My Sister's Wedding

Two weeks ago, my little sister got married.  I have only one sibling – just Sharon and me.  Sure, we fought when we were little, but now we’re super close.  She’s one of my best friends and I call her (almost) daily.  Whether she picks up is another story . . . but to be fair, she lives in New York, and I usually call her to pass the time while I’m stuck in traffic on my horrendous commute home.  I can’t expect anyone to answer the phone on a regular basis at 8 or 9 pm on a weeknight.

On the wedding day morning, the plan was that the female contingent of the bridal party would meet for breakfast at the hotel super early at 7am.  Then the groom’s side would meet an hour later after we had vacated and started to get prettified.  (My family is not super traditional, but one of the few traditions we cling to is that the Bride and Groom must not see each other the day of the wedding before the ceremony.)

Guinevere hung out with the girls while we got pretty.  She was really well behaved!  She seemed perfectly happy to just sit on the bed in the hotel room and play with her toys while we prepared.  At one point, she got tired, so I sang her a naptime song and laid her down.  She fussed a little and then fell asleep.

Once we were all ready, the girls headed over to the venue.  I needed a little extra time to get Guinevere in her flower girl dress, so I went on a later shuttle.  There’s a great story to the flower girl dress Guinevere wore: a couple years ago, when my dad, uncle and I were cleaning out my grandmother’s house to get it ready to rent out after we moved her into assisted living for Alzheimer’s, I came across a Nordstrom’s box with my grandmother’s writing on it.  It said, “For my great-granddaughter.”  She didn’t have any great grandchildren at the time, so I kept the box for whichever of the cousins had a little girl first.  As I was getting the nursery ready before Guinevere was born, I came across this box again.  I had stashed it in the closet and completely forgotten about it.  It was then that I realized I would be the one having the first great granddaughter!  I opened the box and pulled out this adorable little white dress with pink florets.  It was perfect for a flower girl dress!  I sent a picture to my sister to see if she thought it would work for her wedding.  She loved it!  My grandmother has since slipped even further into her Alzheimer’s – to the point where we weren’t able to have her at the wedding, so it was really nice to be able to have a piece of her there .

Guinevere in her flower girl dress.

The wedding was at a place called Twin Oaks in San Marcos, just North of San Diego.  The venue is a historic schoolhouse and its surrounding grounds.  The girls relaxed with some Prosecco cocktails in the schoolhouse before the ceremony while the boys had the run of the outside grounds. 

The girls with Prosecco!

The ceremony was beautiful.  My sister looked gorgeous!  Aaron carried Guinevere down the aisle and then handed her off to my aunt (he was standing up on Will’s side).  She fussed a little, but then took a nap while my aunt held her through most of the ceremony.

Aaron & Guinevere right before heading down the aisle.

After the ceremony, we took the standard bridal party pictures.  Once Guinevere and I were dismissed, I found a quiet room to nurse in.  I brought pumped bottles for her, but this helped with things not being quite so, er, painful.  G took another nap in her stroller during the cocktail hour.  We made our grand entrance (G still napping in the stroller) and then speeches happened right away!  I knew I was going to have to give a speech – I just didn’t realize it was going to be one of the first events of the reception.  I think my speech went well – I got several laughs, so that’s good.  Here’s the speech (in case you’re interested).

Flower girl has a crush on the ring bearer.

Guinevere did really well throughout the entire wedding.  The one downside is that there were so many new people that G got a little overwhelmed.  She all of a sudden decided that only mommy could hold her – not even Aaron or my parents could keep her happy!  So I missed almost half the reception feeding her a bottle.  I’m kind of sad because I really wanted to dance a lot more than I did.  Though, the songs I danced to, were a lot of fun!  I even brought Guinevere out on the dance floor with me!

At the end of the night, G fell asleep in my arms and Aaron wrapped his coat around the both of us.  I didn’t get nearly as many pictures as I wanted (kind of hard to do when you’re running around being MOH), but I have priceless memories that I will cherish forever.

Good luck to the new Mr. & Mrs. DeBeauchamp . . . now I’m gonna go get me a glass of wiiiiine!*

*read the MOH speech if you don’t get that reference. 

