Summer Wedding #3

First my cousin Jerry, then Susan's cousin Lee, and now my stepnephew Ryan--the wedding bells are a-clangin' this summer. Our weekend:

Friday the 6th
When I was done at work, we left for Fergus Falls, MN (with a supper stop in Bismarck for burgers and frozen custard at Good Times) and checked into our hotel room late that night.

Saturday the 7th
We swam in the hotel's pool in the morning and then got ready for the wedding. First, we ate dinner at Big Harvest Buffet, a pretty good Chinese restaurant with a Mongolian grill. Then, we drove to Dalton, MN, where the wedding was held. Susan and I were asked to sing "A Page Is Turned" by Bebo Norman. The guitarist accompanying us was to be at the church before 2:00 P.M. to rehearse the music with us, giving us a chance to practice using the microphones and to work out tempos, pauses, etc., in the music before performing it at the 4:00 P.M. wedding. Instead, he arrived at 3:40 P.M. Fortunately for us, he is a fine musician who did a good job, and the singing went off without a hitch.

Family photo before the nuptials: Dad, Beverly, me, Susan in the back; Hillary, Suzanna, Abigail in the front

My stepniece (the groom's sister), Rachelle

My stepnephew (the groom), Ryan

The bride, Kristi

Ryan carrying Kristi off in his carriage to the ball

We drove back to Fergus Falls for the reception held at Pebble Lake Golf Club. There we were all unpleasantly surprised to learn that the air conditioning system had broken that morning and was not yet repaired. The weather outdoors was 100 degrees, and I'm betting the temperature indoors was no cooler. That plus the humidity (10,000 lakes = not only mosquitoes but also oppressive summertime humidity) made even just sitting still in the clubhouse a miserable experience. Everyone sat and sweated, perspiration dripping down faces and through clothing. The servers kept refilling carafes of water and lemonade for each table, so we kept hydrated at least.

The food was good: fruit and crackers for an appetizer; chicken and stuffing, herbed potatoes, green beans and carrots, and buns for supper; and chocolate wedding cake for dessert. Many people left before the music began for the dance ("I have just got to get out of this heat!"), but we toughed it out long enough for me to dance a dance with each daughter. Alas, we, too, had to bid the married couple adieu ("Congratulations, Ryan and Kristi!") and escape the unendurable heat. We stopped by Dad and Beverly's motor home at an RV park in the city to say goodbye before we returned to the hotel. Susan took the girls to the pool to swim while I went straight to bed.

Suzanna wilts from the heat amongst the pretty blue and white table decorations.

My stepbrother, Dennis, and his wife, Julie (parents of the groom)

Sunday the 8th
We were not terribly impressed with the hotel's "service": faulty air conditioner in the room, no working telephone in the room, and no offers to correct the problems either when we reported (and re-reported) them or upon checkout. (Susan will contact the corporation tomorrow, just to give you an idea of how dissatisfied she was with the whole experience.) So we weren't unhappy to check out this morning and make our way to Fargo, where we stopped at a grocery store and bought food (rotisserie chicken, three kinds of potato salad, garlic French bread and two kinds of cheese, carrots, watermelon, lemonade, and chocolate chunk cookies for dessert) to bring to our friends Jeff and Janelle and their kids in Harwood, ND, to whose home we had invited ourselves for lunch! Once there, our kids played with theirs while we adults visited and fawned over their new baby. It's always good to reconnect with them. And it's always good to play with someone else's toys, as you'll see below:

I got to hold the two younger kids in their family: Jordan and Austen.

On the return trip, we ate supper at Cracker Barrel in Bismarck. I had fried walleye, mashed potatoes and gravy, turnip greens, boiled cabbage, corn bread, biscuits, and raspberry iced tea. Everyone else ate equally well, and we all shared strawberry short cake and peach cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. The evening was beautiful, so we tarried on the Cracker Barrel's porch in the rocking chairs lined up there for sale. We also pulled over on the Interstate while driving home to see the "scenic view" advertised by a highway sign at Sweet Briar Lake. Once we got home, our neighbor Chuck came over when beckoned by the girls. He had spent the weekend keeping our new grass seed watered in the back yard, so we thanked him and visited with him for a while until it was time for us all to get our respective kids into bed after another busy weekend.

Sweet Briar Lake