back to Cade. For the reception, he basically just ran around like a toddler tornado. Mom, Dad and I took turns chasing him while the others rested or snacked. I did get off relatively easy on the baby chasing front. In addition to just loving their grandson, their drive into town had been unusually long and I think they were both still anxious to do some wiggling themselves. I didn't take many pictures - I enjoyed my downtime as just plain downtime - but as is no surprise, Cade flirted with the photographer so I think we'll have at least a couple candids of us from the wedding, plus our family picture with Bryanna.

Dinner included grapes and mac n cheese so Cade was in food heaven. I think he grazed constantly from 4:30p at the hotel to 7:30p when we left the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride stunning, the groom lucky and my toddler was well behaved. 4th of July win!

Bride's family