Wedded Bliss

I'm a wee bit behind on my life updating, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write about our trip up to The Fort for M & C's wedding weekend. It was an absolutely amazing trip home, and for a change, we didn't feel rushed every second of the visit. We got to spend some time with one grandmother on Friday afternoon, while she took us Christmas shopping. Our cart was full to the brim when we left Target. She's such an awesome woman. We also took in some of the rehearsal dinner on Friday night and gorged ourselves on pasta and pastries while sipping from the wine fountain.

Saturday was the day we've been awaiting for probably close to 12 years. M & I have been friends since 7th grade English. I remember passing her a note about some of the boys in our grade, and somehow the teacher got ahold of it and read it to the entire class the next day. Funny enough - I was out sick that day and spared some of the embarassment. She introduced me to C when we were juniors in high school. She had kept him under pretty good wraps for awhile, but then came the chance to go to the Goo Goo Dolls and Sugar Ray concert, and he attended with us. I remember thinking he was a bit quiet and shy, but who wouldn't be meeting a friend for the first time. Since then, M & C have become staples in all of our friends lives... from attending weddings and events together, to high school football games and trips to the beach. It was the wedding all of us knew would be coming... we just never expected it to be the last of the bunch! And it was gorgeous. From the small fall touches at the church, to her cracking up laughing during the ceremony, to "the hot brother" singing a beautiful song to the couple, it was full of love and we could all feel it.

The reception wasn't bad either! It's always fun to get the high school girls back together to share our lives now and reminiss about how they were then. We ate, we danced, we sang, we drank, we got hit on by the videographer. (OK... so maybe I was egging him on a little bit!) But I literally cannot express enough how grateful I was to be a part of their special day and how beautiful M looked and how fantastic everything turned out to be. Sometimes, you've just gotta love love.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family. We took in the zoo with my parents and it was amazing to see how while some things have changed drastically in the 10 years since I was there last (new giraffe exhibit, new entrance) but there were still all the same goodies from my childhood... the nasty smelling cat house, the creepy naked mole rats in the insect house, and the totally badass komodo dragons. We rounded out the weekend with dinner on the river with my parents and a trip to visit my other grandmother for her to catch up on our busy and hectic lives.

There's something theraputic about going back home. I was blessed to be able to do so 4 times this year, which is a rarity. Next year, it will be only twice. While living in SC sometimes has its bad side, right now, we are 100% content with our lives here. There had been a possibility of a move earlier this year, but when that didn't pan out, I think it put a lot of things back into perspective for me. I've got great friends here, and greater friends in The Fort. But I am so lucky that the distance and the years apart haven't caused our friendships to be any more lacking. When we get together, it's still a ball of fun. And I could not ask for more.