Wedding Weekend

This past weekend we traveled back home to Portland for my brother's wedding. The weather forecast held true, and we enjoyed beautiful 80-degree weather (truthfully it was a little chilly for my Texas heat-thinned blood! ...my friends and relatives in the NW are now laughing at me considering that it was one of the nicest weekends they've had all summer), and more importantly-- a beautiful and touching wedding. My camera is still broken, so these shots are courtesy of my cousin and mother-in-law.

The beautiful bride and groom.

Laura & I giving a reading during the ceremony.

The "three of us" at the reception (that would be me, J, and baby for those of you counting... ; )

Beautiful garden setting for the cocktail hour and dinner. And in the background, you can see the ice cream truck arriving. So cute! The ice cream truck (which also had cupcakes) was in lieu of a traditional wedding cake.

The wedding was gorgeous and it was so great to see so many extended family members. A trip home for this type of big family event is always kind of a whirlwind, and the 3.5 day weekend didn't seem nearly long enough. I've definitely had some homesickness since we arrived back in Austin, but I know that this whole living thousands of miles away from everyone we know and love is just a season of life. It's the best thing for our little family right now, and hopefully we'll be back out west at some point in the next few years.

Side note: my blues did not improve when we are arrived home at 2am Sunday night (or Monday morning) after a long delay in Denver, waited for our bags, walked all the way out to the long-term parking lot (because we didn't want to sit around and wait for the shuttle at 2am), and worked up a nice sweat in the 90-degree heat along the way, only to find that my car wouldn't start. Of course. So we walked all the way back to the terminal and took a cab home. On Monday, we went back to jump start the car, but no luck. So now my car is in the shop and we're just crossing our fingers that it's nothing serious. I'm really, really hoping that after weeks of preparing for and dealing with the move, and now several weeks spent unpacking and organizing-- plus the wedding travel, work travel (greetings from Atlanta!), and now the car fiasco-- that life slows down soon. Is it Friday yet?? (OK, end whine.)