The roller coaster of life...

Time to catch everyone up to date....

Quick flashback to the Sunday after Melissa's wedding...we met up with four friends for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Earl & Pauline and Kathi & Duane, who were to be married on Saturday. They also are the couple going to Cabo with us...their honeymoon. They were to be our witnesses for our wedding in Cabo. After lunch, at which Melissa & Mike had joined us briefly, the 6 of us headed to a local outlet mall in search of some Docker style pants for Duane to take to Cabo.

While wandering the stores and chatting, we had a little more discussion about the problems we were running into in trying to arrange our Cabo wedding. The legalities were a breeze, it was the cost that was staggering. All the packages were geared to small weddings with 15-25 people and were way more than what we wanted. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to a civil ceremony when we came back to MD. Next thing we know, we're invited to have our wedding along with Kathi & Duane....the only thing they needed to do was check with the minister.

After assuring ourselves that this was truly what they both wanted, we were ecstatic. Not only would we be getting married with friends present, we could have a few family members as well. Everyone was sworn to secrecy and we headed home, very excited about our upcoming wedding day! After the initial disaster of the dress I had ordered not arriving, followed by the excitement of finding the perfect rings, topped by the wedding not being in Cabo..we were feeling pretty good.

On Monday, Melissa and her new husband, Mike, headed to Ocean City for a short honeymoon and we headed over to house & pet sit for them. By mid-week it was apparent I had picked up a cold..as had the brother of the groom. Gotta love these germs...LOL!



On Thursday we heard from Melissa that Mike had been to the ER the night before and they were headed home. We waited till they arrived and headed back to our home (sub2 home, that is). I was feeling no better so rested a bit before dinner out with friends that night. We shared our upcoming wedding date surprise and showed off our new rings.



On Friday we prepared to head to Lorton, VA where we would spend Fri & Sat nights at the Comfort Inn, just around the corner from the Legion Hall where the wedding would be held. First thing we discovered was that the directions that were printed on the invitation, were incorrect. We texted corrections to the few family members we had arriving and called Duane to start notifying any friends/family on his side. LOL! After checking into the hotel we headed downtown with Duane to get our license (no waiting period, no residency requirement and no blood tests needed...NICE!).

During lunch we got our next surprise....our friend Earl had lost the brakes in his motorhome as he was driving down to VA for the wedding. Fortunately he had another couple with him and a little over the phone troubleshooting was done between Stu, Duane, Earl & Jerry. They decided it sounded like the master cylinder had gone bad. We headed out to find a replacement before dropping Duane at home (he had to go to work). Since I still felt really bad, Stu dropped me at the hotel before heading off to find Earl & Jerry and hopefully getting the brake issue resolved.

Well, before that happened we had double bad news....Melissa had taken Mike to the ER locally and they were admitting him to the hospital. We knew all we could do was pray for some recovery for him...his battle is a long one. Then we heard from his other daughter, Heather, and her boyfriend's ex's family had an unexpected death. They were watching three kids other than their own two...we assured them kids were okay and hoped they could all make it. Sigh...

Stu finally arrived back at the hotel.....with a black eye. Oh yeah...a real shiner....one of the hazards of mechanic's work...and no, the brakes weren't fixed. The master cylinder was the wrong one. Earl ended up calling his road service and having the RV towed to a dealership in Manassas, VA. What a day!!! We did get to have dinner with my youngest daughter, her husband and three grandbabies.

Saturday we slept in, taking our time getting ready for the day. Stu ran out to pick up a few things and also informed me that he ran into my son & his wife in the lobby along with several of his friends who were checking into their rooms. Getting harder and harder to keep the surprise...but we kept working on it.

Because the wedding planning was for Kathi & Duane's wedding, we kept our part understated. Hawaiian shirts and khaki pants with silk leis for us and those in our wedding party (Stu's oldest daughter stood for him and my youngest stood for me, my two granddaughters gave me away). Their wedding was more formal although not traditional since it was not a first wedding for them either. I love the contrast of the two in this wedding shot!



The wedding wasn't as big a surprise as planned since someone as the hotel desk mentioned a double wedding, but it was big enough for us. LOL! Everything went wonderfully, including Duane's sister picking us up a little bride-groom and a garter for me. Kathi had already arranged for my daisies - my flower of choice.

We got hugs, kisses; we danced, laughed; we ate, drank; we shared cake, memories. Then we topped it all off with the most wonderful marshmallow fight! Yup, you read that right...we had run into this in Cancun at Senor' Frog's and loved it. I am SO not a food fight person but this is pretty much a no muss-no fuss event. The kids started handing out the Zip-lock bags filled with pink & white marshmallows. All the formal things were over, the crowd was mellow and all it took was one toss.... Next thing we know the room in fully involved...even the three guys from the caterers joined in. For 5 minutes a soft, sweet chaos ruled....it was amazing. Unfortunately there are no photos since we were all too busy having fun! When the song changed, Stu got everyone to stop and pick it all up. Perfect!! [more photos at SmugMug]



So, three weddings in two weeks and on Wednesday we leave for a week in Cabo for a double honeymoon. We're all looking forward to it...and I'm really glad that I'm starting to feel more like me (spent most of this past week sleeping & taking meds). Needless to say, no blogging or real Internet access until we get back on April 29th (actually the 30th since our flight arrives after 11pm on the 29th).

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu