inklings press: North Carolina Trip- Days One, Two, Three, and Four

As I write this, we're driving down Highway 485. We just left our friend's house, where we had an awesome time eating, talking, and playing 'Settlers of Catan.' It's also my younger brother's 11^th birthday, so he got sung to at their house. (They stuck candles in a few pieces of sheet cake from the wedding. Creative, right?) Anyway, the reason I didn't write every night was because I was way too busy to post anything at night- or any other time- as you'll see in the following post.

Day One

This day went a lot like the first day of our trip to Florida about two weeks ago, except we were traveling north, not south. My younger brother and I babysat for the same Bible study kids and had a lot of fun. (By the way, never ever let two-year-olds eat those little pastry things filled with creme. Not a good idea!) About an hour after getting back from that, we were packed and ready to go. Dad and my younger brother had to get a haircut, so us girls- and my other little brother- went to Target. (See the similarities?) Actually, my little brother and I stayed in the car. I attempted to work on something I was writing while he took a nap, but I couldn't concentrate. It was too hot! By the time we picked up my dad and younger brother at the hair-cutting place, it was about 3:30, and you know what time that is... rush hour time! It took us an hour and a half to get about thirty minutes into and back out of Atlanta. My younger brother and I watched a movie in the car, sharing headphones. It was pretty awesome, and I remembered something about the movie I'd forgotten. My name was listed in the orchestra that preformed the music- same spelling and everything! Not only was I in the violin section, but the firsts! (Well, I'm not that good, but I'll be in the firsts if you really want me to!) That was really cool. So we didn't actually get to our friend's house until about 10:30 that night. When we got there, this awaited us.

Pretty cool, huh? My younger brother was so excited! After we partied for a little bit, we watched Jullian Smith videos on YouTube, then clips from Apostles of Comedy. Then, we played Dumkoph, which was a lot of fun, especially since I hadn't played it in forever. At about midnight, our parents said we had to go to bed. Uh, that didn't actually mean we had to sleep, did it? Good, 'cause my friend and I needed to catch up. We talked about anything and everything that popped into our heads! My two sisters fell asleep long before we did, which was funny. Wanna guess just how late we stayed up? 3:45 am! No kidding! It was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire weekend. (Later, my friend and I referred to it as out 'Deep, Theological Discussion.' It sort of was... but not really.)

Day Two

My friend and I slept in, which means we were downstairs eating breakfast by 8:30. TeenPact really messed me up! I can't sleep in any more! (Seriously, can't I get up on time on a school day when I'm supposed to be up around that time?!) Anyway, we had French toast that my friend's mom made with bread that I'd made the previous Monday. I didn't have any, but I've been told it was good. After that, we walked around outside by their creek and played Follow the Judge to Court. After that, we played Pit, which I'd never played before. Sadly, only about forty-five minutes after that, we were out of their house and off to our friend's house. (It was their daughter/sister/niece/granddaughter that got married.) We had a blast!! We ate a little bit (at The Immature Table!), but that was all the sit-down time we wanted. What we were really there for was to play a practical joke on the groom.

Awesome, right? It was upside-down, so we had to fix it. But then the groom made us un-fix it. (Like, literally, made someone.) Anyway, after that, we went outside and took random pictures of leaves and flowers near The Fort (did we ever actually name it?), then Arwen gave the bride and groom a gift- matching pajamas! The bride got to try hers on and we all agreed the nightgown looked really cute on her! After parting, we visited our old house to check on our renters there. It was my first time meeting them and they all seemed really nice! They really liked the house, neighborhood, community, and their church, so that was good! We visited another family that lives in that neighborhood and it was good to see them again. We then picked up a pizza and took it to our hotel. It was yummy! Then, we watched a movie that I'd never seen before- Megamind. It was so funny! Sure, there was a little bit of the typical Dreamworks potty humor that wasn't even funny and a small bit of language, but, overall, it was a good movie. We went to sleep probably a little past midnight and had a great night of sleep, which was good, because we were going to have a big day the next day... Wedding Day!!

Day Three

We got up at about 8:30 again (well, technically, I got up at about nine), took showers, threw on our clothes, fixed up some makeup (ew), and were on our way with some friends to the reception place by about 10:45. It took us a good hour and a half to set up everything the bride wanted there, but it was worth it!

The Candy Bar- YUM!!

The Beautiful Bride!

I remembered why I didn't like high-heels at the set-up for the reception... Ouch! They were like that for most of the reception and banquet- not on my feet. : )

After finishing up there, we walked across the street to where the actual wedding was going to take place. See, the best thing about weddings is the fact that all of the out-of-town people get to see all of their friends that still lived in town. That was awesome! I got to see so many people that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see.

Then there was the wedding. I have to say, it was probably the funnest wedding I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot. The bride just could not stand still! The groom wasn't quite as bad, but almost. We all laughed several times throughout the ceremony. The music was so gorgeous! The bride was a cellist, so she had about five other cellos and a piano play all of her music. I'm not a cello fan (probably because Arwen plays), but let me tell you what... it was so pretty, I think I'm going to have a half a dozen cellos play at my wedding!

The Happy Couple

Fast-forward a few minutes later to the reception. The bride came up with the wonderful idea of having a Candy Bar, which was a huge hit! But guess who got to serve? Me, Arwen, and my younger sister! That's right. It was a ton of fun, but my back was so sore by the time about eighty kids (and a few adults!) went through, I could hardly walk around at the actual reception! I did manage to take a few pictures, though. Have a look!

After the bride and groom left, most everyone followed suit. But not us! We had to tear down and set back up at the banquet place! It was actually better this time, because tearing down is easier than setting up and the people at the place where the banquet was at did most of the work. (Yes!) A few friends and I got to mess around a little bit, too.

Since everything was mostly set up at the banquet place, we mainly just goofed off and stood around, waiting for people to get to the banquet. After everyone got there, we mainly just had fun. There are way too many stories to tell them all, though, so I'll just say that we had a blast. We ate, danced, goofed off some more, and lit up sparklers for when the bride and groom left for the second time- not to return this time until after the Honeymoon. My family stayed afterwards for about an hour just talking to people, then we crashed at our hotel. The day had gone by so well (except for that few minutes after someone knocked over a picture of the bride- the glass shattered!), and we were all so happy for the bride and groom.

Day Four

(Wow, was that all really just a few days ago? And what I'm going to write was just this morning? Time flies by way too fast when you're having fun!) So, this morning, we all packed up our stuff that had accumulated in our hotel room and drove down to Waxhaw to visit our church. It was so good seeing everyone again, because everyone knows that if you haven't seen anyone in a while, you can just talk to them for forever. The sermon was really good and the time of prayer we had afterwards was equally so. (Oh, how I missed it!) After church, we stood around and talked to people. It was fun, because they hadn't seen my little brother in a few months, and he's really sprouted up. He can say quite a few words now, and is very particular about who he wants to hold him! He wouldn't let me take him away from someone until I told him who we were visiting next- the same person we'd seen all weekend. Then, after a few sad goodbyes, we drove a little bit down the road to the bride's family's house. We ate more food, played 'Settlers of Catan,' and just talked and caught up. It was a lot of fun!

All in all, the weekend was a huge success and a lot of fun for everyone. Here are a few random pictures that didn't fit anywhere else.

Ah, yes.... While we were all eating at our crazy table, a friend and I started feeling bad about the groom's licence plate still being upside-down. My younger brother (somehow) located a screwdriver, and we fixed it. We all feel better now.