Maid of Honor Speech

**Note: this is what I wrote out the night before the wedding . . . not necessarily what actually came out of my mouth on the wedding day.**

Hello everyone.  As most of you know, I’m Sharon’s big sister . . . "big" sister . . . hahaha 

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of what to say in this speech ever since Sharon told me she was getting married.  As you know, Will and Sharon got engaged after a whirlwind 4 month courtship.  So I didn’t really have any fun anecdotes to share about their relationship at the ready in my head - in fact, I had only met Will once, and that was when he flew out to California for 23 hours. (Fortunately, I have gotten to spend more time with him in the past year and a half, and I can truly say welcome to the family)  So, instead, I will use this time to tell Will about the fabulous family he is marrying into . . . and of course, the amazing woman that he is marrying: my sister.  

Will - Sharon is one of the most beautiful, warm and loving human beings to ever walk the planet.  She’s not just my sister, but also one of my best friends.  As most people here can attest, Sharon and I are very close and we share some fantastic memories, replete with inside jokes, some of which I shall now divulge to you . . . because really, what kind of big sister would I be if I didn’t bring up some fun, and maybe slightly embarrassing stories with 100 of our closest friends and family?

Did you know, Will, that I predicted Sharon would marry you?  Oh yes, I did!  Except, your name at the time was Orlo Yazzi.  I don’t know if you ever played this game when you were a kid, but Sharon and I used to do this all the time.  You bend the pop tab on a soda can back and forth until it falls off and as you’re doing this, you go through the alphabet.  Whatever letter the tab falls off on, is the first initial of the person you are going to marry.  Then you do it again, and that letter is the first initial of the last name of the person you are going to marry.  One time on a camping trip, Sharon got an O and a Y.  I decided to think up the most ridiculous name possible: Orlo Yazzi.  I think I might have even come up with some sort of silly song to tease Sharon about it.  I was thinking about this story the other night, and honestly, you kind of look like I had always imagined Orlo Yazzi to look!  So there we go, on the advice of Dr. Pepper and Mr. Squirt, I predicted Sharon would marry you even though I didn’t even know you.

Now I will leave you with one final story.  There was one summer I went out to New York to visit Sharon.  She was living up near Washington Heights, which for those of you who don’t know, is a relatively rough neighborhood.  Her apartment was great - it was just the neighborhood was a bit rough around the edges.  Anyway, we had had a long day walking all over New York City and wanted to just have a quiet night in with some wine.  We went to the corner liquor store looking for some Chardonnay.  This was one of those liquor stores where the guy running the store is behind bulletproof glass and you have to tell him what you want and then he slides it to you through a little door in the glass.  So anyway, Sharon and I were there trying to decide on a bottle of Chardonnay, which is surprisingly difficult to do when you can’t pick up and examine the bottles.  And this man, holding a bottle of Hennesy that he had just purchased, came up to us and asked what we were looking for.  

We said, "Umm, some Chardonnay?"  

He says, "Chardo-wha?  What is that?"  

We said, "Wine."  

He says, “Wiiiiiiine????  I don’t think I’ve ever had wine before.  So, tell me about this wiiiine - is it going to make me feel like a new man?  Or is it going to get me f***ed up?  Because I ain’t looking to feel like a new man!”  

We bought our wine and laughed all the way home.

So, in honor of that man in that liquor store so many moons ago, let’s all raise our own glasses of wiiine (or whatever you have), and I will say this, “Just like a fine wine, marriage should only get better with age and maturity, so I hope every day of your marriage ‘makes you feel like a new man.’ (or woman as the case may be).” Welcome to the family.  Cheers!

Guinevere's Travels: San Diego

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Last weekend, Guinevere and I went down to San Diego for the second time in her life.  Aaron had some work stuff that he needed to do in LA, so he wasn’t able to join us.  There were several reasons for this trip: a) I wanted to finally show Guinevere some of the sites of San Diego b) I wanted to clean out my room at my parents’ house c) attending a friend’s wedding.  It was so hot (again) that I ended up not getting much cleaning done, but at least I got 2 out of 3 goals accomplished!  Poor Guinevere is going to start to think that San Diego is hotter than LA!

