rambling as usual...: Aunts

"That's a big niece."

What a 2nd grade boy said about Emma when she got up to take a turn in the game in Tasha's music class.

This weekend we are visiting my sister Tasha in Portland.
Today we went to school with her and are sitting in on all her music classes. It's fun to see her teach, and the girls have gotten to play some games with the kids too. They have played several different games now with several different age groups.

The 2nd grade class was especially cute today. They sat in a circle, and had some instruments in the middle of the circle. All but one student would close their eyes, while one student in the center played an instrument, then sat back in their place in the circle. The other students would then try to guess what instrument was played. A great game to develop listening skills!

When it was Emma's turn to play an instrument, she got up off the floor to the center of the circle. That's when the boy said she was a big niece. Tasha went on to explain that she was a 6th grader, so it was normal for her to be that much bigger than he was. Of course Tasha and I exchanged glances and smiles, and I proceeded to write it down - because you just have to write these things down!

Fun times.

Wow. Tasha's wedding. Tasha's. Wedding. My little baby sister is married. Well it was inevitable, I guess. She's beautiful, funny, smart, talented - just to name a few - so someone was bound to see all those things that I see -- but it would be weird for me to marry her, so I'm glad someone else did. Jesus is an awesome guy - a fellow army band member, so also very musically talented, also very funny, and he's not bad on the eyes either. The wedding was very cool. I'll give a brief synopsis of the weekend.

Friday Tasha and Tanya and I ran some errands. We had to go downtown to get a few things, and of course, right after we parked and walked a couple blocks, it started pouring. Not just pouring, but an all out cloudburst. Crazy! Of course it didn't start before we left the car, where I had umbrellas. So we got pretty wet. But what are you going to do? I just figured it was a good thing I was wearing flip flops, so my feet would dry out faster. It rained like that off and on for the rest of the day. I was glad I put in the umbrellas, just in case!

The rehearsal dinner plans were changed due to weather - still raining - but we made it work and it all turned out great. I was still thankful for those umbrellas. Friday night I got to stay with the bridesmaids at the hotel. Tanya and a couple of the girls and I stayed in one room with Tasha; the other bridesmaids had family there and stayed with them. All of us got together Friday night to hang out and talk and do "bridesmaid" stuff, I guess. We also gave Tasha tickets to see West Side Story on Broadway in New York this week. I'm not sure what day the show is, but this is the week they are in NY. We pitched in to get them tickets; she was super excited. This was a fun night but a slightly late one, for getting up the next morning for a wedding!

Saturday it was cool in the morning, but nothing a hot coffee wouldn't fix. We got things set up in the park and although it was busy, most everyone had a job and did their job and got things done. We girls got back to the hotel at about 11-ish to start getting ready, getting hair fixed, makeup on, dresses on, and once we were all ready we took some pictures at the hotel before going to the park. It was fun getting pictures taken, and Jai (pronounced "jay") and Drew, the photographers were awesome. Jai rode with me and the trolls to the park, and she showed me some of the shots she got; very fun!! I can't wait to see all the pictures they took.

All in all, the wedding went pretty well! There were a few bumps in the road, but those bumps were smoothed out without too much trouble. Brian was put in charge of finding a replacement vase that had gotten broken in transit; it was full of marbles and whoever moved it didn't remove the marbles; and marbles are not too forgiving when sitting in a glass vase in a moving vehicle up a bumpy road to a park (it was particularly bumpy in one place). He called me from Goodwill, asking if Tasha cared what it looked like...to which she answered "not even a little bit", which shows how easy going she actually was, for it being her wedding day and things not going exactly as planned. She did great. I am sure that I would not have handled it as gracefully, but she's several years older than I was when I got married. Meaning, she's more "grown up" than I was. Not that she is old. If she's old, that means I'm old(er). Perish the thought.

Right before the wedding, I think it was, I remember people asking "does anyone have a corkscrew or bottle opener? We need both!". There must have been a well-prepared girl or boy scout around, because I actually saw two bottle openers/corkscrews at the bar area. Don't worry - it's an expression. I am sure said "girl or boy scout" was a responsible adult. I'm not an expert, and I was never in the girl scouts, but I don't think corkscrews are standard girl scout issue.

During the ceremony there was a mariachi band playing music; and also through a good part of the reception - it was awesome. I'm not sure what a traditional Mexican wedding would include, but this wedding had many influences from Jesus's side of the family. Mariachi band, tostada bar for dinner afterward, including Corona and Negra Modelo (which I must say is not bad, and I'm not normally a beer drinker). The cake was Tres Leches, which was heavenly. Oh my word, that cake was SO good.

The rain stayed away for most of the day, which was an answer to prayer! We had a huge tent where the ceremony was held, but the reception stuff (food, tables) were next to it and not covered. The rain started to sprinkle during the reception just a bit, when Brian and I got our food, so we put our plates down and took a table under the tent. It wasn't raining much then, but a bit later it rained harder for a little bit. A bunch of us grabbed some more tables to put under the cover, but then it let up and didn't rain for the rest of the day. Not too bad for a questionable weather day in Portland (is there any other kind?).

Of course we had to do toasts for the bride and groom (yay for champagne!), so the Best Man and Best Woman (two of Jesus's closest friends) gave their toasts, and then I toasted for me and my sister Tanya (we were the "Sisters of Honor"). I wasn't quite sure what I was going to say, and I was praying for God to give me words. During the toast right before mine, I heard an ice cream truck driving up on the road above us in the park...then I knew exactly what to say. Tasha even had something about Jesus appreciating her love of ice cream in her vows - so this was perfect. After making sure that Tanya wasn't saying anything (she didn't want to talk for fear of crying in front of everyone), and letting everyone know that I was basically speaking for both of us, I told Tasha I was proud of her self discipline, for not taking off running to the ice cream truck when she heard it. After a few more words of encouragement (I hope), my job there was done. Cheers!!

After some cake, the Mariachi band left and the Salsa band came in, and we got to dance the afternoon away. Jesus and Tasha danced the first dance, then the dance instructor (Javier) came in and taught everyone else how to do the Salsa. It was really fun. Later I danced with Jesus (he told me how the guy leads and shows what to do next), and then I got to dance with Javier, which was really fun too.

We all had a really fun time. It was fun for me to see lots of army band people who I hadn't seen for a long time; I think I probably had seen them since I got out of the army, but since some of them are retired from the band, I hadn't seen them at the last concerts I had been to. So it was really fun, kind of a reunion of army band folks. I was in the band for 12 years, so many of these people are like family to me.

All in all, it was a great wedding. Even though things never go exactly as planned, things went well and people enjoyed the celebration. Emma and Rachel were the flower girls, so they got to be a part of the ceremony and got to wear their pretty dresses and sprinkle rose petals and dance and eat cake and tostadas and drink sparkling cider. They loved the salsa dancing too; while I danced with Jesus, Brian danced with the girls. Super fun! Now we're going to have to go take dancing lessons. It's so much fun.

I will post some of my pictures; however I didn't get very many. My camera wasn't working right and Brian couldn't get many pictures. So I took some with my phone; that's about all we have for now. The photographers were awesome, and I can't wait to see what they got. That was another fun part of the day. So when those are available I will put some of them in. For now, here's what I have.

Enjoy!

(this first picture was not good because the camera was on the fritz; but I thought it was still a really good picture.)