Weekend

After such a beautiful weekend, today seems so dreary. The skies are grey, there's a light drizzle, and it's chilly again.

Joe and I drove to Houston from Denver for a friend's wedding. The total time we spent in the car was about 36hrs and I enjoyed every bit of it! We decided to split up the trip by stopping in Dallas to see our parents instead of driving straight to Houston and spending money on a hotel. Also that made the drive physically bearable. After 12hrs of sitting in a car you tend to get swamp-ass. We left early Saturday morning and arrived at his parents house around 8pm. His nieces were there and I got to finally meet Mackenzie, the now 6 year old (her birthday is today). Joe was happy to get to spend time with his family and I enjoyed my time with the girls.

We left early the next morning for our estimated 5hr drive to League City, a small city between Houston and Galveston. The weather was amazing that day and it only took us 4hrs to get there so we ended up arriving a bit too early. We killed the 2hrs we had before the ceremony by walking around the quaint little neighborhood surrounding the more adorable wedding venue I have ever seen. It's called Butler's Courtyard  and the owners did a magnificent job of transforming old city buildings into tasteful wedding areas. I would want to have my wedding in a place like that.

The ceremony was simple but elegant and my friend, Maria, looked gorgeous in her dress. I could tell she was stressed but was still happy with the whole occasion. As she put it on her Facebook status, "Got married like a boss." After the "I dos" we went over to the reception area and indulged in chocolate covered strawberries and tiny sandwiches. There was also an open bar which Joe appreciated. We didn't know anybody else at the wedding and ended up sitting with a table of random adults. It turns out these people were Maria's WoW friends so we were at the right table after all. We finally got to greet Maria after she had to endure almost half an hour of picture taking. It sucks that we couldn't stay to enjoy the reception and that as soon as we saw her we were saying goodbye, but the trek back to Dallas was a long one and I didn't want my parents to stay up waiting for us. Hopefully after her awesome honeymoon in Paris she'll visit sometime. I never realize how much I miss Maria's company until I hang out with her.

We made it back to McKinney around 10pm and were very tired. My parents had the hot tub and asked if we wanted to take a dip to relax after the drive but we were pretty worn out from being up all day and just had some awesome curry my mom had made for us (oh that reminds me, I need to make some rice). In the morning I made an effort to sit down and hang out with my mom. She asked us if everything was going well and asked Joe how he was liking his job. Eventually we had to pack everything up and be on our way. We were getting everything into the car when my dad basically burst through the gate to say goodbye. He had been on a conference call all morning with people in India and I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get away from it in order to see us off. But he was there for hugs and handshakes and even hosed off my car since it was covered in "road trip." It's the teeny tiny things my dad does to show he cares. I'm glad he remember Joe's name and shook his hand too. They haven't had a conversation yet but they'll get there!

The drive back was pretty hard. I think we were totally exhausted from the entire weekend and just felt tired the whole way back. We listened to music and comedians and I think one of my speakers is going out because of the nonstop use it had to handle this whole weekend. That didn't keep us awake and it didn't help that we accidentally drove through the panhandle of Oklahoma. We tried drinking Monsters but ended taking frequent breaks at rest stops and major cities, and switching drivers. The last stretch seemed like the most trying and we kept each other up by talking. That helped a lot and we made it back to Denver battered and broken, but in one piece.

It was a wonderful weekend with wonderful company and it's always worth it to see a friend get married. Our next trip: Mount Rushmore. It's only 6hrs away. No sweat.