Part 2 - The Wedding!

(photo taken by Samantha Sorbello)

The wedding was beautiful. It was a very pretty day (a little hot) at a very pretty place. The bride was so beautiful, the groom was handsome in his uniform, and they were so happy! Elijah did a great job - he even carried the real rings without mishap! He and Piper marched down the aisle like old pros. Tallie walked down as well, and Molly went part-way ... and then turned around and to come back to me. So I ended up carrying her down, which was fine.

Our handsome guys

Almost all the groomsmen (missing Ty on the end)

John and Patrick managed to play daddy and groomsman quite well through the ceremony.

The kids all sat with Mom and Dad in turns, too.

Linde, reading scripture

with Miss Tallie

Me, reading scripture, with Molly screaming behind me. She only lasted a few minutes into the ceremony before I had to take her out.

Piper had a great time being a flower girl. She spent most of the ceremony gathering up petals to refill her basket, then tossing them all again. It was so cute!

The happy couple

Big kiss!

Cameron built the cross in the background for the wedding.

Married!

The wedding party (except we cut Justin off this time)

Waiting for more pictures

My cousin Jen and her family

The little cousins had a great time together at the reception. They played and danced together for hours! (Except for Molly, who spent the entire night in my arms.)

Wedding day, part 1

Sunday was the big day - wedding day! Patrick slept in a little bit (to recover from guys' night the night before) while the kids and I got up and went to breakfast with Nana & Grandpa, Aunt Louise and Uncle Stuart, and lots of other wedding folk. After breakfast, Patrick joined us and we met John & Linde and the girls at the pool. We had lots of fun swimming, as always. All four of these kids love the water. I've always thought that Elijah loved being in the water, but that's nothing compared to the girls - they are all three just FISH. I was worn out long before Elijah and Molly were ready to get out, but our mission was accomplished: swim until they had no choice but to take HUGE naps. We ate lunch, visited my cousin Loey and her family (my kids just loved playing with Anna and James) and put the kids down for naps.

After swimming - tired and happy!

The kids took great naps, and the grown ups ate lunch and got ready to go. I did my mom's hair and spent too much time avoiding going into our hotel room (I didn't want to wake the kids rummaging around in there) and didn't give myself enough time to do a good job on my own hair. (Big mistake #1) Oh well. Sorry about the pictures, Cameron & Amanda ...

We woke the kids (oops - big mistake #2 of the day - should've put them down super early so they could sleep until they woke up) and hurried off to the vineyard. (Beautiful - if you're ever near there, go see it.) Patrick was a groomsman, and he joined the rest of the guys for their pictures. Linde and I got all four kids ready to go (Elijah was the ring bearer, Piper, Tallie and Molly were the flower girls) and then spend the rest of the waiting period bribing them with snacks to keep them clean and somewhat calm. Molly did not take kindly to being woken from her nap, and her bad mood only got worse as we tried to get her dressed. A blister on one of her heels from earlier in the week did not help things - she was not at all interested in wearing shoes! But then it was wedding time, and we were all ready to go.

Pretty Tallie

Dancing! Those dresses were just so much fun to twirl in - so cute!

All dressed up ... and waiting. Snacks to the rescue!

Handsome little man.

Rehearsal (or, the pre-party)

The day after graduation, we got up in the wee hours of the morning and started the drive down to North Carolina for the BIG event of the weekend - Cameron's wedding.

We had a little car trouble on the way down, and spent a couple of hours at a rest stop trying to figure it out, but we made it eventually. Saturday afternoon was the rehearsal (which we just missed - sorry dude), and then the rehearsal dinner. It was a pretty big party, and it was great to see so many fun people. The dinner was at a another vineyard near the wedding vineyard. It was a very pretty place. The kids had had a very long day, so I left pretty early to put them to bed. It was still a late night for them though (they're usually in bed around 7:00).

Patrick and the other guys got to stay up and enjoy some tasty beverages and quality time with Cameron and each other, which was great since there was no time for any sort of bachelor party. I thought it was cool to see all the various groups of people from different times in Cam's life all together and having a great time with each other. His brothers (and brother-in-law), life-long best friends, his high school guys, fellow Marines, and guys from the Academy were all there, along with some of their families.

I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few.

The groom!

Miss Molly - I didn't get a picture of her with Tallie in their matching dresses, but they sure were cute!

Elijah and Piper spent most of the evening wandering around the grounds with Uncle Stuart - they had a great time together.

Pretty.

Graduation day

Well, it was a big day. Four years of the Academy, a year of the prep school before that, and a couple of years enlisted in the Marine Corps before that ... We were all pretty proud of him. He graduated "with merit" (even Cameron isn't sure what that means, specifically) and was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps. I am just so happy for him that he doesn't have to wear that awful, polyester, white Navy uniform anymore. =)

At the last minute (the night before), it occurred to us (well, to Linde, who is pretty smart) that maybe a big, long morning of sitting in the sun and listening to boring speeches would be perfectly horrible for the kiddos, and we went back and forth about taking them or not. In the end, it was way too late to get a babysitter, and neither Patrick or I wanted the other one to have to stay home and miss it, so we took them. They did surprisingly well, once I got them some water and a pretzel and popcorn. Patrick zipped them right back to the house as soon as Cameron walked, which was just in time to get back for lunch and naps. So it all worked out.

My beautiful little family.
(Look at those kids. Cute? Yep. Handful? Yes, sir.)

