More going on than I have time to write about

Life has been hectic for the past couple weeks, as my absence from blogging probably indicates. The biggest news of late: my brother Wyatt got married! Garrett and the kids and I just got back yesterday from our road trip to Cincinnati to see Wyatt and Kalpana tie the knot last Saturday, October 10. It was a wonderful, extremely busy trip and an extraordinary wedding. I have to admit early on that I do not have a single picture from our time with my family. The schedule was so jam packed and I was so busy keeping track of my kids that I just did not have the time or extra hands to pick up my camera, so I'm hoping I can snag some good photos from other people. I just wish I had them now so I could share them as I explain our whirlwind in Ohio.

Garrett and I packed up the kids and headed out of town on Tuesday, Oct 6. The drive to Cincinnati from home is about 11 hours of driving, so we decided to leave in the evening in the hopes that the kids would sleep in the car a good portion of the first day. As it happened, the kids were amazing travelers for us. They road happily in the car until we stopped for dinner on Tuesday evening, then fell asleep soon after and we drove until midnight when we stopped at a motel for the night. The next day we were up and on the road around 9am and during the drive the kids played, watched videos, and slept until we arrived in Cincinnati shortly after 5pm. We could not have asked for a smoother trip.

In Cincinnati were were hosted by Carol and Paul, some close friends of Kalpana's parents. They were very accommodating and extremely helpful in making their home comfortable for all of us as well as my mom, who also stayed in their huge home. Carol was wonderful about having food prepared for the kids as we needed, which was a huge lifesaver since we sometimes were literally running from one activity to another. Festivities started in earnest on Thursday, when Garrett and Gabriel got to hang out with the guys, visiting the tux shop and going to lunch, while mom and I took Amelia and Abigail to a ladies lunch.

Kalpana is Hindu so much of the wedding weekend involved Hindu ceremonies and traditions, but my family has an Episcopal tradition and Wyatt wanted a Christian ceremony as well. He was not baptized as a baby and to get married in the Episcopal church you need to be baptized, so on Thursday afternoon Wyatt was baptized in a private ceremony at Kalpana's parent's home. After that we had the rehearsal for the Episcopal wedding ceremony, which took place at the Cincinnati zoo, and after the rehearsal was the rehearsal dinner downtown. We originally planned to take the kids with us to the rehearsal, but thank God Garrett decided to take them home instead. It was raining cats and dogs at the zoo and we all would have been miserable trying to keep the kids dry and happy. Kalpana's parents did an extraordinary job preparing to accommodate our family, and they provided babysitters to stay with the kids at Carol and Paul's during the evenings so Garrett and I could go to the evening events, so we made it the rehearsal dinner and enjoyed a very special and fun dinner without worrying about the kids.

Friday festivities started early with a Hindu engagement ceremony that took up the morning, followed by lunch. It was my first real taste of the Indian aspect of the wedding and it was so interesting to watch the whole process. Hindu ceremonies, to the outside observer anyway, seem very ornate and intricate, and they are filled with tradition and symoblism. At the same tme, they have a more casual feel than a Western wedding ceremony in that people will come and go, ask questions, and move around. So I got to see almost all of what was going on, but when the kids started acting up no one minded me or Garrett getting up to walk them out of the room to go play in the foyer. In the afternoon my mom and I spent some time getting Mehndi--henna tattoos painted on our hands and feet so we were appropriately decorated for the wedding ceremony the next day. On Friday night there was an enormous Mehndi party. Basically it was a party to celebrate Wyatt and Kalpana, thrown by some more good friends of Kalpana's parents. It was a catered event with amazing Indian food, an Indian DJ, and Mehndi artists painting tattoos on anyone who wanted them. I have never seen decadence like that, but it was amazingly comfortable. Everyone seemed to have a great time and we spent a lot of time on the dance floor. I even saw my parents cutting a rug like I've never witnessed, so it was a lot of fun all around.

