Here comes the bride: Melissa & Sean

It's no secret that I love weddings.  I have been a bridesmaid straight since 2005.  Last weekend was a particularly fun wedding as we celebrated Nick's sister Melissa's wedding to Sean her high school sweetheart.  They have known each other for so long that the wedding had an added layer of warmth, you can tell that these two genuinely love being around each other.

I think it is best to tell this weekend story in pictures . . .and no I don't know how to make one of those clever album inserts so you are stuck with a million pictures in a row and yes there was a groom.  I for some reason don't have any pictures of him.  Super lame.

FRIDAY:  

The weekend of beauty begins with mani/pedis

The long awaited arrival of the new pontoon boat

Catching frogs was a major weekend activity

Nick chases away the geese with a pellet gun

the rehearsal at Birmingham Unitarian Church

Yes my dress was a little small, but better than buying a new one

The bride and the youngest cousins, Caroline, Amanda, Caitlin, Lily & Logan

Nick and Grandma Barbara

The three Lardo sisters and Jann

 

SATURDAY

Boat ride w/full hair and make up done

Bridal party lunch at the Lardos

Jann made this for my wedding and it has made an appearance at all the weddings since!

The beautiful bride

A proud father

My favorite husband

Alison and Jason

Parents of the bride looking quite glam

The core Lardos

 

SUNDAY:  Farewell brunch at the Lardos, swimming, boat rides

Captain Nick takes my parents on a pontoon ride

For a more professional look at things (and pictures of the groom) visit :  Jean Smith Photography.

Lola & Campbell BFF

My friend Courtney dropped off her daughter Campbell yesterday for a couple of hours while she moved into a new house in our nieghborhood (hooray!).  Campbell is almost 11 months old.  Which means I had no idea what to do with her.  However my fears were subsided as soon as she saw Lola.  I think Lola has a new best friend.

Campbell liked to give Lola lots of hugs and pull her hair.  Lola enjoyed this attention.

They both liked looking out the window

Lola gave Campbell many kisses, this made her very happy

They even liked to get into trouble together.  I was also teaching Campbell about U of M, don't tell her SMU loving parents.

Playing with kids is exhausting for Lola and me both

Mayo with a Purple Bow

While mulling over an Evite for a bachelorette party that consisted of a bar crawl and party bus BEGINNING at 9PM, I debated having my mother-in-law pick me up at midnight in downtown Detroit.  Reference below pregnancy post- I swear I am not normally this lame.  At the time, the fear of being stranded in a club late nite with dreams of my bed and no car seemed worse than the mortification of being picked up like a 15 year-old at the mall.  Then I remembered it was Sara's bachelorette party . . . my signature college party buddy.  I couldn't ditch her festivities early no matter how nervous I was about my unborn child's exposure to Rhianna and downtown Detroit after hours.  I also remembered that late nite in Detroit consists of cheese fries at the local Coney Island.  You don't pass on Coney Island no matter the circumstances. 

Side note:  Why are there so many Coney Islands in SE Michigan and no where else?  What started this tradition?  Have you ever been to the real Coney Island?  It's gross- the Michigan versions are much preferable.

Proud U of M grads, Julianne, Laura, Sara (the bachelorette), Katherine, me and Mina at the wine tasting shower.

After 6 years of asking, Katherine finally joined Facebook.  This is a BIG deal for a technology hater like her.

Sara is the last in this group to get married.  We have a tradition of giving a bag monogrammed with the bride's new initials and filled with gag gifts for the bachelorette party.  Sara's purple bag is featured in this photo.

Sara LOVES the color purple and mayo more than the average bear.  Everything in her life is purple and most of her food is dipped in mayonnaise . . . seriously.  Senior year of college we celebrated her 21st birthday with a surprise "Mayo with a Purple Bow" themed party.  Her bag obv. had to have mayo with a purple bow resurrected.

Jules and Jane matching by accident. 

It was a great weekend celebrating Sara's upcoming marriage and catching up with old college friends.  I am so happy I didn't leave early as I would have missed losing $23 in a slot machine, Katherine posting her first ever status update on Facebook, Laura catching an impromptu nap on the bus ride home and Jules hesitantly offering Sara a dancing assist. 

Mother's Day was Sunday and although I was tired from the night before I enjoyed an excellent brunch at Forest Lake with Nick's parents and grandparents followed by a tour of their new house on Long Lake.