We were way, way up there, but we could see everything.

The Blue Angels did a fly over, and the speaker was VP Joe Biden, so there were helicopters and all that jazz as well. I have no comment about him, and I missed his entire speech anyway because I was walking with Molly outside. I did manage to keep her in long enough to witness the Marine officers oath and commissioning, and to see Cameron get his diploma, which was all that I really needed to see anyway. Molly got excited as soon as they started reading names, and clapped and yelled, "Yay Cam-wen!" for each graduate as they walked ... for a while. She gave up on it ever actually being Cameron before they got to him. I'm sure all the honors graduates who went first appreciated the extra applause. They asked the family and friends of each graduate to stand when their (not midshipman anymore) was called so that the support of everyone's family and friends was acknowledged as well. We stood and yelled our best, but we were pretty high up there - I doubt Cam could hear us. Oh, and I did get to see the famous hat toss at the end (after the kids left) as well.

Cameron, about to get his diploma. His roommate, teammate, good friend, and one of his groomsmen, Mike, is behind him. The graduates in black (about 200 out of the 1,025 graduates) are going into the Marines, those wearing white are Navy.

Happy, proud, DONE!

I don't know if there was another family in the crowd there that was honestly a little surprised that their kid graduated from high school at all, let alone got into college, let alone graduated with merit from one of the more demanding colleges in the country. Probably not. If we were any more proud of him, we would have exploded. Awesome. Here's John's post, with a link to some more pictures.

Molly & Tallie's Birthday Bash!

While we were in Annapolis for Commissioning Week, we also got to celebrate Molly and Tallie's birthdays. They were born only 4 weeks apart, and since we were all together in between their birthdays, we decided to throw them a party! We were blessed to have lots of loved ones to celebrate with us. Nana & Grandpa, John & Linde, Cameron, Uncle Alan, Uncle Bruce & Aunt Margie, George & Kathy Cooper, and Uncle Jack & Aunt Bev McCready were all there, and we were so glad that the girls' new aunt, Amanda, could come and celebrate too, despite a busy week of wedding preparations.

Our little birthday girl took a little while to wake up and get used to the big crowd of people that had appeared during nap time.

Just a few of the guests - I guess none of the ladies sat still long enough for a picture.

The girls weren't sure what was supposed to happen with those candles.
Cutie-pie matching outfits!
(Thanks, Piper, for letting Molly borrow yours.)

They sure enjoyed the frosting!

Elijah and Piper enjoyed the food, and the party favors!

Presents! Lots of matching gifts. Too cute.

Tallie just loved the balloons!

Happy Birthday, little girls!

And one last photo of the matching cuties, stolen from John's blog.

A few more pictures of Molly eating frosting (and other birthday fun) are up on Picasa, facebook, and John's blog. Enjoy!

Commissioning week

We just got home from a long and crazy trip up and down the east coast. I'll have to post about it all in sections, so more photos and video coming soon!

First we headed south to Annapolis, Maryland (after a quick, fun overnight with Patrick's sister, Diane & family - thanks guys!). My brother, Cameron, just finished his four years at the U.S. Naval Academy and we got to join lots of friends and family there to celebrate Commissioning Week - a whole week of events leading up to graduation. My parents rented a house for the week and we had a great time enjoying some of the events, and also just hanging out together. The kids especially enjoyed playing with their cousins. The grown-ups attended the Garden Party, got to meet classmates and mentors, and got a private Cameron-lead tour of campus. We all got to walk around campus a few times, and I think we managed to see most of it. It's very pretty, and there are lots of monuments and such to see. We also got to see my cousins, Andy and Diane, and their kids one evening for a long-overdue reunion, but I forgot to take any pictures (duh). I also forgot to take pictures at Cameron's graduation party. You can see some from that night (including a very sweaty family picture of us!) and more over on my brother John's blog (including posts here, here, here, and here.)

Reading with Uncle Cam

Taking a break on Grandpa's shoulders

Pipes and drums

Patrick and Elijah got to go to the Blue Angels show - it was amazing!

Lots more photos of the little girls' birthday party and graduation, and maybe even some videos coming soon!

Spring carnival

On Saturday afternoon we took the kids to the spring carnival at Patrick's work. It's aimed at the college students primarily, but they had fun things that our kids could do too and we enjoyed it. The weather was sunny and warm and perfect for spending the afternoon outside. It was great fun, and it wore us all out!

They had a giant (fast) slide that our kids LOVED. I wasn't sure how Molly would do, but she wasn't scared at all. The first thing she said was, "AGAIN!" All the rides and things were free, so we did the slide over and over. I love that we got some pictures of the looks on their faces on the way down - you can see how much fun they were having - and Molly's hair is hysterical.

She had her tongue out and a huge smile every time.

Ready to go again as soon as she was stopped.

He loved it too -they were both racing to get in line again as soon as they got down.

The multicultural student union was painting international flags for the college students. Elijah got Thomas the Tank Engine on both cheeks. I don't think his face painter had prepared for that one, but he did a great job winging it.

She's a Rhode Island girl - gotta love Del's!

Mmmmm ... funnel cake for snack.

The kids also had a great time in the giant bouncy house. There were only a few other little kids there, so they put them all in at once (in between the large groups of rowdy college kids). They had lots of room to run and fall down.

The kids had hot dogs for dinner at the carnival and we headed home, all very tired after such a fun day.