A nice weekend

Saturday is bucketed down rain all morning. The boys were very high energy & had no place to direct that energy, except into annoying the crap out of us. Which they proceeded to do with much joy. My SIL called to let us know the wedding had been moved to the Equestrian Center, where the reception was being held, due to the rain. She mentioned it was a bit chilly there the previous night, but once they got the huge wood stove going it might actually be too hot. So I thought jackets for everyone would be nice just in case.

I was not looking forward to loading 2 high energy boys into a car for a 2 hour drive to a place where they would then be expected to sit still for 30-45 more minutes for the ceremony, but that's how things are so we're all just going to have to deal with it. This is my ongoing problem. Solemn events, which I think my children should experience & learn to deal with, always seem to happen a lengthy car ride away and it's hard on small energetic beings to be strapped in one place for a couple of hours and then be expected to hold themselves still in another place for another hour.  I think it is a bit unfair really. So we don't do it very often. So they aren't used to it. So it's difficult.

We set up the DVD player, got some movies, loaded everyone in the car and drove off in the pouring rain. I once again got car sick on the first half of the drive, just as I had a couple weeks previously when we drove up to visit friends near Dinosaur Land. I never used to get sick on it. I blame advancing age.  We all had a snack along the way because who knew when dinner would be.  I had the Saltines.

When we reached the Equestrian Center I realized I had made an error in assumption.  There are equestrian centers around (in the general sense) where we live. They are like stepped down country clubs for the most part. Lots of riding area, riding rings, a couple of barns and a main building, usually one of those easy to assemble all metal building, that is used for parties & meetings. Big open area with small kitchen at one end sort of thing.  Slow to heat in the chill, but heatable. 

That is not what this was.

This was a barn. Open to the air mostly. With a freshly scraped dirt floor where the reception & wedding were being held.  And a huge pile of dirt at one end that had been scraped off, with some screens in front. There were ponies in stalls in another section of the barn, the part where the buffet was set up. There were pigs and ducks in pens outside. Not really a place for high heels.

Had I been expecting a barn I would have dressed differently. Jeans, a sweater, my Ren boots, and been much more comfortable. I would have dressed the boys in decent, but dirt friendly clothing and warmer coats.

It was a fun reception. The boys & I missed the wedding while they looked at the ponies and ran around outside from the pig pens to the duck pens and around the silo. My heels sunk in and stuck in the soggy ground every third step. We sat with DH's family & he got talk with his brother who we haven't seen in 5 years. I talked with his sister & her husband.  The boys played with their little girl cousins (daughters of DH's nephew). They are the same age as my brother's little girls, blond and dark eyed like my brother's girls and I think the boys came away with the idea that little girl cousins are pretty much interchangeable.

It was a very pretty wedding. Autumn colors, apples wrapped in ribbons on the tables, mums and squash for decoration. It was just a bit chilly. It doesn't win for coldest wedding I have ever been too. My friend Pixie holds that distinction. She got married a few years ago out on the C&O canal, at the end of December, in the snow and biting wind. DH & I and other couple, stood at the 4 quarters of the circle, each representing an element. I was water, or 'ice' as the case may be.

I took my camera but the battery was dying and the replacement battery was dead. So I only got about 6 photos & all of my immediate family. Here are some of them.

Havoc

Mayhem

DH

The dirt pile