Lovely wedding

My sister's wedding was a great success!

It was a very busy weekend and there were things that went wrong (there always are), but all of that fades away when we see how happy the newly married couple is and all of the guests had a great time -- groom's dad was one proud papa!  My parents were over the moon as well.

I know that my sister is glad the planning is over (so am I) and it was wonderful to see so many family and friends and watch her commit to a wonderful man and he to her.

We were fortunate with the weather, especially seeing the weather we had before and after their wedding day. I am actually really glad she got married on a 3 day weekend, I needed the extra day to recover.

I was most nervous about giving my toast, I was rewriting it even the morning of the wedding!     I was able to give it, with a couple of stops because I just choked up as soon as I saw her with her new husband looking beautiful in her dress, but I did make it through it...she's so sweet she offered to read it for me, but I was like -- no, I have to do it (and it was so scribbled out I don't think she could've read it even if she wanted to).   I am so glad she let me go first, but realized after I gave it I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do - who do I give mic to, where do I go???

Our hair and makeup took longer than expected since one hair stylist wasn't there (the one that did our hair did a great job!)  so we were running late to the venue, it made for quite a comedy of errors for 6 bridesmaids + bride to get ready.  

Kevin looked great in his suit, and was such a trooper -- staying even after the grand exit so we could gather up all the items to bring back to the hotel.  


*I hope to add more to this recap but wanted to get it up before the weekend comes to an end*

Nicaragua

I've finally had time to write our trip to Nicaragua and upload pictures!

The trip was, in a word, an adventure. I was excited, but nervous about the trip – it is the first time any of us (except my brother) have been to Central America and I knew it’d be worlds away from what we’re used to. Once we got out of the cities, I could see how beautiful the countryside is, and love the exotic plants, flowers and animals, but could not get over how chaotic and busy both cities we were in were. It was also eye-opening to see the poverty and the different standard of living that the people have there. I’ve heard often that people in many parts of the world live on $3 a day, and seeing Nicaragua I now have a better understanding of that, though we only saw it from the outside. My brother and sister-in-law chose the nicest hotels available (even that varies by place – the rooms got smaller as we went, and the hotel on the island was nice but had no hot water. but they had a/c units and running water, yay!). It really does make me appreciate what I have, but also realize how much we have that we really don’t need, and I have to wonder if people with more wealth and stuff are really happier. I did feel fairly safe the entire time that I was there, even so I didn’t wander off anywhere by myself and was aware of my surroundings (good practices wherever you are).

We flew into Managua (the capital city) and took taxis, buses, and a ferry to get to the places we went.

I was surprised to see that they use old school buses from the U.S. as public transportation and the bus stations (basically a parking lot with buses painted with their routes) are even more chaotic than I could’ve imagined. As soon as we got out of the taxis, guys came up and were trying to get us to get on their bus. There were several competing buses going to the city we needed and we chose one based mostly on how full they were. Adding to the chaos, once the bus was moving people would get on and off not only because they’d reached their stop but also to sell food, drinks, and other items. On one leg of our trip, Kevin got a Pepsi and they needed the bottle back so he drank it out of a bag! We also drank water out of sealed bags, cheaper and easier to carry than bottles. I did get to practice my Spanish a lot on the trip, but still struggle with basic communication, thankfully Gene and Mache were with us and helped us get everywhere we needed to go.

We traveled there to attend my brother and sister-in-law’s church wedding. The wedding took place at a Cathedral in Leon (her hometown) the day after we arrived. It was wonderful to see them get married in front of her family and friends, and to be able to share it with them. I helped her get ready at the hotel and it was quite special to help her put on the same dress (made much smaller for her) that I’d worn in my own wedding. We walked from the hotel to the church, we were VERY lucky with the weather that it wasn’t raining when we walked there or when we went to find taxis after the ceremony to go to the reception. The reception was held at an open-air restaurant. It did rain during the reception, which cooled it off a bit and was at the perfect time – after everyone had arrived and it stopped before it was time to leave. My brother didn’t feel very good all the day of the wedding, but made the best of it and we all had fun. Mache even sang a few songs with the live band, and we all danced. At the reception, they had bottles of rum at each table, and with that I discovered a Nicaraguan rum that I like - Flor de Cana. We saw it everywhere the rest of the week and drank that and a local beer we also liked, call Tona.

On Sunday we saw some of the sights of the city of Leon – including a market, and a Sandinista museum, visited with Mache’s family, and watched the happy couple open wedding gifts at their house. It rained much of the day, so they were lucky that they did NOT get the Sunday wedding they’d originally wanted. This time of year is their rainy season, so it rained most every day – and on the island rained all night most nights.

