We tried to do it all this weekend. It seems whenever Becky’s cousin has a wedding it’s time for us to try to jam three weekends worth of activities into one. I could probably write an article about many of the events, but I’ll try to touch on them quickly:
The Wedding
Becky’s cousin, Mark, got married on Saturday out on his wife’s family farm near Hayti, SD. I sang in the wedding, so we were supposed to be down there by 5:30 on Friday to make the rehearsal. We didn’t make that, but we got to enjoy the groom’s cookout. It wasn’t really a groom’s dinner – it was some burgers and brauts at the farmstead with seating optional. The girls had a fun time blowing bubbles and hanging out with several other girls about their ages.
Sub-story – Singing in the Wedding
I came back early on Saturday to practice, and there was no real organization. Since it was an outdoor wedding it was under a canopy and I just stood near the front right and ran through my song once. I needed to have the words within sight as it wasn’t a song I had heard of before being asked to sing it. So Andy (Mark’s brother) grabbed a couple wrenches and we used that to hold down my paper with the words on it. I just left it there on the front right corner of the alter area since I didn’t know what else to do with it. When I got up to sing, I noticed the last groomsmen was standing on my music. I didn’t really know what to do, so I asked him to move, and he did. It turns out afterwards when I apologized for making him move, he didn’t realize he was on my music – he didn’t know what it was he had stepped on. Anyway, as I started to sing my song, Katie came up and grabbed me by the leg and held on to me throughout the song. I’m not sure how many people realized this since she’s just short enough not to be seen over the sitting crowd. I couldn’t see her in any of Becky’s pictures. I uploaded the picture Becky got of me asking the groomsman to move.
Sub-story – The Dance
After dining at the reception – they actually let the crowd eat before the wedding party since they arrived 20-30 minutes after everyone else (this was good for those of us with kids) – we ran back to the hotel to change and come back for the dance. Katie and Amelia had a good time getting down at the dance, although Amelia got tired pretty quick. Katie was having a great time, and then really got into it when she started dancing with a boy. They danced together for 7-8 songs in a row with Katie leading the poor sap all over the floor. They were holding hands just like the grown-ups did. Once they broke out the neon necklasses (I’m sure they have a real name but I don’t know what it is), she lost some interest in the boy and tried to collect as many of those as she could.
Kelly’s Party
My friend, Kelly, from high school has long wanted a place in the country to call his own. He has talked about this for years, and finally last year decided to stick his toe in the water by renting a place a long ways off the beaten path in southern North Dakota. He’s really enjoyed his time out there and he decided to have a little get-together today to show the place off to all his family and friends. We made the trip up from Watertown through some small towns we’ll never pass through again (just because they are out of the way) and arrived at his humble estate. The farm house itself was probably built in the early 1900s. It actually wasn’t built to have a bathroom, so the bathroom is under the upstairs staircase, which is something I had never seen before. He has several outbuildings on site for his tinkering pleasure and he’s put in a nice garden. He has about 10 acres total with 3 within the enclosure of the trees. He hasn’t decided yet if he’s going to make an offer to purchase the land, but I would guess he does pretty soon.
The party was fun as my high school friends were there and lots of kids were around. We grilled out hamburgers and brauts, but as someone who doesn’t like ketchup himself, Kelly didn’t think to supply the ketchup. That was the only downer for the visit though. The kids had fun and it was fun for us to get out there and see this place Kelly’s been talking about so much.
Sleep, or Lack Thereof
Friday night, we got the girls to bed a little later than we wanted after the groom’s grill-out, so they went down about 9:45. Amelia, of course, was up and at ’em by about 7 am Saturday, so there was no sleeping in. After a swimming, a trip to a park, and some Pizza Ranch pizza, we tried to take a nap starting about 1pm. That was an absolute disaster as the girls refused to go to bed. I had to hold Amelia down in the bed before she finally settled down for a nap at 2. Then we almost overslept when I needed to get to the wedding since we all took naps.
I took the girls back to the hotel after the reception about 10:00 and we were all hungry, so we made a McDonald’s run. After putting that down, I got the girls into bed at 10:30 and they didn’t go to sleep until about 10:45. Of course, Amelia was up again at 7 am, and Katie only slept about 30-45 minutes longer. Neither of them napped on the drive to Kelly’s (I didn’t fit in that we stopped at my friend Ross’ awesome new house to hang out and have our 2 girls play together), and they stayed up throughout the time on the farm. We left Kelly’s about 3:45 and they slept for a most all of the ride home. We intended to do early bed-time tonight, but that didn’t work out as planned either. Amelia went down fine, but ended up with a stinky, so I had to change her and put her back down so she didn’t get to sleep until about 9:15. Katie didn’t want to go to sleep at 8, so she was up until after Amelia.
Sub-story – Katie liking to sleep in our bed
Katie goes through periods where she insists on sleeping in our bed because she doesn’t want to sleep alone. It’s been awhile since these episodes have occurred, but I realize they mostly happen after any road trip. Because we all sleep in one big room anytime we stay in a hotel, she likes that and wants the same setup at our house.
Speaking of lack of sleep, it’s time for me to call it a weekend and head to bed.
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