Wedding festivities

  

In my humble opinion, weddings are awesome.  I love them.  They are all the better when they involve people you love.
When we took our big road trip, the purpose was to attend my brother Gabe's wedding.  That was the grand finale.  The why and when of what sent us out on the road.
He had asked Cory to be the ring bearer and we weighed just Cory and I going, but the pull of an East Coast road trip with the whole family was too much so we decided to do the whole big thing.

The wedding was simple and elegant and so beautiful and most definitely the fastest ceremony I have ever been to.  It was just right for Gabe and Liz.  The food all weekend was incredible.  I daydream about it sometimes.  They did a perfect job of throwing a great party!
Seeing as the rehearsal was on the 4th of July, we just couldn't not dress accordingly.  Don't be jealous of my rocking dress.  It took a sweet find in a consignment store, some spray paint and stickers to get that look.  

 Grace, Liz and I. 

        'MERICA

Goob with Mom and Dad

THE WHOLE CREW 

Not gonna lie...I have some good lookin' brothers.

                                                                                                                                     

Josh helping Cory with his tie.

Auntie Grace and Cory.

 These two deserve a post all their own.  Phil, my dad's cousin, and his wife Lynn are quite possibly the coolest people we know.  They live in Wisconsin and have always made an effort to make it to family things.  Lynn is handicapped and requires a wheelchair, but nothing stops these two.  Not only do they drive all over the country to show us their love, they bring with them loads of laughs.  The best part of the evening was watching Phil wheel Lynn out to the dance floor and slow dance and fast dance and have a blast. It was beautiful.  I love them.

   

Cory and the sweet flower girl, Precious.

  

The boys with the girl.

With a family the size of mine, you can imagine how often it works out to get all the siblings together.  Almost never.  This was a rare occasion in which all 9 of us were present and accounted for. We're all mostly adults and we have really not spent much time together the past decade.  I would imagine that I am not quite who my siblings think me to be and vice versa.  What I was most looking forward to and really what I enjoyed the most, was getting to spend actual time hanging out with these people I share DNA with.  We're not the same people we were 10 or 15 years ago, yet, it was all too familiar to sit around and talk and laugh and goof around.  I can't even quite explain the flow of conversation, the ease of being together.  I loved it.  Every bit of it and I can't wait to do it again.  

I have gorgeous sisters.

 

We love Isaac.

Uncle Seth and Little A

 

The cover of our album.  We're starting a band. 

One more thing.  

 We tend to discuss things of real importance and although we often disagree or rather need the last word, we interject politely with "yes, I can see where you are coming from, but I just have ONE MORE THING..."

And so the weekend, went...
So "one more thing" seemed a fitting band name.
This band will never actually exist, but we have a kick ass album cover.

 *****************************************************

There were so many great pictures from the weekend!  Here are a few more!

Jake and I. Love him.

Oh my goodness. Caleb was so adorable I could cry.

 We managed to get Elijah into a tie!!

Cory helping Caleb with his hair.  A rare sweet moment between them.

Mr and Mrs. Gabe and Liz Dahlke!

Happy 4th of July!

*************************************************************************

And just one more...

This picture creates a whole host of emotions for me.  I love each one of them so much. I miss seeing Luke.  I am profoundly thankful to be part of a family that is so kind and thoughtful and funny. I am grateful my parents saw it good and right to raise ten children. I'm very much looking forward to getting old with these people.

Until next time...