The Wedding ...

... was lovely. Very small ceremony, held in the bride's home, and kicked off by her falling down three stairs while making her way to the entrance of the room. In the moment of anticipation, we could see her fiance's face light up upon seeing her, then hear this thumpety-thumpety-thump-"HELP!" Imagine fifty faces looking shocked and uncertain and you'll get the picture. But as soon as Luis leaped to the rescue and the photographer jumped in and started snapping pictures, there was sort of a collective sigh of relief and audible group snicker. She was fine, and reported that it cured her of her case of jangled nerves, because really, things can only get better from there, right?

I bawled my way through my little speech and then tried to make do for the remainder of the ceremony on the one Kleenex someone handed me while I snivelled about how much my kids loved Grace (and you know, if someone takes care of your kids like that, they always have a special place in your heart). Her mom and siblings also spoke, each very touching and humorous, and there was joy a'plenty to go around.

So guess where my kiddos were this whole time? Brace yourselves -- they had spent the night with their grandparents!!!! Yes! All three of them! Unless you count my stint in the ICU with double pneumonia right after Caroline was born, our only night without kids happened right before Eliza was born, almost five years ago. WIth my mom in town, staying with my in-laws to get some much-need rest, we dared to broach the possibility of blessing the three grandparents with the presence of their three charming grandchildren. It was so ... niiiiiice. I missed them, of course, but mostly I was just very grateful for the short respite. And the report was good on all counts (even Caroline's sleeping), so yahoo!