It's been while since I've documented the random activities that are my life. I wish I could say it was due to spending more time on my dissertation, but other factors have played a role. Illness has been factor, we've been traveling and hosting visitors, and the kids activities never seem to end. Also, I now spend all my free time trying to develop hip-hop abs.
Last Thursday we spent fourteen hours in the car traveling to Alberta for my sister Rachel's wedding. I was sick with what I'm pretty sure was bronchitis. Kaddi was contracting my bronchitis. Jake spent the entire trip passed out on the back seat with some sort of viral infection. We have no idea what was wrong with Luke, but he would growl like a wounded bear cub for thirty minutes at a time. Somehow he made it all the way to Magrath, despite my repeated efforts to leave him at McDonald play-places in Idaho Falls and Helena.
(Meg was perfectly healthy.)
We arrived at the ranch shortly after someone detonated some type of bridal bomb, because the house was practically buried in wedding-related shrapnel. There was an altar covered with white lace in the front room, miniature trees with crystal hanging from metal branches on the table, and centerpieces everywhere else. All of it had to be loaded up into the trailer and transported to the wedding site. I started feeling less resentful of my fourteen hour drive when I realized that the rest of the family had been working on the wedding for months.
My assignment was to act as the Master of Ceremonies for the wedding reception. A simple task, really. Tell a few jokes, introduce the people at the head table, and allow my natural charm to shine through. As part of the festivities, I also wanted to present my my sister with the first of what would be many wedding presents. I spent weeks thinking of an appropriate gift. It needed to be something that symbolized the union of two families, and the beginning of a new era where bride and groom would place each other's needs before their own. Only one gift could accomplish all that and place the new couple on the path to marital bliss - an autographed photo of myself.
The actualy ceremony was a beautiful event. The hall of the Galt Museum in Lethbridge had been articulately decorated to resemble a winter wonderland. Through the enormous windows you could look down on the snow-covered banks of the Old Man River. As flower-girl, Meg preceded the bride and threw rose petals along the path. Rachel was radiant in her wedding dress as she walked to meet Paul at the altar, happier than I have ever seen her.
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When I was in Alberta for Christmas I forgot my camera USB cord. I returned for the wedding in February and meant to retrieve it, but grabbed my parent's cord instead. Now neither of us can upload photos.
Here's a photo montage I lifted from my sister Angela's blog.
