A Wedding

We took a looong day trip up to Portsmouth, NH this past Saturday for a wedding. Luke's youngest cousin, Allie was married by her father in the church where she met her husband. It was a really sweet ceremony filled with memories of her adoption from Japan and admonishments to not let the FIRE die: Remember to Forgive, remember Intimacy, remember Restraint, and remember Encouragement. A good reminder to all the married couples there let alone the newlyweds. And as Luke and I are coming up on our TENTH anniversary it was especially poignant. It was also very encouraging to see about 90% of the guests get up to partake in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that was offered.

We all had a fabulous time at the reception. Especially the kids who were dancing MANIACS. I had no idea! Both Noah and Lily were so excited to get out on that dance floor and I am pretty sure Lily didn't sit out a song while Noah would only dance to really "cool rock" songs. We left at 10:30 PM and Lily was still raring to go.

Here's the kids while we were waiting to head over to the church

This dress was an amazing find from Strasburg Children, which is a rather posh boutique. Luke's mom and grandmother and I were out shopping and went in on a whim and found this $125 dress on clearance for $20. SCORE! When we brought it home and she saw it she had to try it on right away and exclaimed, "I Cinderella!", as she twirled around.

The Bride and Groom, Allie and Ryan, cutting the cake that Becky made for them
Allie and Noah

Because Allie had 5 of her neices in her wedding, she had quite a few kids at the reception so they were all provided with goody bags that had stuff to keep them busy at their table and before the dancing began the dance floor was strewn with costumes and hoola hoops for the kids to enjoy.

And then there was dancing!

Lily danced with a bridesmaid whom she had never met before--she just went over and grabbed her hand and started spinning. She was somewhat discriminating and refused to dance with the older man who kept trying to pull her back into the fray. I am sure he just thought she was cute and wanted to help her join the other kids who were in the center of the circle. She wasn't having any of it though. I was glad I was there to 'rescue' her as he was a bit persistent. Sheesh.

And of course she had to dance with her Daddy...