Pre-Vacation

I guess I inadvertently had a little blog vacation since I haven't posted in over a week.  Let's just say that things have been busy, mostly in a good way.  On the bright side, the lack of posts usually means that no parenting issue is bothering me enough to necessitate a post.  This blog is a great way to vent and talk through things, and if nothing is eating away enough at me to post it, I suppose that's good.  Boring, but good. 

Most of last week was spent gearing up for this week's vacation.  We're both off work, though Craig is still having to chip away at a major long-term project and I spent many hours last week working in the evenings to clear out as many projects as possible before being away from the office for a week.  If I don't do it, no one does, and I didn't want things sitting around that long.  So by Friday morning I really only needed to work a couple hours to finish off my week, which I actually had to put in on Saturday anyway...so Friday could have been skipped entirely, which was even more annoying since I took a half day of vacation for a weeding we were attending that afternoon.  My parents came into town to watch the kids for the night, which was so great.  The kids did well, and we had a really lovely evening out. 

I don't want to bore you, with pictures of a wedding of people you don't know (former co-worker of ours--from both my era and recently for Craig), but it was a really pretty, photogenic wedding, and obviously I love taking pictures!  So here are a few to set the stage for our vacation...

The church was the chapel at Nazareth College.  I briefly considered Nazareth when they started sending me literature when I was in high school, but I think the more sensible financial scenario of Geneseo won out pretty easily.  The chapel and the campus were really pretty, though...

Some of Geneseo's buildings have a similar feel, but they're not quite as beautifully maintained, nor are they quite this grand.

 I loved the stained glass window above the altar...so pretty.

The ceremony was nice and very personalized to them (while still being very traditional), which is always more fun.  We stuck around after to chat with Craig's co-workers, and happened to catch some of the wedding photos.  Turns out that gorgeous building made a nice backdrop for photos...

The reception was at a local winery that neither of us had ever been to.  It was really beautiful, though.  And I couldn't resist snapping a picture of some grapes near where we parked...

On the vine!

 And I couldn't resist this rose on the way in...

I was very excited by the hard cider option at the open bar, since I'm not really a beer or wine person.  Definite points on that one!  We enjoyed the lovely weather out on the deck, and I made Craig take a selfie in front of the vineyards...

The inside room was pretty, as well, and the dance floor was perfectly placed.  Tell me that is not a gorgeous view...

The food was great and we really enjoyed our time there.  They had a photo booth and they even provided a little pouch for the strip with a magnet on the back, so it's gracing our fridge as I type!  Instead of a guest book they had a painting of a tree and everyone had to pick a leaf to write their names.  Their DJ made them play a cute version of the Newlywed Game--less corny than I'd have thought and it moved along nicely.  They had sticks with bride and groom rubber duckies on the ends to answer the questions, and sat back to back.  It was cute.  I was a tiny bit disappointed that there wasn't a traditional wedding cake (they cut a small one but that was it--none was served), but the alternative was pretty darn awesome...


S'mores Bar!

Yes, a s'mores bar with regular grahams, chocolate grahams, Ritz crackers, regular chocolate, cookies & cream chocolate, Reese's peanut butter cups, Andes candies, peanut butter, and possibly Nutella.  Plus all of the marshmallows you could want, both on skewers and in bowls.  They had three charcoal-filled pans to roast over.  It was awesome.

We went home very full, but thankfully we had a low-key day ahead to prepare for our vacation.  Not that we didn't keep plenty busy, but I wasn't feeling great the next day, so that slowed things down a bit more.  I can't say that it was a hangover since I only had a few drinks over the four hours we were there, but perhaps the rich combination messed me up.  Carter was also a little iffy in the diaper region, so perhaps I got what he had.  I had to do a little packing and preparing, but a lot of that got finished up on Sunday...and on time, no less!

More on our vacation soon...but for now, bed!