A Hill Country Wedding

I am a reformed Monday-hater. I confess that in the past I was one of those people who just lived for the weekends. Naturally, that would make Monday my least favorite day of the week. Now that I am no longer a student nor a full-time in-office worker, I don't mind Mondays all that much. In fact, I now savor Monday mornings. If the weekend has been crazy and Jackson and I have been off-kilter due to a wacky schedule, we use this day to fall back in sync. It is a beautiful thing. I love to wake up to the sound of Jackson chattering through the baby monitor, get him out of bed or make breakfast first (depending on the tone of his chatter), and have tea and toast while Jackson watches Handy Manny and I have my quiet time. We bid Curtis goodbye and then I get some work done while Jackson plays with his countless cars and monster trucks.

Today is an especially great Monday because we have not had normalcy in a while. As you know, we all went to Missouri recently. I returned home a week ago, just in time for Tropical Storm Ed, and spent two nights with my parents. Curtis remained in Missouri to speak at a youth camp. We then spent two nights at home alone before Jackson and I headed deep into the Hill Country with the entire Moore clan for a friend's wedding. We departed on Friday morning and Curtis arrived back at our house late that night. He preached on Sunday morning at HFBC, so he was not able to come with us. We were finally reunited last night. It had been six days since we'd seen him. So yeah, I was pretty darn ready for a normal Monday and a normal week. Jackson and I missed Curtis to the point of tears. I don't leave again until the San Antonio conference and that will be the end of our summer travels. I will be happy to wave goodbye to summertime...when it ends in mid-October.

Despite being very homesick for Hubs (home is where the Hubs is - that's my motto), the wedding weekend was awesome. The bride was my dear friend/adopted-big-sis Amy. Her man is one of the directors of Laity Lodge, which is a Christian adult retreat center on the Frio River. (Laity was founded by the H.E.B. family, as in my beloved grocery store H.E.B.) Their wedding was at the Lodge and a bunch of us got to stay on the grounds and hang out all weekend. It was so much fun! My favorite part was swimming in the river with my mom and Jackson. I could not get over how beautiful this place was. The grounds were extremely well kept and all the buildings were so nice. It was like the Ritz Carlton compared to all the Baptist encampments I've been going to my entire life. Jackson and I had a room that shared a patio with my parents' room and it overlooked the river. It had huge windows that let in the starlight at night. They were so bright, they even reflected off the river water. You can see tons and tons of stars in the Hill Country. I saw my first shooting star there in 8th grade. (That's what happens when you grow up in a big city.) My sister got to see her first one this weekend. It was really fun.

Here are some wedding details. We arrived on Friday night just in time for the rehearsal and dinner. I had no plans to take my two-year-old to the dinner, but we found out that was the only way we could eat. Pregnant Girl had to eat, so we gave it a try. Unfortunately, the second we walked in the room, Amy grabbed us and said, "Please come sit with us! No one is sitting with us!" My mom said, "Sure! Okay!" In my mind I was thinking...I won't even tell you what I was thinking. You can imagine. I was horrified. The table was set beautifully with china and bottles of wine and wine glasses. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Basically, Jackson and I had to leave and our friend Lisa, a beautiful angel of mercy, delivered our dinner to our door.

The next morning we had breakfast with everyone, then headed to the river to swim. Later we enjoyed a BBQ lunch with all the wedding peeps. Afterward Jackson and I took naps and then began getting ready for the wedding itself. Actually, I wasn't about to take Jackson into the ceremony. We walked down to the main buildings where the events were held at about the time I thought it would be ending. I was super sad to miss the ceremony, but the Lord gave us a fun moment. We walked up just a minute before Amy and Steven exited the building to the sound of enthusiastic cheers and the other Laity Director ringing the camp bell to sound the good news. It was so cool. Jackson and I were standing outside clapping for them and we got to share in that fun moment. Amy was breathtakingly beautiful. She looked like a movie star. Mom and I had been with her on the day she picked out her wedding dress, so I knew she would be beautiful. I could not have imagined just how beautiful! She wore some of Melissa's wedding jewelry too so that was really fun.

Immediately after that we were all served dinner. Stephanie's husband and boys took Jackson off to play after a few minutes and I was able to enjoy my food (and eat some of Jackson's. I was so hungry my hands were shaky!) It was so nice of them to give me a 30 min. break! After dinner everyone headed to Laity's art gallery building for the reception. The people with kids claimed a corner of the building where they could roll cars on the floor and mess around, so it was no big deal having Jackson there. Thank You, Lord. We visited with dear friends from HFBC, had some amazing wedding cake, and watched some people dance. I wish I was cool enough to share my awesome dance moves in public, but I'm not. Amy had a Beyonce' song on the playlist in my honor. I was touched.

Here are even more wedding details, as if I should make this any longer:
-Jackson's Uncle Colin was the number one reason we made it through the whole reception. He is very taken with his uncle and was completely attached to him that night. He was also really missing his daddy, so it made me glad that he had Colin to play with.
-Jackson slept on a twin bed for the first time. I had a bad feeling about it, so I lined the stone floor with pillows. Sure enough, in the night I heard a thud and had no idea what it was. Then little Jackson stood up next to my bed with his arms outstretched. No tears, no trauma. He didn't even really wake up. Bless his heart!
-The wedding cake had been brought up from Houston by some friends who really know their cake. At an ill-fated stop at Buc-ee's, their car was rear-ended. Thankfully everything ended up being okay and the cake looked gorgeous and tasted even better!
-When we laid Jackson down in his bed at 10 p.m., someone in the room mistakenly said the forbidden word "Daddy." It took Jackson about 2.5 seconds to burst into tears and have the most pitiful and heartbreaking meltdown I have ever seen. It was so sad. I just held him and said, "Tomorrow morning when you wake up, we are going home and we will see Daddy."
-A few minutes later I went on the balcony to look for shooting stars and I was surprised to see the bride and groom canoeing down the river! They had a little lantern in the boat with them. That's how they exited the reception. Isn't that awesome? (She had changed out of her dress first.)
-The next morning the first thing Jackson said to my mom was, "I see Daddy!"
-Ten minutes into our drive home Jackson puked all over himself and his car seat. Props to my mom and dad for handling most of the clean up so that we didn't have two pukers in the car.
-The car smelled like barf for five and a half hours. Thank the Lord, he did not throw up again. We were very relieved.
-We stopped at Buc-ee's on the way home and braved the kind of crowds you see at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving. I had banana pudding and a bear claw for lunch. It was the best lunch ever. (Buc-ee's is not just a gas station, it is an experience. It is like the Central Market of gas stations, if you will.)

Fun times! I am so thankful we got to celebrate Amy's big day with her. Amy, you have been an amazing friend and mentor to me for the last 9 years. I love you so much and I could not be happier for you and Steven. I pray every blessing of Christ on your marriage and I ask Him to give you the greatest European honeymoon that anyone's ever had. Thank you for being an example of what God can do when you wait on Him to bring you His best. Steven can do so much more than walk straight and spell "Jesus." No eye has seen! No ear has heard!










What makes this picture so funny is that Melissa was sitting on my mom's lap and then Papa Steve came over and sat on Melissa's lap. You can't really tell that from the picture but it was hilarious.




Colin and Melissa brought 7 new monster trucks for Jackson. He was over the top thrilled.