Mom and Dad's 12 hour getaway

This weekend Jim and I escaped from the homestead and attended Jim's childhood buddy's wedding.  Dan, the groom, was Jim's best man in our wedding and has been Jim's friend since 1st grade.  It was important to Jim that we attend, even though the wedding was held in the foothills of Mt. Rainier - a long and winding 4 hour drive from our house.  4 hours....each way.

Thankfully, the Nanasitter was able to come down to our place for the weekend and watch our kiddos.  I was trying to make it an easy day for her, but as it turned out - Nana had to watch the baby, get Madison to a birthday party, and take both kids to the school carnival.  Thank goodness she's an old pro at this kid-wrangling business, because it was a pretty busy day.  The girls enjoyed themselves and from what I can tell, the only thing that was neglected during the day was Nana's meal time.  I called at 4pm to check in and Madison was making Nana a PB&J (this was no doubt her lunch!).  When we got home at 8pm it was pretty apparent she hadn't had any dinner either, so I made her the fastest hamburger ever and forced her to sit down and eat. 

For our part, Jim and I spent nearly the entire day in the car.  Since we're sure Audrey is not ready for an overnight away from momma, we had no choice other than to drive there and back in the same day.  We left at 8:30am for a 1pm wedding and got there with 15 minutes to spare. 

Knowing the groom as we do, we were expecting a redneck wedding - and they did not disappoint.  Upon our arrival, I saw the bride pacing the campsite in a pink housecoat, curlers in her hair, cigarette in hand.  People were gathered in camp chairs around a very smoky fire, a smattering of trailers and tents canvassed the site, and everyone was dressed in their finest....carhartts.  You know, the ones with the least pronounced chew pocket.

The groom's beers

The ceremony did not start on time, and one of my more entertaining observations was of the bride finally emerging from a trailer in her wedding dress to loudly announce that they still needed to decide which groomsman was walking with which bridesmaid.  Minor detail.  Also, I loved the fact that these folks were not shy about their passion for beer - they went to great lengths to keep it chilled and just about every guest had a cold one in hand for the ceremony.  As soon as the I dos were done, beers seemingly materialized out of thin air in the hands of every groomsman, bridesmaid (except the pregnant one) and - of course - the bride.  I'd really like to know where they were hiding them.  No, maybe I don't.  The groom's stash was obvious...he walked down the aisle with a Keystone Light in each of his back pockets.  



Keeping the beer cold in the creek



All in all we had a great time.  It was a beautiful day, we were able to fill our lungs with mountain air, ate some delicious barbecue at the reception, and managed not to kill each other during the long stretches in the car.  We stopped to fuel up once and Jim was pretty mad at me for buying an overpriced Moon Pie, but the Snickers I bought for him worked as I had intended for them to.....they shut him up.