These Are The Days: Little Miss Flower Girl

The magical weekend of Abby and Ian's wedding descended upon us. I was so excited for my best friend's big day and yet had so much anxiety about my overactive toddler's flower girl duties. Travis had to work the night of the rehearsal, so Evalee and I drove down Friday afternoon and got settled into the hotel room before the rehearsal. The wedding site was gorgeous -- on the front lawn of Monmouth College. We rehearsed, Evalee ran around like a mad woman (thus beginning my stress a bit, as we were surrounded by large rocks and highways), and then we were off to dinner. As luck would have it, Evalee had perhaps one of her most energetic spurts ever as we gathered at the country club for dinner. She darted in between people and out to the greens (even stole someone's golf club and tried to make off with his cart. He assured me that he thought it was cute) as I wistfully counted down the seconds until Travis would arrive to help me keep her corralled. She decided to pass on dinner and instead ate lots and lots of ice out of a cup, entertaining our table companions and making me rub my forehead in disapproval. The energy spurt didn't stop there, of course, and it was well after 11 p.m. before we finally convinced her to sleep. We didn't get the greatest night's sleep, as Eva slept in the King sized bed with us and took to head butting or kicking her sister in my belly all night long. We were exasperated before the day even began.

I then left Travis and Eva to get my hair done with the rest of the bridesmaids. We had fun talking and being girls. It was so good to be with Abby and Amanda for an entire day again -- it felt like going home. The bridesmaids then spent the day in a house rented on campus, getting ready and taking pictures. Travis and Eva joined us in hopes of napping upstairs, but that of course did not happen. We got some fun pictures in while the effects of Eva's lack of sleep slowly started to kick in. And then the rain came.

We could all see the nasty black clouds coming at us in the distance, but we all made believe that they wouldn't mean much. Perhaps we'd get a shower and then it'd be nice and cool for the ceremony. Meanwhile, the red flashing "storm warning" on a fellow bridesmaid's phone and an anxious call to the weather center at the station revealed otherwise. We made a break for the building nearby the wedding to wait the rain out. That's when Grandma, Grandpa, and the iPad arrived to help us out with our little ball of impatience, thank goodness. Once we realized the rain was not going to let up in time for the ceremony, the wedding was moved inside. It was chaos for a while, but then in the end the wedding went on. By some stroke of miracle Evalee walked down the aisle all the way to me on the stage and stayed with me for a few minutes before quietly leaving to sit with our family. The wedding was almost as beautiful as the bride.

While the wedding was underway, the college staff was trying desperately to piece the reception tent back together from the wave of storms that came through. The tent had blown side ways, crashing all the decorations off the tables and simply making a mess of things. They did a great job putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, and everyone began to settle in for dinner with the next round of clouds showed up. This time we were directed into two nearby buildings. I, being pregnant and very, very low on blood sugar, opted to take my chances and fill a plate with food before following the distressed crowd inside. We watched in horror as the storm blew through. Luckily, Ian picked some amazing and dedicated guys to be groomsmen who braved the downpour to run gifts inside, save the cake, and bring the waiting crowds some beer :). Dinner ended up being served in the cafeteria, so we made due by pushing tables together and scraping up some decorations from the wedding. People were wet and laughing and having a good time. It was not at all what Abby had planned for their big day, but it was beautiful in a whole new way.

Unfortunately with all the craziness of the day, my picture taking was lacking. Here are a few of the ones we managed to snap: