Brad & Kara's Wedding, Part II

The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear. Since it was a late afternoon wedding, we had a relaxing morning and got a chance to practice our songs for the wedding. Once the boys got to the house, we girls headed over to Kara's parents' house to get ready.

Getting ready for the wedding

This picture of Justine putting on Kara's eye make-up is one of my favorites not only because of Kara's facial expression in it but also thinking of their laughter and joy as they shared one of many moments during a wonderful day.

And then we headed over to Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary for pictures and to wait for the start of the wedding ceremony!

Random pictures of family

The women and Kara's parents arrived at the ceremony on a 1927 Mac Fire Truck:

Full wedding party waiting for the women

The fire truck was just one of many things that Kara and Brad had to make the day original and matching to who they are. They had the nieces and nephews as flower children and let all the kids come down in a group with Carter's pulling the wagon with the little ones (though Mateo chose to walk with him mom).  The "aisle" was a mowed path that meandered through the grass.

Walking down the aisle

They did a sand mixing ceremony--mixing dirt that came from Minnesota and sand from Martha's Vineyard. There were quite a few chuckles as they poured the sand since Kara's freshly collected beach sand was still a bit wet and did not pour as much as it fell out in clumps. Their program was a "wheel" that spun with all the information of the ceremony.  

Jill, Vonda and I got to sing "Love Can Build a Bridge" together which was extra special since the three of us rarely sing together. 

Practicing the morning of the wedding

After finishing family pictures after the ceremony, they left for the reception in the fire truck. 

The reception was held under a tent at Farm Neck Golf Club. (We all kept mixing up the names of the places for the ceremony and the reception since they both had neck in their names. At one point Paul even said that he thought it was taking place at Fish Neck Sanctuary...) The evening was full of fun, laughter, conversation, dancing and more laughter. We stayed until 11:00 which was a treat for our boys who were very tired by that time. (All the late nights may have played a role in their getting sick on our trip home, but I think it was worth it.)

Random pix from the reception

When we got to our car, we found Marley patiently waiting for the reception to end.

Brad & Kara's Wedding, Part I

Traveling to and from Martha's Vineyard may have had its mishaps, but the time on the island was filled with moment after moment of fun. A large chunk of our family stayed in Kara's grandma's house which is over 100 years old and full of character. The cousins (minus Katelyn) all bunked in one room upstairs, and we took our showers outside.

"Please let me out, too!"

We got the chance to see a little bit of the island in the midst of wedding excitement. Paul went sailing on the Atlantic Ocean with the guys on the black boat on the right (front one) in this picture:

The ceremony took place on Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary so we were thankful for beautiful weather the entire weekend. The rehearsal was very low-key:

The wedding party's view of the ceremony

The wedding party

Brad explaining something and Mom thinking about it

Jill and I got to walk with Dad (notice Jill's wedding binder)

Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely dinner at a pub in downtown Edgartown, and the kids enjoyed hanging out with each other, eating lots of random and very delicious appetizers, and staying up late.

Traveling--Lapka Style

...is not something many people probably ever want to do especially in light of our most recent adventures.  I realize that a lot of you have already heard our story, but I need to write it down so I do not forget how stress-filled our travels to and from (especially) Brad and Kara's wedding really was.

Leading up to Brad and Kara's wedding, we were busily preparing not only for our weekend there (packing and making sure we had everything for the wedding) but also for being away from our classrooms here. Needless to say, the days leading up to our trip were a bit busy. To make things more interesting, I was sick the two days before we left, and we also had our annual back to school night with our students' parents the night before we left.

Once we got that out of our way, we were set to enjoy the weekend ahead, but first we had to get to the island. Our early morning flight left San Diego on Wednesday morning without a hitch, and we met up with Jill and Mark and the girls in Dallas where we all took the same flight to Boston. We landed about 45 minutes later than scheduled which put us behind just a bit to make it to the ferry. We knew that the final ferry to the island left at 9:45 so we had about 2 3/4 hours to get our rental car and get to the ferry which should have been no problem.  By the time we grabbed some dinner and got our cars, we were down to about two hours to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to the ferry place. 

