Our family at a wedding...

  Yesterday was Jon Shipley's wedding reception! Since we were the only ones from our family to be able to go, I will tell you a little about it. From our perspective, of course.
  It was in the evening, in Rigby, so we made the kids eat dinner first. Danny and I were in nice church clothes from attending a baptism right before, but we were too tired to try to dress up the kids. So they came as they were. Alaina and Alex were cute and fine in jeans and shirts, but Tristan had felt sick all day and was wearing a verrry holey Spiderman costume with boots, put on the wrong feet. Like I said, we were too tired to care.
  The reception was at a church, and they really did a beautiful job with decorating it. There were pine/ alpine trees all around the edges, with bare branches in pots, all with lights going up toward the ceiling and white fabric at the bases. The tables were all white with a brown runner down the middle, with rocks and then a centerpiece that was clear with branches and green and silver and then lit candles on top. (The fake candles.)  And all the chairs had white chair covers with brown ties/ bows on them. The bride and groom and parents were standing on a really cool thing with pillars and curtains, hard to describe, that said "And they lived happily ever after..." on it.I found out later the bride's dad had made it. He should rent it out to other couples. There were more things in the room, but you get the idea. The whole feeling was very earthy and cozy. And someone was playing beautiful music on the piano, which made me very jealous.
  We took our place in line, quickly to be followed by lots of others. Did I mention that our kids have had colds? Particularly Tristan. Alaina asked a very nice man in line behind us to hold her, which he did. She talked to him, and coughed on him a lot. She told him she was a kitty and meowed. I'm surprised she didn't try to lick him, which is what she usually does. He should be glad she didn't.
  We felt very conspicuous standing there, with our kids coughing nonstop on everyone. On the plus side, the photographer apparently really liked Tristan's outfit and asked if she could take his picture. So he made his muscles, and when she said her battery was out and she would be right back, he just stood there with his arms up and muscles flexed until she came back.
  Their guest book was cool. (I am getting lots of ideas for when I have to put a reception together.) It was one of those books you can have made, with pictures of Jon and Emily and then at the top of each page asked for different pieces of advice- how to cherish each other, etc. I signed on the page that asked for advice on how to keep their marriage happy. I wrote, "Put your kids to bed early." It's true. I also added that they should remember the old Chinese proverb, "It is not economical to go to bed early to save on candles, if the result is twins." Hehehe....
  After waiting in line long enough for Alex to figure out that he could make shadows on the ceilings and Tristan to get several compliments, we made it to the front of the line!! Jon was really happy to see us and gave us big hugs. Tristan posed and showed Jon his "muscles" and Alex gave him a hug. His wife, Emily, seems really nice and her and her parents seemed really down to earth and kind. I was very happy for them. And yes, Mommy, I told Jon's Mom why you couldn't come and that you were going to send them something. So now you have to.
   After our 45 seconds of visitng, we sat down to eat some refreshments. They had little plates with a cream puff, and chocolate stick and one of those small cheesecake squares on it. Tristan was duly appeased, as we had only gotten him to eat dinner by telling him that we would have a treat after. There were also crackers and dips you could help yourself to.
  While Tristan and Alaina were happy with their sugar, Alex was ansy and squirmy. He didn't want to try any of the food. Possibly my favorite part of the whole night was when I looked over and saw Alex, with a quizzical expression on his face, take from his mouth one of the rocks from the table decorations that was shaped remarkably like a chocolate chip. After looking surprised, he looked rather disappointed, as he does like chocolate chips.
  After reaching maximum sugar intake, we decided we'd better get out of there while we were ahead. I did notice that although most of the tables were very full, while we were sitting there no one else had sat at our table. Weird.
  We were just about to leave the gym, when at the same time, Alaina pronounced that she had to go potty and the photographer asked to get a picture of our family. We all posed, and just as she was about to take the picture Alaina threw herself to the floor screaming, " I haf ta go potty!!!" So, no pictures for us. Just a trip to the family bathroom. On the other side of the gym.
  Lainey did her little tinkle, we convinced Tristan that he could wait till we got home and we started to go through the gym again, with the pretty music playing and everything quiet and peaceful. Alex tried to stop and open the presents and Lainey pronounced in a very loud voice that she had to go potty, again. Then Tristan started crying that he couldn't hold it and Alex started trying to escape the clutches of Daddy's hand. So off I went, again, to the other side of the gym, while Danny took Alex to the truck. We had to wait about forever while Alaina sat there on the toilet saying, "I'm going poop!" and when Tristan finally got to go he said, "I knew I had to go potty!"
  On our way back through the gym Alaina saw the presents and said, "I will unwrap them!!" I ran outside as fast as I could and the kids were mostly asleep by the time we got home.
  Sorry if there aren't more details you would like about the other people actually involved in the reception, but this was our experience and it was hard to see past it. It was a lovely reception and I'm sure they'll be very happy together. Until they have kids, of course.