My Cousins Wedding

"You may kiss the bride"

Sisters...

The Romantic Wedding Dance...

The Bride and Groom with her parents

My Uncle was a real party animal!

"Biana" dances with her Dad

My Uncle with "The Sock Fashion Expert"

Super Catman drove a hard bargain - I had to agree to doing TWO of his dishes turns in exchange for ONE dance with him ;-) It was worth it, though, when the dancers grabbed him and started flipping him around - lol!

Moonbeam was also a well sought out dance partner ;-)

My Cousin, "Biana" escorted by her parents during the wedding march.

Super Catman shows my cousin a snake he has found (they are pointing for him to take it away!!)

The most incredible wedding dinner I have EVER eaten!!

Us girls with my cousin, the bride!!

It was so romantic!!

And he did dance with me!! To "I can't help falling in love with you". Oh it was time stopping!!

Life is crazy busy as usual, but that's no surprise. As I sit here at the computer, relaxing after a crazy weekend, my 20 year old's instructional video on how to use his new tree stand is blaring in the background as my son and boys watch with rapt attention. I can just see where this is going (on another adventure). Life is just crazy, funny and crazy some more. Amazingly we got to go to my cousin, Biana's wedding in Bellingham, WA, which is the post I'm currently working on. All except the two eldest boys, that is, they managed the homefront in our absence :-)

It was only a week or two before the big day when my husband cleared us for the drive. In that time frame, all the campgrounds were booked solid within a hundred mile radius with the exception of spending almost $100 at a koa. That seemed pretty ridiculous, so we began looking into hotels. When we saw what lousy deals those were, I started to panic, but slowly felt this assurance that God was going to give us the best. With that, I eventually checked out somebodies suggestion to look on Craigslist. There were great places on there, all of which were as you may have guessed... booked. I got excited about the ones over looking Bellingham Bay, but my husband said "no" to anything we'd have to share with strangers. In my frustration, I stumbled over an odd sounding ad. It caught my attention, though, because it was nearby. Turns out upon further investigation it was none other than....( scary music please) .....

Giggles The Clown Family Fun Park. Yes, you read right. If you will remember, clowns freak me out. Ever since that horrible clown and shoe picture on the hall wall across from my childhood bedroom I've never liked them. One night my aunt brought the picture to my attention "see that clown with the shoe, dear?" she asked sweetly. "Well that shoe is all that is left of a little child who was eaten by that very clown!!" Then she laughed fiendishly and said "sweet dreams, good night dear". My grandmother eventually burned the picture because it was so disturbing for me to go to sleep having that be the last thing I saw.

Anyhow, Giggles The Clown seemed to be our best bet. The drive was very taxing and hot with no air conditioning. At one point I had a meltdown and my husband stopped at a creek so we could jump in. At long last, after 12 hours, we arrived in Bellingham. My husband, who is extremely gifted with navigation, found the place right away. Well, kind of.....

Not being all there after the hot, sweltering ride, I inadvertently stumbled upon a deck which was supposed to have a key hidden. I knocked on all the doors. I looked in all the windows. The place was horribly filthy and nasty. I eventually got a door open and walked around, appalled, inside. Whoever the last people to stay were, it hadn't been cleaned from. Then I heard my husband calling me. It was then that I discovered, I was in the wrong house!

Turns out Giggles, The Clown's Place was immaculate and everything fun imaginable for kids. The second my little ones got there, they never wanted to leave. Wonderful boxes of toys were in the big, roomy kitchen. Fun pictures were everywhere. A lush grassy park with tons of toys, driving cars, play house, horses, everything imaginable was there. My kids were so so happy!! There was a bedroom for me and one for the kids that was part of a cool, comfortable basement apartment. It was perfect. I couldn't have possibly asked for better. God knew what the kids needed and this was the place. Despite my checkered past with clowns, Giggles was all right. Really, she was really really sweet. She even provided us later with a donut breakfast and suckers for each child as big as their heads.

Hurridly, we got ready for the pre-wedding dinner that my cousin was serving. The Google map said it was only 2.7 miles so we decided to walk. Though we enjoyed the walk after 12 hours in the car, it made us a little late, not to mention hot, sweaty, dusty, and with a few wild blackberry stains not to mention Moonbeam taking a plunge out of her stroller. The blackberries grow wild all over the place and they were such a novelty for us!! Anyhow, we arrived by foot, looking like The Beverly Hillbillies. There was my cousin at this incredible garden party with distinguished looking guests sipping wine I had no idea how to pronounce. For a few short minutes I wasn't sure doing this was such a good idea. Then everybody smiled and nobody seemed to care about our crazy entrance. They were all friendly and genuinely glad to see us. Everybody loved the kids. My cousin's home was an exquisite 5 acres with pond, horses, gardens, and lush everything. The house almost made me gasp it was so beautiful. She served incredible food and for dessert there were luscious chocolate and vanilla cheese cakes. They were all too afraid of letting us walk back because of the traffic and insisted on driving us divided up into two cars.

The next day we bummed around the Bay area, picked wild black berries and did a little shopping. The kids, however, wanted to stay at Giggles place. Every chance they got, all they wanted to was play with her toys and enjoy her big park area. As I browsed around Giggles Park, I happened to walk by the neighbors place, and a grumpy looking woman smoking a cigarette frowned back at me. I smiled, waved and said "hi". In turn, she said in a rather hostile manner, "**** you!!" Gingerly, I crept away, giggling that it was a good thing this horrid woman wasn't home when I was walking around inside her house the day before ;-)

When it was time to go, everybody dressed in beautiful attire and took the car to the wedding.... uh not exactly. Actually my husband had lint on his shirt and in a panic, I found myself at Wal mart buying tape to try pulling it off with. I forgot to shave my arm pits. My jewelry didn't seem to be right. I got my period. I could go on an on to make you laugh, but the best thing was, I just decided that hairy pits or not, I was bound and determined to enjoy this wedding and that is just what I did.

The pictures are probably enough and worth thousands of words. I hope you enjoy them :-)