Introducing The Sholls!

Charlie and I arrived home from Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon, pretty tired from a fun-filled weekend with our friends. We arrived in Baltimore on Thursday afternoon, had some dinner at Damon's just outside the BWI airport, then drove 2 hours from Maryland to Pennsylvania in the Ford Fusion (John & Beth Wilke, Mar and me). After checking in to the hotel, we met our friends the Merancys and Tanner and Karen at the hotel bar for some drinks and snacks. No sooner had we gotten our first round of drinks, than Cory & Erin arrived with their rehearsal dinner crowd at our hotel bar - so naturally we joined them there for some post-rehearsal, pre-wedding festivities. I cut my evening short since I was super exhausted from a long day of travel and just wanted to sleep, and returned to the hotel for an evening of rest in my snuggly hotel bed.

Friday we had planned to go outlet shopping with the group before the evening wedding, but an impromptu morning visit from Cory and suggestion of breakfast and mini-putt changed those plans! The lot of us headed to Denny's first (too much breakfast!) and then Jim Mack's for 24 holes of putt-putt and then some AWESOME homemade ice cream (I had black cherry). It was a good time fa sho (Nujoud, Karen and I even rode in an alien spaceship, wow! :)!! We left putt-putt, got ready for the wedding, and caught the shuttle (I call it the party bus) from the hotel to the ceremony/reception. Even though our driver took the longest way in the history of driving, we made it with time to spare for the ceremony.

Erin and Cory (now officially "The Sholls") got married in a lovely ceremony in Lancaster, PA in front of a beautiful river backdrop. Erin was beautiful and Cory looked dashing in his fancy tux. All the details and time Erin spent putting into the wedding really showed and it turned out great! Way to go DIY bride! In sum of the evening: we ate, drank, stepped on Erin's dress, Charlie danced with Erin (jazz hands style), lit fire to some sparklers and danced like crazies until they kicked us out. Since the reception ended relatively early, we all went back to the hotel bar and hung out (I spent most of the evening with Old Man Wilke) until just about bar close...or until a massive bout of hiccups and nonsensical conversations (sorry Brent) dictated I get escorted back to my hotel room for nighty-night time.

On Saturday we packed up and went to Cory's father's home on the Susquehannah (sp?) River. We had some delicious burgers and leftovers then went on a boat ride to watch Cory tear up the river with his awesome wakeboarding. That kid can shred! It was a beautiful (albeit cold-watered) day for a boat ride :) We left after a couple hours to drive back to Baltimore, where the Wilkes and Marshiks met up with the Tobins for dinner and drinks. It was great to see them, if even for a brief evening. After dinner and drinks on the Inner Harbor (I had some really awful tuna steak, ick), we walked to the ESPN Zone...at which point I was certain that tuna was catching up with me since my face was hot and splotchy-red, plus my tummy was gurgling something fierce...so the dudes went on with their evening and at 8:30 pm the ladies went back to the hotel, changed into our jammies and talked until 12:30 am. The guys returned home at around 1 am, Jim body-slammed me on my bed, we slept until 6:30 am, got ready for the trip home, ate hotel breakfast (mmmmmmmmm, belgian waffles with raspberries) and said our goodbyes. By 10 am we were back at the airport and by 4:30 pm we were finally back home in League City. Charlie went to bed at 8:00 pm last night and I followed after Desperate Housewives.

I've got to be honest (thanks Beth for the phrasing), it was a great vacation with great friends.
Congratulations to Cory & Erin on their awesome wedding!!