For regular people this would not have been an issue, but for us it was a challenge. We got lost getting out of Boston and for the life of us could not get out of the city. We ended up losing Jill and Mark who made it out without as many hitches as us. Every time we wanted to turn, it was a street on which we couldn't turn or the light would not allow it. We actually made it to the heart of Boston and saw City Hall; any other day it would have been great to see Boston but not this day.  Needless to say we were a little stressed by the time we made it on the freeway out of the city and knew that we were going to be pushing it to make that night's final ferry.  

Poor Brad. He had taken the ferry from the island to meet up with us and help us take the ferry over. We kept calling him to give him our ETA, and he kept assuring us that if we made it before they closed the doors at 9:45 and there was room, we could take that night's ferry (and avoid having to rent a hotel that evening on the mainland). To add to Brad's stress of trying to coordinate everything, we also found out from Brad that Brian, Gina, Dad, Vicki and Marlys (my aunt) had missed their connection and were flying in about the time that we headed out of Boston. (Vonda and her kids were there waiting for them since they were riding in the rental cars with them.) Poor Brad was also getting phone calls from them and Jill with questions about what we were going to do if we did not make it. 

At 9:39 we pulled into what our Garmin identified as the steamship authority, but we could not find the ferry. We could see a parking lot (mainly empty) that said "Do not Enter" but could not figure out where to go. We were on the phone with Brad and realized that we could see him across the way which was a relief since we knew we were in the right place, but we still were not on the ferry. Over the next few minutes, we flew across the parking lot to the ticket booth only to be told that we were supposed to be back over by the ferry office to get our tickets since we had a reservation. In the meantime, three mini vans pulled into the lot--they happened to be Dad's, Brian's, and Jill's vans. We all were like crazy people hopping out of vans, running into the ticket office to get our tickets and flying onto the ferry. We were the last vehicle to pull into the ferry at 9:44, and we watched the ferry folks close the door to the ferry as we turned off our car's engine. We could not have timed it any closer. (I am glad we made it because I think the stress of our arrival and departure might have been enough to put poor Brad over the top. Bless Trevor's, his best man, heart for being with him and helping him survive through all the craziness that was our family that evening.)

Proof of our time--my watch is four minutes fast

The door closing while Paul turns off the car and catches his breath

I am not sure what all the other people on the ferry thought as all four of our car's/van's car doors opened and 19 people started spilling out and yelling and greeting and hugging each other. There were a lot of tired looking people in their cars giving us the look.  That was our first day of travel. Fortunately, the rest of the weekend on the Vineyard was peaceful and full of fun times with each other.  More on that in a different post.

Let the people spill from the vehicles

The cousins upstairs in the ferry

On Saturday everybody (Brad and Kara included) headed back to Boston to stay overnight and catch all our flights the next day. We caravanned back to Boston after spending some time at the beach. We stopped in Plymouth for dinner and saw Plymouth Rock and the replica of the Mayflower. (FYI, do not make a special trip to see the rock--it is quite disappointing in the fact that it is tiny and not a gigantic outcropping of rock like I had always imagined.)

Tiny Plymouth Rock

The Mayflower (replica)

Eventually we all made it to our hotel despite the rain and the fact that one car went to the wrong hotel. Everybody got off to the airport bright and early the next day without any issues. We faced our first snafu of this leg of our trip when we found out that our flight into Newark was delayed enough that we would miss our connection. (This was after going through security, eating lunch and waiting at our gate for over an hour.) Despite trying everything, we could not get home that day. The best the airline could do was get us in the next morning. After Paul put up a fuss about this, he convinced them to put us up in a hotel near the airport which was a blessing. The boys enjoyed the pool while Paul and I made our sub plans for Monday and got them sent off to our principals. We packed up everything before bed and headed to bed at a decent time since we knew we would be up to leave for the airport at 5:00 a.m.

