Ok, one wedding and one baby, but that just sounded ridiculous. I’m horribly behind on blogging but rather than just keep getting further and further behind I’ve decided to just start from now and get to the past stuff when I can. I’ll try and remember to put a note on those posts so they can be in the right order, though I can’t make any guarantees.

Living in Charleston has one big negative: it’s insanely expensive to fly anywhere from here. Luckily, most of my family and friends are on the east coast, so I have the option of driving to most of the places I want to go. The added bonus is it means I’ll also have my own transportation wherever I go. So it was with excitement that I set off for home a couple weeks ago to join in the various preparation festivities for my brother’s wedding. I arrived late the night before the day before the wedding, which was perfect timing to help with the last minute stuff on Friday, including finishing the bouquets and favors, and having the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

It’s amazing to me how relaxed Saturday was compared to how crazy Friday was. Especially since Saturday was the actual wedding day. I got up early that day, but only to get a run in. The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time to get ready. We arrived at the church about an hour before the ceremony and this is when what was probably my favorite part of the whole trip happened. Since there was nothing for me to do, I went back to say hi to Jason and see how he was doing. I actually got a good 30 minutes of just chilling back there with my little brother, which was just awesome. Most visits we are all just so busy and with so many people that there is no time for that. So it was really nice to have that little bit of time before the ceremony to just chat.

The ceremony was absolutely lovely and very classy. I should’ve known our families could only hold it together for so long. The reception was a whole different ball game. I think it was pretty clear the tone of the evening when we arrived to see that rather than number the tables they were named after various Transformers. This theme continued when Jake, the Best Man, decided to do his speech in a Bumblebee helmet complete with a voice altering feature.

The rest of the evening was pretty much normal for a wedding. Thanks to free beer on tap both dad’s ended up pretty drunk, there was a lot of dancing going on (even I danced, though in my defense I was guilted into it by a drunk friend of Amanda’s), and a great time was had by all. Though I have to admit to being very happy to go home and crash after such an exciting day.

And seriously, how adorable are the new Mr. and Mrs. Frost:

The rest of my time home was spent just hanging out with my family. The day after the wedding included a cook-out at Amanda’s parents’ house before the newlyweds head back home on Monday. Mom and I went to the local Racino for some slots (where we didn’t really win anything) and to the Amish market (where I got my usual, though smaller, pecan pie and fried dough). We also had some fun times with friends and mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the nice weather.

The laziness didn’t stop when I left New York, though. Since it was quite the drive back to Charleston, and Joe and Nicole had some family visiting, I decided to prolong my vacation and stop in Virginia to see Wendy. Way back in January, just two days before my birthday, Wendy gave birth to the most adorable baby girl on the planet. As it had been two years since I last saw Wendy, I had obviously never met little Zoe or Wendy’s husband Jamy. It was time to remedy that. It should be noted that Wendy and Jamy have six other children (in addition to Zoe) between the two of them. Thankfully, only the oldest, Jarret, was around for the weekend. While I’m sure all their children are absolutely lovely, that is still a lot of kids.

This blog would probably be a whole lot more interesting if I had tons of tales to tell of crazy adventures while I was there, but honestly last weekend was probably the laziest I’ve had in a long time and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I spent most of the weekend catching up with Wendy, making faces at Zoe, and teaching her how to stick her tongue out at people. (It’s my favorite thing to teach children, as my own mother will attest to.) Oh, and taking bunches of photos. Between Jamy and me, we took well over 100 photos on my camera. Then again, with a baby you have to take a ton of photos just to ensure a few good ones come out.

Unfortunately, all vacations eventually have to end and come Monday I was back on the road to Charleston. A great time was definitely had by me. I’m very much looking forward to my next visit home in September. And I can also be sure that I will not be going another two years before seeing Wendy again. Especially since I have to drive right by her house in September anyway.