The Born Wedding

The lovely couple

 We took a family trip to Florida last weekend to see our dear friends Trevor and Diana get married. Well, I say it was a family trip, but really it was just Tim and Graydon and I. Addie stayed in the Cities with her Grandpa and Lita.

Trevor is in the same year of his ortho residency as Tim, and Diana and I have been friends for the entire three years that we've lived in Rochester. She is a wonderful woman and she has tackled so much in these few short years. She took a huge leap of faith to move to Rochester and while she was here she also managed to earn a new degree and embark on a new career. Not too shabby, Mrs. Born! We were so happy to be there to witness them "formally" unite as a couple.

Trevor waiting for Diana to come down the aisle

Diana looked amazing

The kiss

Our friend Dave was a groomsman

The wedding was beautiful, and I was so happy that we made the effort to head down to Florida. Not least because we wanted to be there for Trevor and Diana, but also because witnessing a wedding allows you to take a step back and reflect. Daily life can be wearing, especially in the field these guys have chosen. It's all toothpaste spatters on the mirror and who is going to mow the lawn and why do we spend so much money at Target, blah blah blah.

But when you pause and take it all in, you remember that we...that you....are doing life together. From the moment you say "I do", your journey is taken with a companion. That's an amazing thing. And that's why we go through all the fuss of the dress and the cake and the vows (especially those) ....because it's worth marking the beginning of that journey. It is a brave and wondrous thing to become someone's life companion. And it's really truly worthy of celebrating.

So we did. We celebrated with nice clothes and drinks and no children (at least no non nursing children), which makes it an occasion in Rochester, letmetellya.

Half of the guys

The other half...they clean up pretty nice!

My only picture of the ladies is "blown out", sadly.

Third years

Diana and the guys

Trevor and his friends

Tim and Justin

We did take the G man to the wedding, and he did a great job. He was very quiet during the crucial parts of the ceremony and he had a great time at the reception. He danced with Diana's godmother and with the bride and with his Mom and Dad. Dancing with Graydon and Tim to Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is most definitely engraved on my mental scrapbook of "Why My Life is Awesome."

Waiting quietly in his sweet outfit

Mama and her little man

The wedding was amazing, but it was kind of a weird trip for us overall. It was one of those vacations where things don't really work out the way that you'd like, but it's somehow still fun.

We had great weather the day that we arrived but we didn't take any pictures at the pool because we were tired from traveling and thought "oh we'll do it tomorrow." Life Lesson #267: Don't assume that you'll get a good photo opportunity tomorrow!

We had a delicious seafood dinner that evening and then we collapsed into bed. Only Graydon kept us up from 2 to 7 AM screaming because he apparently does NOT appreciate shellfish.It was a horrible night of handing him off and letting one parent pace with him while the other was resting and then repeating. The poor little man was exhausted and so were we.

We staggered out for breakfast at some point and to find something for me to wear for the wedding. I'd brought the coral dress that I ended up wearing, but I didn't really want to wear that because I felt still somewhat post baby lumpy...if you've had a baby, you know what I mean. But there was only one dress shop within a 45 minute radius and it was selling the kind of dresses that have openings for you to display your belly piercings prominently. Notsomuch what I was looking for, you know? So I decided to wear the coral and smile brightly and worry not at all about the little nursing belly fat that I have left while also resolving to never trust that my husband will be home from work in time for me to shop before a trip.

I resigned myself to the coral dress and we came home to sleep...Graydon, bless his little heart, was so tired he sacked out for three hours.

Delighted to take a nap with NuNu, his bear

We woke up after a much needed nap and decided to take a quick walk on the beach before the wedding. So we got everyone ready to go, including Graydon in his little sun hat.

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Only to find this the instant we hit the lobby.

Quite the rainstorm

Back to the room went the Ewalds. Fortunately the rest of the night went well and the wedding went off without a hitch.

And then the next day we had to drive from Clearwater Beach back to Orlando ...and we left in plenty of time. Really, we did. But there was a triathlon on the island. And it's an island, people. One way off. And then we got to the airport to find ONE person checking people in for the 11:45 flight. And we were behind a party of 14. No kidding. And then security wouldn't let us go through the family line because we didn't have a stroller. And Graydon had such a massive diaper blowout that he was literally covered in poop from heels to head. And I had to carry him like this through security while he nursed on the go. And when we FINALLY cleared security we ran to our gate to find the plane had moved to a new gate. And we missed the plane. By 60 seconds.

But in the weird way of this vacation, it was fine. An identical flight was leaving one hour later and they put us onto that with no fee and no problems. I was able to change Graydon and feed him properly and he was a champion on the way home. It was weird but good.

We were happily reunited with Addie and she probably hugged us for about five minutes solid. It was wonderful. She had a great time while we were gone, going to the zoo with her grandparents and "helping" Grandpa in the yard and basically being spoiled and loved to death. We missed her, but it was good for us to have some one on one time with Gradycakes.

All in all, a strange but good vacation for our family. Though I may start preparing NOW for our upcoming trip to North Carolina.