Calling the airline

Watching tv before dinner

 One of the other things the airline did for us was give us food vouchers. Since we had $120 to spend, we splurged at the hotel and then finished the rest of it at the airport the next day.

Isaac's partially eaten hamburger

Caleb's hotdog wouldn't stay on the bun much to his dismay

Paul and my steak dinner remains

With the oyster crackers which were the boys' favorite and our special milk

At 4:15, the fire alarms went off and an emergency was reported in the hotel so we had to evacuate. I know you are not supposed to do this, but we took all our stuff with us. I could just see our sitting out on the street for hours and missing our flight as a result and was not about to let that happen. We stood out on the street for 15 minutes and watched the firefighters going in and out of the hotel. By the time they let us go back in, we decided to just brush our teeth and head to the airport a little early. Thankfully, we did that because security was unbelievable (think LAX security--worse than that). We did get through with a little cushion of time and made our flight.

With all our stuff before leaving the hotel

In Denver as we walked off the plane, I was grabbing our booster seats that had been gate checked. I heard Isaac say, "Mom, I don't feel so good," turned around and saw his ashen face, and watched him start to puke. I was trying to catch it in my newspaper and was yelling into the plane at the flight attendants (who were thanking people as they walked off the plane) for a barf bag. There we stood on the jet way with Isaac puking into a garbage bag while everybody deplaned and walked past him. Lovely! We got some food into his system while we waited for our next flight (which was delayed, of course), and he seemed to be better. On the next flight he sat with Paul. Ten minutes into the flight our flight attendant came up and tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that my "other son was sick in the bathroom" so I headed back to the bathroom to help Paul and Isaac. 

We finally made it to San Diego about one and a half hours after we were scheduled to land. A friend picked us up in our vehicle, thankfully, since Isaac threw up one more time on the way home. Unfortunately, Caleb saw it this time which inspired him to throw up as well. 

We finally pulled into our garage at 3:45 p.m.--14 1/2 hours after the fire alarms woke us up that morning. The boys were in bed within 30 minutes and were asleep before 4:45. They slept through the night until 6:00 a.m. with no more mishaps.

We heard more than one person tell us (after hearing this story) that they would never travel with us. I agree...not so sure that I ever want to fly with us again, either.  And that is not our worst flying experience. If you are up for another saga, see this post.

School for All!

It feels like August and September passed in a blur because of everything that has happened since our trip to the Midwest. Most of August was spent getting ready for the start of the school year (and preparations for our being gone the second week of school for the wedding) and wrapping up things at church.  After seven years of being home with the boys as full-time mom and working part-time at church as the middle school youth leader and worship coordinator, I am now back in the classroom full-time teaching sixth grade math and eighth and ninth grade grammar, literature and composition.

Miss M. gave each of the boys a special school cookie before school started. And here they are anticipating all the sugary goodness.

The boys got a practice run at school the week before school started when both boys went to the preschool for the day when Paul and I had our faculty retreat. Here is a picture of them before we took them to school. 

Showing off their new lunch boxes

...and their backpacks

Isaac is now in first grade and loves being in school every day all day. His teacher is Miss M.

With Miss M 

His desk

Caleb is in preschool and likes all the activities during each day. He seems to be adjusting to the long rest time that he has to do each day though he still is not a fan of it.

The customary first day of school pose

In front of the preschool

With Aunt Sandy in her office

Paul is still in fifth grade and has all the fifth graders this year since there is only one section of fifth grade with no combination class.

I miss youth group and still have my moments during worship when I think of something that somebody should have done or that we should do differently, but I am absolutely LOVING being back in the classroom with the students each day. It is a gift getting to do something that I enjoy each day, and being with the students and helping them learn about this gift of language from our Creator has been a joy for me during this first month of school.

