Mawwiage

It's still kind of hard to believe, but my sister is actually married! The trip was a lot of fun, and Meggie traveled very well. She really liked having someone available to play with her at all times, though occasionally we overwhelmed her again. But she's such a sweetie.

Some of the highlights:

Friday (3/19): Somehow neither Jonathan's alarm nor mine woke us up (did we set them wrong? Did they not go off? Did we both just sleep through them both??), but God kindly woke us up eleven minutes before we were supposed to leave. So we scrambled and scooted. The HOV lane, incidentally, requires you to exit to stay on the Beltway. We weren't quite tracking and so drove through DC to get to BWI. Oh well; we got there in plenty of time. The flights were pretty awful, and it was lovely to get to NM. My parents were so excited to see Meg. We ran a couple errands and had dinner at El Pinto (yay!), and then drove home in a blizzard.

Saturday: Snow on the ground! Later in the morning Tami came over and did a test run of Emily's hair for the wedding. She looked lovely, of course, and naturally tried on her wedding dress for some pictures. Nefret the Bad Cat used the dress as a tent, and got black cat hairs and a dirty pawprint on it. She escaped with her life.

Sunday: We all went to church. This was my first time at Crossroads since they've been meeting at the school building; I wasn't home for a Sunday when I visited last fall. My dad was so proud of Meggie and showed her off to everybody. Afterwards we went to La Cocina with the Gacs and Christensens, and had a lovely time. We ran by Santa Fe while we were out.

Monday: I got in a few hours of work and we all did as much wedding prep as possible. Mom and Christi made several pans of enchiladas for post-wedding consumption.

Tuesday: Mom went to the store, Emily went for a mani and pedi, and Meg and I went uptown to socialize. We picked up a cake plate, dropped by the dentist's to say hi, had two really wonderful tacos from El Parasol, and hit the library used bookstore. Those are the tacos I'd been craving the whole time I was expecting, and never was able to get, since there is no El Parasol on the east coast and they don't ship well. I don't know what they put in them, but the flavor - and the grease - mm!

Wednesday: Emily packed her worldly goods into the truck. She drove that and Meg and I drove the Saturn to Portales. I was able to loan her my i-pod for the road, as Ryan had hers and it's a long, radio-signal-free drive. We were going to pick up Grandma and Grandad and bring them home with us, but Grandad wasn't doing well and had to go to the emergency room that night. They did let him come home rather than admitting him to the hospital. They got to meet Meggie for the first time. It was really sweet.

Thursday: Ryan and most of his groomsmen had road-tripped out to Portales, picking up a U-Haul on the way. They packed up some furniture Grandma and Grandad had been keeping for Emily and also transferred her stuff from the truck. Our friend Leah, who's living in Portales now, went and retrieved the pizzas for us and visited. Then everybody tumbled back into their vehicles and we caravanned back to Los Alamos: Emily and Ryan in the lead in the truck, the guys in the van pulling the U-Haul, and then Meggie and I bringing up the rear. They stopped in Santa Fe to grab their tuxes, and I stopped at Borders to get A Conspiracy of Kings since it was coming out this week - and they didn't have it! I couldn't believe it. At home, the groom's family and bridesmaids had arrived, so both families and most of the wedding party feasted on Mom's good brisket and salad.

Friday: We got up bright and early for a bridesmaids' breakfast. Mom used her pretty dishes and everything was really good (of course)! Then the whirlwind began. Groomsmen and friends and well-wishers turned up and packed up the wedding decorations, and the cake-decorators and pie-bakers arrived at our house and got to work, and there were trips back and forth the the church (the same one where I got married), and I stayed behind to feed Meg. My phone rang. It was my employers calling to say the project was over and they no longer were employing me as of that day. Boggle. So I told my parents and Jonathan, and we went to the church to carry on decorating. We ran home about 2:30 to get dressed, then back to church for the rehearsal. At 5:00 we went to the Finnegans' church for the rehearsal dinner, and after that the ladies went up to Joyce's house for an, ahem, lingerie shower for the bride.

Saturday: The wedding day dawned bright and clear, and cold. The bridesmaids dressed at the church. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, because I had to get Meggie ready and me as well, and that basically wasn't going to happen. Tami finished up Emily and caught me and fixed my hair while I did my nails, which was really sweet of her. The girls all looked lovely. Heather handed our our bouquets, I handed over Meg to Liz, and we all piled into cars and headed out to the Overlook. This, just so you know, is where Ryan proposed to Emily! If you've never been, it's one of the most stunning views in North America, and Emily really wanted her wedding pictures taken there. We were so excited that Jennifer and Amanda took her wedding pictures, because they're both really good. A few are up already - and as you might suspect, there were lots of other photographers on duty, too.

The wedding itself was lovely. And the reception. We danced and ate and talked to friends we hadn't seen in years. Lots of people stayed to help clean up, and afterwards Megan, Meggie, and I went uptown to visit Josh and his new lady with the other debaters who were in town. Everybody came, I think, except Ben and Elsa (who couldn't fly out this time) and Emily and Ryan (who were elsewhere).

Sunday: Dad went to church, but the rest of us were too exhausted. We packed, did laundry, watched Eureka, and let Mom play with Meg all morning, like she'd been wanting to all week. In the afternoon Mom and I went to Santa Fe and went shopping, like I'd been wanting to all week. Much fun. Although Hastings also didn't have A Conspiracy of Kings.

Monday: Home. Mom drove Amanda to the airport at the same time as Jonathan and Meg and me, and then she went on to Portales to take care of Grandma and Grandad and visit Aunt Joann.