Saturday morning again started early with the Hindu wedding ceremony. It was held in downtown Cincinnati in a cavernous music hall. The decorations were magnificent though, with amazing colors and lavish decorations. They turned an ordinary hall into an awesome sight. Our whole family was dressed in our Indian best, me in my sari, Garrett and Gabriel in their kurtas, and the girls in their pavadais. Before the ceremony started Garrett and I were worried about how the kids would do. They hadn't been getting any naps since we arrived in Cincinnati and the pace of the events was wearing on them. Gabriel was already asking for home and spent most of the morning melting onto the floor in one tantrum after the other. But I guess the intrigue of the ceremony was enough to quiet him down. They were all pretty well behaved once we went into the wedding hall. In the beginning of the ceremony Wyatt's family walks with him into the hall and we are greeted by Kalpana's family. Then we participate in part of the early ceremony. After that was finished Garrett took the kids to be with some on-site babysitters so we could enjoy the rest of the ceremony. Watching Wyatt up on stage getting married was a little odd. Not that he was getting married, but that I knew he was getting married and yet it was in such a foreign environment that I didn't really make emotional sense of what was going on. The ceremony was stunning and I loved being a part of it, but it didn't really sink in that Wyatt was married until a little later on. There was a point in the Hindu cerememony when the groom ties a necklace around the bride's neck, sort of equivalent I think to bride and groom exchanging rings in a Christian ceremony. During the necklace tying, the groom' sister (that's me!) gets to tie the second and third knot in tne necklace, signifying welcoming the bride into the groom's family. That was pretty cool. I liked feeling a part of it. And I admit I liked getting to go on stage while I wore my amazing sari that Kalpana had bought in India. I'll have to go to more Indian weddings just so I have a reason to wear that beautiful outfit!

After going home to change we were back at the zoo for the Episcopal ceremony. Everything went really well for that as well. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful evening. Gabriel refused to carry the ring pillow so Garrett got to be the world's oldest ring bearer, while he walked down the aisle holding hands with Gabe, who looked adorable in his tux dragging his Winnie the Pooh bear by the arm. The girls were not so keen on walking down the aisle. Amelia refused from the get go, and Abby walked partway but decided it wasn't such a hot idea, so I carried both of them. It was a bit challenging. The aisle was actually a bridge with slats, so I had to make sure my heels didn't catch in the cracks. And at the end of the aisle were three steps to climb before reaching the front of the ceremony. But thankfully we all made it unscathed, and the girls of course looked cute as could be. The guests got a second look at Amelia when we reached the spot in the cememony when I had to get up and do a reading. Amelia was not interested in staying in her seat, so I took her, along with her milk and snack cup, up to the podium to read a poem. After the ceremony I learned that in between verses the audience could hear Amelia guzzling her milk from her sippy cup. At least she wasn't crying! After a beautiful ceremony Garrett and I sent the kids home with a babysitter and we stayed to eat, drink to toasts, and again dance into the night. It was so much fun, and such a fitting celebration.

The one thing I have not yet had time to do it reflect much on the weekend and the wedding. It was such a whirlwind of a wedding with so much constantly going on. I was thrilled to be a part of it though and I'm very excited for Wyatt and Kalpana. I think they are so good for each other and I already feel like having her connected to our family has brought us all closer in some intangible but vital ways. I look forward to the future with her as a sister. Congratulations Wyatt and Kalpana!

Of course the wedding did not mark the end of our adventure. I couldn't travel to Ohio without visiting my friend Kim in Dayton, so on Sunday, after a morning brunch, and a mid-day visit with Garrett's cousin who also lives in Cincinnati, our family drove an hour to Dayton and stayed with Kim and her husband Kaz and daughter Jade for a couple days. It was a bit of a rough visit since we were on the tail end of an alreayd exhausting trip, but I am so glad we made it. Connecting with Kim is always a treat and it's so fun to see our kids together. We got some time at the park and lots of time around the house playing in the yard and throwing the ball for the dogs. I was sorry we couldn't stay longer, but it was clear that the kids were getting worn out and ready for some normalcy again, so Garrett and I packed up the car again and headed home on Tuesday evening. The kids traveled well once more. It was a bit rougher on the way home than the way there. Gabriel especially was taxed by our time away from home and was having more meltdowns and tantrums towards the end, but we all made it unscathed and we're back home, mostly unpacked and happy to be in familiar territory again.

And that just about does it. Maybe this was not the most exciting post--takes too much energy still to do much more than regurgitate what's been going on--but it has definitely been an exciting month! Now it's time for a nap. Anyone want to come over and babysit?