Eowyn & Ben's Wedding - Part One

I'm going to break this post up into sections - it was a big week!  After over year of this wedding being way out in the future, it finally happened!  We drove down to PA on Wednesday afternoon, making our best time ever and discovering a nice Burger King with a playplace just where we needed one.  We stayed with David & Nan Powlison (and, most importantly to the girls - their dog Bailey) since Heather Lane was full of much of the rest of the wedding party.

(breakfast chez Powlison)

Thursday morning Alasdair had meetings at CCEF, and the girls and I visited Amanda L and her girls.   When I got to Amanda's, we decided to take the girls to the zoo (Emily has been asking to go ever since we went for her birthday last year, so I couldn't resist), so after a flurry of moving carseats and packing up snacks, we piled into her car and had a lovely quick tour of the animals.  We were able to have some good catching up time around the chaos.    (I really wish God would call them back to New England too!)

Thursday afternoon we joined Eowyn and a bunch of the wedding party, who were at Heather Lane making preparations for the big day....packing up food for the reception, creating decorations for the church, last minute errands, etc, and that night Granny sat with the girls while we went to the bachelor/bachelorette parties.  

(Shawna watching the girls so we could help without their 'help' for a bit.)

Friday morning Alasdair went along with everyone else to Lancaster to spend the day transforming the basic church gym into a beautiful site for the reception.  I was amazed at what they accomplished with a lot of white lights, tulle, and candles.  My job was to keep the lovely flower girls out of the way, which was our excuse to spend the morning with Katie and Luci at their new house.  We've been trying to convince Katie she should come work for CCEF New England, but she & Chris seem to think they are called to be in Philadelphia too.  Boo.    

(3 small children sitting still, smiling, and looking at the camera!  Clearly I was not the one taking this photo.)

Friday afternoon was a trip to the mall to pic up Alasdair's tux and a little impromptu dancing for the girls.

That evening we arrived at the church a little early for the rehearsal to get the girls warmed up to the idea of walking down the aisle.  To my surprise, they were really into it.  We had prepared Emily, but Adara was a bit more of a wild card.  She loved holding Emily's hand and all the praise she got for walking down the aisle, and wanted to do it again and again and again.  The night, my parents watched the girls in our hotel room so Alasdair and I could go to the rehearsal dinner.