Golden Weekend

On Saturday morning at 3:00 am I awoke, brushed my teeth, put my wet tooth brush into my already packed bags, got dressed made coffee and left to catch my flight to Denver. I met Mom and Aunt M. at the airport and we all checked in and sat around talking until the flight boarded about 6-ish. We landed in Denver, rented a car (PT Cruiser - cool) and drove to the hotel. We checked in stopped and had complimentary breakfast (raisin toast and bagels) and then moseyed to our room to relax for an hour and change for the wedding. I tried to nap but it just wouldn’t happen. We left for the wedding about 11:30 and figured we’d be 15 minutes early and then tried to navigate Denver. Let me say that there Denver has the following streets: Wadsworth Blvd. Wadsworth Pkwy and Wadsworth Bypass all aka HWY 121. Wadsworth also takes several ‘jogs’ or ‘jaunts’ or whatever you’d like to call it when a street ends and then starts up again a block over just to confuse you and cause the driver to say

“I thought you had directions?!”

to which the navigator says “I do, it doesn’t say that the road ends here it just says ‘veer onto Wadsworth Blvd.’!!”

“Do I veer right or left to get to Wadsworth Blvd.?”

“Um – it doesn’t say, I’m going to guess left…. Crap it’s right, we need to head West you’d better whip a u-ie”

“I’ve never whipped a u-ie in my life, is that even legal?”

“Sure, if it weren’t legal they’d post it.”

(first u-ie whipped.)

After 45 minutes, three more u-ies and a clover leaf we finally made it to the wedding. The chapel at Red Rock was gorgeous as was the wedding. It was a picture perfect afternoon for all except my dear cousin’s daughter - poor child. Willow is Ella’s age and upon laying eyes on her she reminded me of Ella so that I wanted to scoop her up and kiss all over her face. Alas she was shy and wanted to hang onto her Mommy’s leg (just like Ella might’ve) and so I waited and bided my time before attempting a scoop. In the interim she stepped on a cactus - ouch. Her Mom and Dad extracted all the needles from her little foot just in time for the start of the ceremony.

I could hardly wait to see my Uncles new wife. I, my Mother, and Aunt C. would be seeing her for the first time as she walked down the aisle and my Aunt M. would be seeing her for only the second time ever so it was all very exciting. The woman playing piano began to sing “Ave Maria” and we Italian Catholics/former Catholics and children of were all brought to tears. It seems this song is played at any important family event taking place at a church.

The little church was packed tight and about half way through the ceremony I heard little Willow let out a terrible wail from outside. It seems she was a little antsy (as two year old sometimes get) and her Mom took her outside to run around until the wedding concluded when she took a spill and cracked her head open spilling blood all down her darling little pink party dress. She took three stitches and a big Dora band aid at the hospital later, so I never did get to know her well enough to scoop her up and kiss her all over her face. I plan to go back and visit my dear cousins and next time I’ll bring my family so we can let the girls play tea party and babies and perhaps then I can attempt a snuggle.

We drove to Golden next, about a half an hour and two u-ies away from Morrison (were the wedding was) were we proceeded with all the wonderful traditions that go with a wedding – food and wine, balloons and cake and dancing. Perhaps the funniest thing that happened all weekend came at the tail end of this reception. We were all standing outside waiting to make a wish and let dozens of balloons go up into the atmosphere in honor of the newly wedded couple when my dear cousin A. said “oh look it’s snowing” and hastily stuck her tongue out to catch dainty flakes wafting about before realizing they were actually a swarm of tiny gnats and when I saw the brother of the bride do the same not 10 feet away from me I really thought I would pee my pants laughing. I tried to take a picture of the giant gnat cloud but it just didn’t work. (Sorry A. I just couldn’t resist telling that story)

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, hearing music, drinking and dining with relatives (and perhaps a dozen more u-ies) before we made our way back to IL on Sunday evening where Ella and Dan had a grand time buying toys, eating cookies and watching movies all weekend. I did get the chance to have lunch with Willow before I left and she was much happier than the day before as you can imagine. I can hardly wait to get back there.