On our first full day in San Diego, I took Guinevere down to Seaport Village while we waited for my sister’s plane to land.  Sharon was a bridesmaid in the wedding this weekend, and I thought it would be fun for her sister and niece to pick her up from the airport.  I am so glad we left as early as we did!  When we arrived at Seaport Village, it was already 85 degrees at 10am!  By the time we got back to Mira Mesa, my car was reading 101.  

Guinevere at Seaport Village

Guinevere with the Coronado Bridge in the background.

Back to Seaport Village – I’ve always loved this place!  For those not from San Diego, Seaport Village is a cute little shopping area downtown.  It’s on the water and super close to the airport.  In fact, it was much easier for Guinevere and I to stroll around at Seaport Village than to sit in a parked car in the cell phone lot.  I walked Ginny out to the waterfront and we wandered around for a while.  I even bought myself a big floppy hat.  

I don’t care if it looks silly.  I’ve been having some issues with irritation with my eyes and am trying to avoid contacts as much as possible lately, so I needed to get a hat.

Later that day, I attempted to get started on cleaning up my room.  Some kids have parents who turn their room into a guest room the moment they leave for college.  Not me.  My room in SD is almost like a time capsule to my teenage self, complete with bunk beds and all.  Yes, Aaron and I still sleep on my bunk beds (me on the top bunk, him on the bottom bunk) when we visit!  I had this great idea that I would go down to San Diego and clean out my room and donate the bunk beds and all the other stuff that has accumulated over the past however many years. Then I would go to Ikea, buy a new bed, and voila, we would have a real guest room to sleep in.   Yeah . . . that didn’t happen.  First off, it was so hot that I could barely move.  Also, Aaron wasn’t there to help hold Guinevere while I cleaned.  I thought that would be fine since I would be in San Diego and my mom and my sister would be fighting over who got to hold her . . . but my sister had loads of bridesmaid duties and so wasn’t around and my parents were busy getting the final arrangements done for the Mira Mesa Street Fair, which was the next day.

I tried putting Guinevere down for a nap in her pack 'n play in my room while I cleaned.  But there were two problems with that:  1. She was hot and fussy and didn’t really want to nap 2. I realized as I was putting my old trinkets into the various “keep,“ “donate,” and “trash” bags, there was a ton of dust in my room!  I really wasn’t comfortable stirring up that much dust with my 2 month old in the room.  So I finally gave up on finishing everything.  I figure if I just allocate an hour or two of cleaning/organizing every time I visit San Diego, we can eventually turn it into a more grown up guest room.  In the mean time, the bunk bed stays!  

Saturday was the Mira Mesa Street Fair.  My parents are very active in local community planning, so they played a big part in putting on the street fair.  It was forecast to be even hotter than Friday, and my dad was worried that the heat would make people stay home.  I took Guinevere to the street fair as early as possible to avoid the heat.  My friend Corey and her daughter, Mikaela, joined us.  We had fun pushing our strollers up and down the street.  We found my mom selling her book on the history of Mira Mesa.  Of course, when we showed up, mom wanted tons of pictures.  After the “grandparent paparazzi” session was finished, Corey and I bought some snowcones and ate them in the relative comfort of some shade.

Guinevere in front of mom's book signing table.

I have no idea how hot it was while we were at the street fair, but later that day, my car’s thermometer said 107!!!  I don’t EVER remember it being that hot growing up!  The newspaper said it was the hottest day on record since 1988.  Guinevere and I ended up escaping the heat at my friend Jfer’s house.  I’m actually really glad we hung out in the air conditioning for a couple hours.  G and I were much more comfortable and it gave me time to tell Jfer what Guinevere likes and doesn’t like, what time she goes to bed, how often she eats, etc. since I had Jfer lined up to watch Guinevere while I was at the wedding the next day.  

I’ve learned that with the baby, it takes a long time to get ready for an event where I have to do more to my appearance than just throwing on a pair of yoga pants and a nursing tank.  I think I took about 3 hours to get ready for the wedding this Sunday (including a couple of feeding breaks).  The wedding was beautiful!  I’ve known Becky, the bride, since she was in kindergarten with my sister.  My Girl Scout troop and hers would get together for camp outs, service projects and other events. I love Guinevere, but I will admit it was kind of fun to leave her with a trusted friend for a couple hours while I had fun.  I was able to dance and have a couple glasses of wine!  

