Summer Wedding #2

Today's guest blogger is Susan:

My cousin Lee married Shantelle yesterday. The girls and I decided to take advantage of the wedding's Grand Forks location to go early to visit friends. My aunt Kathy rode along so she could visit friends of her own in Grand Forks. In Fargo Kathy treated us to lunch at the Olive Garden, one of our favorite restaurants. The girls were very impressed with our waitress, who referred to us all as "ladies" (they're very offended when servers in restaurants call them "guys").

We made good time to Grand Forks and dropped Kathy off at her hotel and made our way to the home of our friends Jay and Erin. The kids were thrilled to be together again . . . and the moms were pretty happy to see one another, too! Erin, Nicole, Laurie, and I went to the Blue Moose because I was craving spinach queso, boneless Asian wings, Long Island teas, and mud pie--YUM!!! Of course, a common component of any girls' night out is a shopping trip, so Laurie took us to Target (a place I no longer get to shop at on a regular basis). We ended the evening at the Jay and Erin's, chatting until we were all sleepy--it was wonderful!

Friday was another lovely day, so Erin and I packed up the kids and headed to the park after a stop at Caribou Coffee. Nicole's family met us there and joined us back at Jay and Erin's for lunch. While the kids played on a water slide that Hannah had gotten for her birthday, I got a lovely sunburn (and drank slush . . . which could explain why I was not paying more attention to the sunburn). The girls and I said good-bye to our friends mid-afternoon and headed to the hotel to meet up with my sister Cassie.

The girls were VERY excited to see her. Cassie and her husband, Nick, moved to North Carolina in October, so we were all looking forward to a visit. Cassie watched the girls in the swimming pool while I headed to wedding rehearsal at St. Michael's church in downtown Grand Forks. I was very honored to be asked to sing for the wedding, and it was, as always, a pleasure to have as my accompanist Ethel, who has been organist for St. Michael's longer than I can remember.

After rehearsal, we all headed to University Park for a tasty barbecue catered by Cowboy Catering (Italian Moon): hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, mushrooms and onions, baked beans, pasta salad, fruit salad, chips, and lots of beverages. We stayed until it got dark, and family members joined us as they got into town. The Morey clan moved the gathering to the hotel lobby and visited into the wee hours of the night.

Saturday morning, I went on a music hunt--there was a song that the bride wanted sung as a prelude, and neither the organist nor I had the music. Thank you, Popplers! My cousin Anna went swimming with the girls while I was gone and shared some very interesting information with them. When I returned from shopping (okay, Popplers was NOT my only stop--but how often do I get to shop without children?), I was informed that sharks don't attack humans unless the sharks think the human is food and that one should never turn a turtle on its back lest one should crush said turtle's internal organs. Good to know.

The girls chose Paradiso for lunch; we met my uncle Frank and cousins Anna and John. The girls had tried to find Anna at the hotel to invite her to join us, but we couldn't. She got that message from another relative and came to find us! After lunch, we had to make a quick detour to the optical department at Wal-Mart to replace Abigail's nose pads (her third pair since she got the glasses in October, but who's counting?). I was NOT planning on the Wal-Mart trip when I planned the schedule for the day, so we didn't have a lot of time to get ready for the wedding.

I had to arrive at the church early to meet with the organist since we'd only just gotten one of the songs, so the girls rode over with Cassie and Nick and sat with them during the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and a beautiful (non-air conditioned) church. To cool off afterwards, the girls and I went to Culver's to share a custard.

The reception, dinner, and dance were held at the Alerus Center. It had been many years since I'd attended a dinner at the Alerus Center, and I was very impressed. The decorations were lovely, and the food was delicious! We enjoyed lettuce salad with ranch dressing, pasta salad, dinner rolls and butter, green beans almondine, mashed red-skin potatoes, fettucine alfredo, and beef tips with peppers and onions. Instead of a traditional wedding cake, at the end of each serving line was a multi-tiered display of cheesecake slices--each with an "S" (for the groom's last name) in fudge sauce on top.

The dance began with the introduction of the wedding party. The groom and most of his groomsmen played football together at the University of North Dakota, so the song they entered the ballroom to was the same one played when UND players are introduced at sporting events, and the crowd (many native Grand Forks folks/true Sioux Fans) cheered "Go Sioux!" at the appropriate places in the song. There was no cheer when the best man came out--Lee's brother, Landon, was his best man and currently plays football for UND arch-rival North Dakota State University. I didn't dance, but the girls more than made up for my lack of participation. Once given permission to join the couples on the dance floor, the Moberg girls rarely left it--unless it was to use Aunt Kathy's camera to take a few photos or to refresh themselves from the punch fountain. They were very impressed with themselves when they realized that they had gotten to stay up until 1:00 A.M.!

We slept late the next day. The girls got to swim with my cousin Christy, her husband, Cody, and their son, Matthew, for a while. With plenty of adults around the pool to supervise, I was able to go across the hall (yes, our room was right across the hall from the pool!) and get a start on repacking all of our stuff. Cassie and Nick helped us get everything loaded, we sought out all the relatives we could find for goodbyes, and then we headed to the Red Pepper for lunch. I don't think I'd ever actually entered the Red Pepper in the 18 years I lived in Grand Forks, although I'd eaten food that had been made there. After lunch, we headed back to I-29 for the drive home. It was a very quiet ride since all three girls were asleep by the time we reached the Thompson exit (10 miles out of Grand Forks) and didn't wake up until we were about 45 miles from Bismarck--that was a three-hour nap! The girls and I had a few stops to make in Bismarck, and then we turned the car towards Dickinson, eager to see Kevin and trade stories of our weekends.

Abigail and Susan's cousin Todd

Hillary and the bride, Shantelle

Susan's mom's sisters: Kathy, Patti, Mary, and Jake

The wedding at St. Michael's church

The wedding party

Shantelle and Lee with Lee's (and Susan's) aunts and uncles: Jake (+ friend Scott), Terry (+ wife Audrey), his parents Mary and Dale, Kathy, and Patti (+ husband Frank)

Suzanna and Susan's cousin Jon

Susan's mom's siblings: Mary, Jake, Terry, Patti, and Kathy