Wedding Traditions!

This past Friday morning Matt, Bethany, Andy and I headed to Chesapeake City, MD (about an hour north of Baltimore) for Jessica Curran's wedding. Jess and her family are good family friends. We have known each other since 7th grade. We were on the same church district and went to camps and district events all throughout high school and Beth and I use to drive my 89 Chevy Citation to Baltimore on the weekends to visit her and her sisters! We have lots of great memories and traditions including singing in all of their weddings. First was her mom's wedding in 2000, then Jenn's wedding (Jess's older sister) June 2003, Katie's wedding (Jess's younger sister) Sept 08, and now Jess's wedding Sept 09. Even 9 months pregnant I wasn't going to miss her wedding. Of course I went to the Dr. the day before we left to make sure everything was okay. That was a great visit actually. I lost 1 lb and my blood pressure was great. She just advised that I make sure I knew where the closest Labor and Delivery Hospital was. Thankfully we didn't have to worry about that.

Our trip there was rather long due to the GPS taking us the wrong way around DC, thus getting stuck in rush hour traffic. We ended up missing the rehearsal but made it to the rehearsal dinner. What I love about Jess and the rest of the Curran's is their love for crabs! They introduced Bethany and I to crabs probably in early high school. We grew up in MD but for some reason never got into them till we started hanging out with them. So it was to be expected that we would get to chow down on some yummy MD crabs at the rehearsal dinner! Good times!

Later that night, we checked into our hotel. We were suppose to be staying in a one bedroom suite at the Hilton, Non-smoking, with two queen size beds. Well we walked in to the room and it obviously wasn't non-smoking so I called the front desk and they upgraded us to a two bedroom suite free of charge! We had three tv's!! It was great! We decided to go for a nigh swim and hang out with some old friends.

Now all along, I am missing Grace like crazy. This is only the third time I've been away from her and probably the furthest distance I've been away from her ever! But she was staying home and her Aunt Jenn and cousin Alex were watching her so I knew she would be in good hands and would have a blast. However, Jenn called me later that afternoon and Grace was beginning to get a fever and not feeling well. Her nose was constantly running..so much that they went through an entire box of Puffs plus in less than 24 hours. So not only am I missing her but I'm feeling guilty that she is sick and I'm not there to comfort her. Long story short, she didn't sleep well at all for her Aunt Jenn that night and her temp got up to 102.

But what could I do, I was over 5 hours away and still had the wedding to get through. So I just prayed for her and talked to her on the phone and told her mommy would be home soon! We had a relaxing morning and afternoon, went and discovered the little college town (University of Delaware) that we were staying in, and ate a really good cupcake from a little shop that was recently featured on the Food Network. Then we got ready and headed to the wedding. It was a gorgeous day, couldn't have ordered a more perfect day for the wedding. Jess looked beautiful and Matt cried when she walked down the isle. I could barely look at him during our song. She picked the song "Kind and Generous" by Natalie Merchant. At first I was like, okay..not your average wedding song but after I really started looking at the words and hearing Jess's reasoning for picking it I realized how it was thanking God for bringing them together. Andy played acoustic guitar and we slowed it down some! They were pleased so I guess that is all that matters.

The reception was fun and the food was amazing. The thing about being 9 months pregnant is you think you can eat a lot more than you really can. So I was quite miserable by the time we climbed in the car at 10 pm to drive home. Yep, that's right. We drove straight home. We didn't get in till 4 am but it was worth it. I wanted to see my little girl and Andy needed to get back for church. Overall it was a great trip and a nice get a way for Matt and I before Reese gets here.

Grace had a rough time on Sunday and ended up sleeping on me during her nap but she is feeling much better today. I think we are almost over this nasty little cold.

Here are some pics of the wedding! Don't be alarmed when you see the size of my stomach because I was shocked! I knew my stomach was big but didn't realize how big till I saw it in these pictures! hahahahah!