My sister and I at the wedding.

Guinevere's Travels: Michigan

One of Aaron’s best friends got married last weekend in Ann Arbor.  We used it as a good opportunity for our little family to fly across the country, attend a wedding, visit the University of Michigan, and meet Aaron’s big family.  Aaron’s dad was the middle of 9 children, so he has 8 aunts and uncles on that side and more cousins than I can count.  We had a great time introducing Guinevere to several of those family members (obviously, not everyone in the family was able to attend).  But I can tell you, traveling with a 2 month old is exhausting!  I ended up coming back from the trip with a small cold, and now am religiously washing my hands trying to make sure I don’t get little G sick too.  How ironic would it be if, after introducing her to multitudes of new people, I end up being the one to give her her first cold?

Air Travel With a 2 Month Old

The part of the trip that I was most nervous about was flying with an infant.  I didn’t want to be that family – you know, the one with the screaming baby in a small enclosed space, hurtling at high velocity, miles above the Earth.  Fortunately, we took a red eye on the way to Michigan and she slept the entire way.  I was given advice to feed her on the way up and down to help with any pressure on her ears, but I couldn’t even wake her up to feed her on take off.  I was able to wake her just enough to feed her on descent, though.  Honestly, traveling to Michigan was relatively easy.  The TSA people at LAX even let us skip the line at security and we got to go through with the pilots, which was good because we were running a little later than we had intended.  Oh, and when traveling with an infant, you don’t have to choose between being felt up or pelting your body with deep xrays.  We went through the regular metal detector and that was it.  Also, Delta (and possibly other airlines, but we flew Delta) does not charge for checking infant items, saving us $25 each way for the pack n play.  You just have to talk to the agents when you are checking in – the computers might try to charge you extra for infant items, but when talking to a human being, they just check it straight through.  Also, if you ever travel with an infant, be sure to talk to the airline people at the gate right away.  They will give you tags for checking the car seat/stroller at the gate, which is very important/helpful.  This way we were able to keep her in her stroller right up until we got on the plane and then they deliver the stroller back to you when you disembark the plane.

Guinevere's first plane trip.

Once we arrived at the Detroit airport, Guinevere needed changing badly.  There was a family bathroom, which I assume was big enough for all three of us to go in and change her, but it was occupied.  I went into the ladies room hoping that there would at least be one of those fold down changing pads.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was an entire changing station!  It had a changing pad, and disposable sanitary liners for the changing pad (though I still used the travel pad that I carry in my diaper bag on top of the disposable liner).  There was a sink right there next to the changing pad.  Guinevere loved looking at herself in the mirror at the changing station, so it made changing her after that long trip that much more enjoyable.

We weren’t quite as lucky on our flight home.  We still got the pack n play through for free, but had to stand in the regular security line at the Detroit airport.  There were several other babies on our flight, which was interesting.  There was even another 2 month old across the aisle from us.  Guinevere was still very well behaved; thank goodness!  She slept for a large portion of the flight.  When she woke, she was in a pretty good mood.  Every time she looked like she was about to fuss, we gave her the pacifier and she calmed right down.  Once we landed at LAX, I went into the ladies room to change Guinevere.  The LAX changing area was not nearly as nice as the Detroit changing station.  There was a separate room labeled “Nursery” which had a pull down changing pad and a sink.  But the oddest part of the room was that there was no trash can, so I had to carry the dirty diaper out of the room with me while holding my baby and find the general trash can for the bathroom. 

Aside from our first night in Michigan, Guinevere handled the time zone change relatively well.  The first night was really bad, though. She would NOT sleep!  It was like being back to the newborn phase.  She was awake and fussy and demanding to eat every 2 hours throughout the night.  But then 2 nights later, she slept through the entire night (10pm – 7am) for the first time ever!  She hasn’t done it again since, but it’s nice to know she has the capability to do so.  I was prepared for an encore of the sleepless night experience when we returned home, but she decided to be good for us and returned to her normal sleep pattern of waking once around 3 am for a feed and then going back to sleep.