It was my favorite kind of SE Detroit weekend, friends, family, Coney, and beautiful weather.  I am already looking forward to returning in less than 2 weeks!

Happy Mother's Day!

For mother's day Nick gave me the following gift:

http://www.babyplus.com/

Seriously. 

When I opened it I immediately started to laugh.  Thankfully he did too . . .

Early educational purchases run in the family.  Nick's father, Horacio bought him an entire set of World Book Encyclopedia's by the age of 2.  Nick still doesn't understand why I think this is funny (Horacio definitely sees the humor in it now). 

Like father, like son.

16 weeks down, many more to go

Well it's official I don't fit in my bridesmaid's dress for Nick's sister's wedding in two weeks.  It fit just last week.  Yes I have been indulging a bit more than normal, but I'm also pregnant and I blame the latter.  Nick's dad Horacio told me on Sunday, "I think you are going to deliver a couple of weeks early, I have seen many pregnant women in my life and you are big for your stage."  Awesome.

In the mean time, Nick has been perfecting his baby holding skills with Lola.  Our experience with children and infants in particular is pretty much zero.  We need practice wherever we can get it.  She doesn't seem to mind being treated like an infant, but may change her tune when the actual baby is here.  After 3 years of being an only child her life is about to drastically change.  I guess ours is too!

I hope our child is less hairy.  Nick in one of his many practice positions.

Thank goodness for dogs and tailors (I promise that dress will fit by May 21st Melissa- don't worry).

Galveston, TX

Texas is a ginormous state.  Nick and I are doing our best to explore our adopted homeland and decided to visit Galveston over Easter weekend.  Galveston is another place that everyone from Texas seems to hate.  My friends and coworkers all looked at me skeptically when I told them of our plans to visit the barrier island about an hour outside of Houston.  I hoped the comments of, "the water is brown", "so much seaweed", "everyone is a redneck- tell Nick to leave the Polos at home", "there are oil rigs everywhere", were not true as I packed my trusted beach wardrobe of sundresses, sunglasses and sunscreen (Except I hate wearing sunscreen, I bring it just for show.  See below sunburn pictures for proof).   Sure enough just like the Alamo, I LOVED it!  I love anywhere with the smell of salt air, the sound of seagulls and drinks poolside.

We made it to the Hotel Galvez by midnight Thursday- the hotel was beautiful and historic- I could already tell Galveston was my kind of place.  I looked over at Nick, hoping it was his kind of place too.  Nick's enthusiasm for this trip was suspicious from the beginning. The trip involved, travel, driving and spending money- not Nick's favorite things.  When he took the liberty of booking the hotel room himself I knew something was up.  Then it hit me- his massage therapist moved to Galveston earlier this year.  Sure enough Karen, said massage therapist showed up to give us both messages Friday AM.  We also enjoyed a long walk on the beach, stopping at the Spot for drinks/apps and Rudy & Paco for dinner.  Nick even ordered what he classifies as the best value wine he has ever had at dinner, 14 Hands, from Washington State.

Friday dinner at Rudy & Paco

Vacation for Nick = doing work by the pool

Nick in front of the Hotel Galvez

Galveston beach

Nick made me add this one . . .

Saturday our friends Rob and Kim invited us to a crawfish boil or what I call the southern Lobster bake.  Crawfish is a lot of work.  Like so much for so little meat.  Thankfully Kim was a good teacher and by the end of the afternoon we were shucking like semi-pros.  The afternoon was almost perfect, good friends, good food and corn hole but then an Ohio State fan had to go and ruin things, like they so often do.  When he found out my allegiance was more of the maize and blue variety he became decidedly less classy about giving us a ride in his golf cart.  I didn't really want to ride in a golf cart with a red "O" flag on it anyways.  The rest of the party I felt like I was wearing a Michigan t-shirt in the Horseshoe in late November.  It is surprising Nick and I got out of there without beer thrown at us.

Rob dishing up some Crawfish

The crawfish was served on giant plastic plates that are hosed off

They are just little guys . . .

In honor of Easter there were several little ducks at the party

Nick wanted to bring one of the ducks home

I am mean and said "no".

My face is the same scarlet color as the flag

Easter Sunday we drove to Houston to spend the day with Nick's grandparents visiting from Michigan, cousins, aunt and uncle.  We went to church and enjoyed an excellent Easter lunch, sadly I didn't take any photos.

All in all a great weekend and Go Blue!