The Knot Has Been Tied

We are home from the wedding, sadly.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, if I could pick one activity to do for the rest of my life it would be dancing at weddings.  Last night has inspired my newest summer hobby, crashing weddings.  You all know me well enough to know that I would never actually do this because if anyone ever did that at my wedding I would be beyond mad.  I would be way too scared of getting caught but its fun to think that I could go to a wedding every weekend for the rest of my life (a girl can dream)!  On Friday we got there and went to eat at Avanti's (a must in the city of Peoria.)  We also had to go to the mall (conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel) to get Olivia a new dress because we washed and dried a dry clean only dress causing it to look a little more like a shirt than a dress on her.  The trip to the mall ended up being a success because we got 2 dresses for $75 out of the deal (quite the steal.)  To see pics of the new dress I'm sure they'll be up on Facebook before we know it.  The second dress is black and ruffly and apparently had my name written all over it because my mom pulled it and said I would love it, which, I did!  After that little escapade, dinner, and some cousinly bonding, we headed to bed and woke up in time for the questionable hotel breakfast.  Friday night I did not sleep at all really.  Why you ask?  Because sharing a bed with Olivia is like sharing a bed with a fish out of water.  I have never met someone that flops around in their sleep more than she does.  Usually she just ends up hogging all the covers (she still did that) or laying basically on top of me to the point where I have to punch her off (she still did that too) but this was not a pleasant experience.  Saturday night I was demoted to the floor (yeah, note to self: 6 people in a hotel room is rough.)  I did however survive the night and got up pretty early on Saturday morning.  Over the course of the morning we did virtually nothing and by the time we realized how late it was we were all scrambling to get ready on time.  We made it to church with a little time to spare and got to sit right up in the front.  Everything about the ceremony was beautiful (especially Erin) and the bridesmaids wore navy blue dresses (which I have already decided is the theme of my wedding.)  When the ceremony was over we sent them off ringing bells wishing we could be in the wedding party!  We headed back to the hotel and then a nice man named Jim shuttled us over to the reception.  There I ate about 12 too many crab cakes and put way too much wasabi on the sushi, so, if I had a winced look on my face during the cocktail hour, I was just trying to compensate for the burning sensation in my nose that took forever to go away.  I got to sit at a cousins table with Catie, Emily, Mandy, Nolan, Jason, Matthew, Grace, and Olivia.  I would have to say we had one of the best tables at the wedding (table 30 represent.)  And yes you may be surprised at the fact that there were 30+ tables but it was a massive wedding (I had no idea) but like I always say, the more the merrier.  A pleasant surprise during dinner was that the beef was wrapped in bacon!  Mark and Rose did an excellent job with the speeches and overall it was just a beautiful event.  We managed to get a Christmas card out of the ordeal and the best family photo we've taken since the 90's.  Then came the best part, dancing!  We danced for hours and hours with the family and Christopher's friends and had the time of our lives.  Sounds lame but dancing at weddings is up there in moments in your life when you just want to press pause and stay there for a little while because they are just way too fun.  Around 1:00 AM they forced us to leave and the after party went to Steak and Shake.. I made the executive decision to eat my Kettle Cooked Chips (another Peoria specialty) and hit the hay.  This morning we got up and laughed about the night at breakfast and then we hit the road.  The drive went pretty fast (as fast as that drive can go) and we passed Raussmasen College (which is exactly where Nolan will be in 2 years.)  I was so proud that Nolan and Grace and Jason and Matthew actually danced last night because everyone knows its just more fun when you dance!  Congrats Erin and Christopher, the wedding was a blast!