Monday was a travel day to go down to Ometepe Island (in Lake Nicaragua) where we spent the rest of our time. We took two taxis, two buses and a ferry to get there. If I never get into another school bus, I’ll be happy! The island was much more relaxing than the city had been, and we were right on the beach. I had to keep reminding myself that we were on a lake, not an ocean, since there were lots of waves crashing.

On the island we took hikes, visited a natural spring they’ve turned into a pool, and took an all-day tour of the island. At the end of the tour, we saw two museums that a man created all on his own. The first is his collection of coins and money of Nicaragua that helps to tell their history. Each leader changes the money – its completely an ego trip, they want their face or their family/friends’ faces on the bills, and when a new bill or coin comes out you have 6 months to use or trade in the old one or it becomes worthless. Can you imagine having to trade your cash in every time that the president decided they wanted their buddy on the $5 bill, or even the quarter? And Nicaragua is a much more cash based society then ours, only a couple of places we went to accepted credit cards. Their money is called the cordoba, and the exchange rate is about 20 cordoba to $1.

The other museum was of artifacts found, mostly on the man’s property, from the indigenous people, including burial urns, stone tools used by the people to prepare food, and all manner of other items. I cannot get over the fact that he did this all on his own, and one of the museums had just opened in july! We were lucky that a man who worked there (his cousin owns it), is from LA but back in Nicaragua, so we got a bilingual tour of both museums.

At the hotel, we saw monkeys in the trees! I loved watching that, they are so fun to watch and so human-like in many ways.

Friday was another travel day, this time back to Managua for us to fly out on Saturday. This was the worst for me. I was very fortunate not to get sick most of the trip, in fact most of us (except my brother) did really well, partly because were fairly careful about what and where we ate. And came prepared with medicine. Kevin, Laura, and I even had an anti-diarrhea medicine that we took each day as a preventative. But I did feel sick on the bus coming back, a combination of motion sickness and impending diarrhea. Thankfully the bus finally did stop (and waited for me!) to use a roadside restroom before reaching Managua. It was not fun, and quite a way to end the trip. That night, I stayed in and rested (with Kevin staying with me) while the rest of the family went to visit Mache’s aunt and uncle. We actually had a pizza delivered, was nice to eat something different. I like their food, but was glad to have a change from rice. I do have to say rice with lime juice is really good!

This was the first time in years I’d been on a trip with my whole family, and the first time to go on a trip with my family and my husband, it was definitely a different experience but one I am very thankful for. It is definitely rare that we’ll all be able to take a trip together. We were both ready to get home, and I don’t know when it happened but I have bug bites all over my arms and legs. I don’t know when it happened, the only bugs I saw were flies.

All of our pictures are available on Picasa, at the link on the right and I've embedded a slideshow.

Emily and Daniel's wedding

We had a very busy weekend, so it'll be in two posts.

Saturday we attended Emily & Daniel’s wedding. I worked with Emily at UST and also had several grad school classes with her. We’ve known each other since before we met each of our husbands, so it has been fun to see her relationship blossom and to hear about her wedding planning since I’ve heard about Daniel ever since they had their first date. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. The ceremony was at St. Anne’s, and it is where her parents and grandparents were married. Her three nieces were the flower girls and they all looked so cute. His nephew was the ring bearer, he walked up the aisle really quickly and then started walking back down the aisle, the flower girls actually had to raise their arms (since they were holding hands) to let him pass back by. Emily made such a beautiful bride, she was glowing as she walked down the aisle and during the entire ceremony. Their priest did a great service, and even got a couple of laughs, especially when he said that since E&D planned everything, if it went wrong we were to blame them...nothing went wrong, but Emily had to halt real quick when her train was caught on her sister's shoe.

Their reception was at La Colombe d'Or, right near UST. We had drinks and hors d'ouvres while waiting for the newlyweds to arrive, and then moved into the reception in the Grande Salon. It is a restored French ballroom, with oak panels carved in 1715! We had a good time at the reception. I was able to introduce Kevin to some of the people I worked with at UST, and enjoyed good food and good company. Emily and Daniel were very busy making the rounds and seeing everyone and both looked so happy :) When they first arrived they did the first dance and were out on the dance floor quite a bit – they are quite the dancers! The groom’s cake was so cute, it was decorated to look like a dart board – they met when he was playing darts at the bar where she goes for her dart league. Here is a photo of me with the happy couple.