Our family is blessed to have a great school where all of us can be each day. We ride to and from school together and are finally settling into our routine.  And we celebrated our first day of school with lunch at Red Robin.

Fargo

After spending the night at Beaver and Denise's house, we left the next morning after breakfast for Fargo. We spent the next few days at Mom's apartment and also at Brian's house and had such a fantastic time. It always amazes me at how many things we manage to squeeze into our time together.

Mom's new place gave us the opportunity to do some exploring which we all thought was great. We enjoyed the library and finding different rooms throughout the place to use for playing games and also for eating. We fried our freshly caught walleye in the gazebo outside of her apartment, savored our Pizza Ranch (yes, Pizza Ranch!) pizza in the game room, and had a giant floor picnic in one of the community rooms that is near the library. 

We played lots of games of ping pong and foosball, a variety of board games checked out from the library and checkers (a first for our boys).  We also managed to make our annual trips to Chuck E. Cheese to play games and to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel and shoot at the shooting range.  Oh, and we did make it to Pizza Ranch for the buffet once and also picked it up for lunch another time.

We also spent an overnight at Brian's house. It happened to be one of the hottest times of the summer while we were in Fargo. Brian decided to make sure there was something for us all to do while we were at his place (as if that is ever a problem since the boys love running around in the open space outside) and came home with a blow-up pool, some water guns, and a variety of pool toys. Once we got the pool inflated and mostly filled with water, we spent most of the day outside by the pool and had a blast.

We also spent time around the fire pit. Caleb even got the honors of helping Uncle Brian start the fire. He gathered and crumpled up newspapers and then got to light the first part of the fire by igniting the fire with his lit newspaper and holding it there while Brian blew on the fire.

Brian showed the kids how his fancy bed works by raising and lowering the feet and head and running the different massage options. The younger kids went to sleep while we older "kids" watched a movie. Towards the end of the night we couldn't find Leo (Gina's little dog) and found him snuggled up with the kids on Isaac's sleeping bag.

The next morning Brian and Gina made everyone breakfast--pancakes, bacon and eggs. Isaac got the giant pancake that was larger than his plate (as shown in the picture above).

We ended up staying one extra day so that Vonda and I could help Mom shop for her dress for Brad and Kara's wedding. After a full afternoon that stretched into the evening and a quick stop at Taco John's for Potato Oles, we found a dress for her and a few other things for each of us as well. (A picture of it will be coming in upcoming post about the wedding!) Because of her move, Mom pulled out some things she has been storing for us including my wedding dress, Jill's bridesmaid dress (as modeled by Camille below) and the flower girl dress I wore when I was in kindergarten (as modeled by Carlie below).

My wedding dress still fits!

Part of the family

Our time with family each summer is always a gift to us. This year did not leave us disappointed since this summer's travels and visits were full of relaxation and catching up with everyone.

And it would not be a summer vacation travels series without at least one picture from our drive:

Snack time in the midst of the back seat mess

TRF

Life has been busy here, but I want to take the time to finish out the snapshots of our wonderful summer vacation visiting with family.

After spending time with Dad and Vicki, we made a very quick (overnight) trip to TRF to visit with Beaver and Denise and the girls. It happened to be the opening day for the county fair so we also got to take in the town parade. 

If you have never gotten a chance to enjoy a small-town USA parade, you are missing out. Lots of candy and prizes were thrown out. It happened to be one of the longest-lasting parades I have ever experienced with all types of tractors and farm machinery as part of the parade.  We happened to be sitting next to the high school principal (who happened to be a student in the grade ahead of me) so we were on the receiving end of water balloons and silly string sprays a couple of times. We had a great time, and the kids loved running for the candy. (The middle picture below is especially in there for my father-in-law!)

It was wonderful getting to spend even the short time we had catching up with them and getting to spend time with them at the parade and at home.  Although it has been years since we were in TRF, it is always good to go "home" and step back in time since so many memories exist for me in my hometown.