The Wedding

The main impetus for this trip was our friend Nicole’s wedding.  Aaron and Nicole have been close friends since college at the University of Michigan.  Nicole was a groomslady in our wedding, and she asked Aaron to be an usher in hers.  The wedding was beautiful!  The ceremony was in the Michigan Theatre, which shows movies and has live events on stage.  It was a fun, lighthearted ceremony, complete with images of the bride and groom superimposed on classic movie posters.  Guinevere was well behaved during the ceremony as well.  She slept through most of it and got several adoring stares from the wedding guests.

We had a couple hours between the ceremony and reception.  Aaron had to stick around to take pictures, but Guinevere and I headed back to the hotel room and both of us took a nap.  I’m so glad there was that time in between!  I’ve noticed that the days I don’t get a nap, I end up going to bed around 9:30 pm because I am so exhausted.

Guinevere was really good during the reception as well.  She slept during most of dinner.  Once the band started playing, she woke up and seemed to enjoy the music.  Aaron’s friend, Kelly, was there and she held Ginny for us so that Aaron and I could have at least one dance together.  I don’t think I’ve ever danced so little at a wedding before.  I can’t wait until Guinevere is old enough for her to be my partner on the dance floor!  I just love watching little kids dancing and having fun at weddings!  Of course the bride wanted to hold Guinevere  - and got loads of comments such as, “well that was fast!” (unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that.  I think Aaron got a pic on his phone)

The ceremony

Kelly and Guinevere

The bride and me

Our little family

Meeting the family

After the wedding festivities were over, Aaron and I headed back to Aaron’s aunt and uncle’s house.  They live close to Ann Arbor and generously hosted a family get together so that the Midwest contingent of the family could meet the newest member.  We had so much fun!  Aaron’s mom was even able to be there.  Unfortunately, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures for myself.  But I know one of Aaron’s Aunts took loads of pictures (Aunt Dianne, if you are reading this, I would love to get copies of those pics).

Aaron and I also drove up to Chesaning, the small town where Aaron’s parents grew up.  Both of Aaron’s parents grew up on farms, but Aaron’s grandparents sold their farms long ago.  Aaron drove us past the farmhouse that Aaron’s grandfather built and where Aaron’s mom grew up.  We even stopped and Aaron knocked on the door to see if the current owners would be willing to let us walk around, but no one was home.  We stayed with Aaron’s grandmother and walked around a little.  This is one of those towns that’s so small it only has one stoplight.  I loved getting to spend more time with Aaron’s grandmother and watching her hold her great-granddaughter.  

Meeting her great-grandmother

Touring UofM

Aaron got his BFA from the University of Michigan and loves to reminisce about how fantastic an experience he had.  He ended up dragging us all over campus showing us portions of his glory days, and pointing out how much has changed in the past 10 years.  As exhausting as it was (Guinevere got to nap in the stroller much of the time, but I had to walk . . . when will they create a stroller for adults that we can nap in? J) , we had a great time.  Aaron ended up finding several professors/admin people that remembered him.  We got to go backstage at the Power Center and were able to take a look at the stage.  We also went into two additional smaller theaters later on (one thrust and one black box).  I kept telling Guinevere that theaters are like a second home to both her mom and dad.

Guinevere's first time in a theatre

Aaron also insisted on taking a picture of Guinevere on top of the big M located in the middle of the diag.  At first he wanted to lay her down directly on top of it – which I very quickly vetoed.  I know she’s had her shots and all, but laying my 2 month old directly on the ground where tons of people walk every day . . . no.  I am not comfortable with that.  So we put a burp cloth underneath her – unfortunately, she’s just a little too long for it, so then I grabbed a diaper out of the diaper bag and put it under her feet.  But if you have any experience with babies, you know their feet never stay still for long.  Oh well, at least she’s not putting her feet in her mouth . . . yet.

Future student?

Overall we had a great time.  I’m really glad that we got to see all the people and places we did.  Not that Guinevere will remember this trip, but hopefully a little of it will stick in her subconscious.