Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Vacation Complete!...Part One

Whew.
Two weddings, a photography booth, a giant fish, 20+ relatives, three homework assignments and 45 hours of driving later, Charlie and I finally made it home Sunday afternoon after 10 days in Minnesota.

First let me say that despite the crazy-busyness of it all, it was a great trip! I got to see my nephew Noah, who is cute as a button (and trying to crawl with his baby corn-chompers sticking out of his gummy mouth) - a true luxury for me since I live so far away. He's grown so much since I saw him about 5 months ago...but you know what? Let me start from the beginning.

We left TX Wednesday after work and drove for 21 hours almost straight. Okay, we took a 30 minute nap at a rest stop once, but the rest we did straight. Sammie was a champ the entire ride and slept for 20 out of 21 hours. Yay Sammie!...wish we could have had the same experience. The upside of driving straight through was that we arrived on Thursday in time to get to Greg & Kim's wedding rehearsal and groom's dinner. That worked out wonderfully! After a rehearsal in the park and then groom's dinner at Axel's Bonfire in Plymouth (nummo butternut squash), we crashed at my parent's house in Victoria.

Friday I (along with Dad, Shawn and Mom) helped Faithie prepare for her Cologne Glad Days (Glad = Gladiola) booth, which would be her first debut for her new business (Faith Turner Photography). It was a lot of work, but on Saturday morning at the crack o' dawn we were cookin' with gas at the setup site and voila!! She did a great job and even got an inquiry for her wedding photography services - yay Faifer! I am so proud of her, you have no idea. Very exciting stuff! After the show, I dropped Charlie off at the host wedding hotel to get ready with his fellow groomsmen for the wedding. They took off and took pictures for the wedding, I got ready and then I headed to the wedding site (Noerenberg Gardens in Navarre). It was a beautiful day for a Minnesota wedding , Greg & Kim's ceremony was great and the reception was even better! We had such a good time :)

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot: Sammie swam in Lake Minnetonka, her first ever lake swim! It was very brief, before the Saturday wedding, but it was there! Sunday we recovered from the wedding and had dinner with my Grandma Ellen at Macaroni Grill. Grandma is doing well and has been off of oxygen for 4 months and is doing fantastically. I'm so excited to hear she's doing well. We stayed with Charlie's mom Sunday night.

Monday we drove up to Lake Mille Lacs and visited Aunt Jeanne & Uncle Gene. I love those guys! Jeanne made us lunch, they told us stories of the family history, showed us their wealth of collections and Sammie got pushed off a dock (ahem, Charles Raymond) into the lake for her second lake swim. It was hilarious and I will let Charlie continue this saga (since it's late and I'm lamely tired)...to be continued!

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