Belle of the Ball

It's the morning after Ashley's wedding, and I couldn't be prouder of Frankie. She totally ROCKED IT as the flower girl. She walked down that aisle with a big smile on her face, bursting with personality. She looked beautiful, too.

I have to say, too, that the wedding was absolutely beautiful. In the middle of a wave of 95 degree days, the universe decided to grant Bas and Ashley the most perfect day for a summer wedding that I've ever seen. Blue skies, around 80 degrees, a slight breeze... Perfection!

The ceremony itself was really nice, too. Ashley's fabulous brother Mitch got ordained over the internet and performed the ceremony. The father of the bride and the father of the groom both got up and gave speeches with their wishes for the couple. It was warm, lighthearted, quirky, and personal. I loved it.

The highlight of the ceremony for me was when Bas suddenly produced a ukulele in the middle of the ceremony, and surprised Ashley with an absolutely gorgeous song that he'd written in her honor. It was adorable with a capital A. Bas has a great singing voice (fun fact: He once auditioned for the Dutch version of American Idol), and the song was so sweet and touching that I confess to shedding a few tears. I think everyone at the wedding fell in love with Bas on the spot.

And the reception? Amazing! It was held at a local B&B in Old Town called The Edwards House. I must have driven past The Edwards House hundreds of times in the past fifteen years, but I never realized how amazing it truly is. The grounds are beautiful. Long stretches of green grass, private flower-filled nooks... Private, secluded, and really lovely. We walked around the grounds and socialized all night. We knew a lot of people at the wedding, but made some new friends, too. (Which is rare for me.) Ashley and Bas even put out a dress-up photo station that Frankie had a blast with throughout the night.

And the food? Amazing! It might actually be the best wedding food I've ever tasted. Gorgeous, earthy, salty, and garlicky. I would eat that meal every day if I could.

We stayed until after ten, and Frankie was bubbly, happy, and well-behaved the whole night. She played with the other kids at the wedding pretty much the whole time. We actually barely saw her. People kept coming up to us, though, telling us how cute Frankie was. Two different people advised us to put her in drama classes, and one New Yorker asked if we'd be interested in coming to the city to audition her for commercial work. (Which would be great, if it wasn't for Frankie's inability to take direction. Maybe they'd let her *direct* the commercials?)

Flower Girl verdict: It was a great night, and Miss Frankie was a hit. I was really proud of her.

Flower Power!

Today's the day our friend Ashley marries the adorable Holland-born Bas. It's an exciting day for Frankie, too, because she gets to act out what she has deemed her "life dream": being a flower girl.

I'm a little nervous for the ceremony, because Frankie has somehow gotten it into her head that the flower girl's walk should be unique and creative. Therefore, she's worked out some sort of weird, painfully slow, lurching, avaunt-guard Frankenstein-esque walk the borders on performance art. We've gone round and round about it, in fact. The more I suggest a more "traditional" (Read: more efficient, less Frankenstein) walk, the more she resists and amps up the drama.

Yesterday in the rehearsal, I think we finally came to an understanding when she realized how long the aisle was and how quickly she'd need to get down to the groom's end. She and I struck a compromise: she can do anything she likes with her upper body and hands, as long as she smiles and walks at a reasonable pace.

In case things go south, I have my Flip camera at the ready, poised to save the event for future blackmailing purposes.

Wish us luck!

The Great Sand Dunes

It's been a few weeks since our trip down to the Great Sand Dunes, but I thought I might take a moment to recap the trip and share a few pictures.

It was a long way down to the Great Sand Dunes, around six hours. Matt and I drove in the Element, while Jo, Jim, and Frankie rode in the truck pulling a camping trailer. We stopped halfway and set up camp at a KOA campground. Frankie had a blast swimming around in the KOA pool while I sat in a lounge chair and baked in the sun.

Here's our campsite:

When we weren't watching Frankie swim, we spent most of our time hanging out in the air-conditioned trailer because it was blazingly hot. It was so hot that when I walked across the paved parking lot I could feel the heat from the pavement radiating back at me. I seriously feared that my flip-flops were going to melt.

That afternoon, we decided to take a tour of the nearby Cave of the Winds. It was really beautiful and best of all...cool!

That night, we cooked out on a campstove, made s'mores, and had a good time hanging out together at Jim and Jo's camper. That night, Frankie, Matt, and I slept in our tent, and Jim & Jo slept in the camper. It was actually a lot of fun sleeping outside. There was a super creepy guy in a beaten-up 1980's-style van with blacked out windows parked next to us, but once I got over my fear that he was going to murder us in our sleep and wear our skins while dancing in the moonlight, it was a great night.

The next day we packed everything up and drove the rest of the way down to the Great Sand Dunes. The campsite Jo had picked out for us was gorgeous, and we had a great view of the dunes.

The only bummer was that there was a campfire ban in effect for the rest of our trip. (At that point, pretty much the entire state of Colorado was on fire.) So, no campfire cooking or s'mores. But what we did get was....

Unbeknownst to me, moments later a giant and horrifying beetle would fly into my sweaty cleavage.

Sledding down the dunes. Whee!

Doesn't grandad look dashing in his Hello Kitty backpack?

There's usually a really beautiful (and refreshing) river flowing across the base of the dunes, but sadly it was so hot that the river had dried up just days before we arrived. After talking the river up to Frankie, she was a little bummed that it was gone, but ultimately she was a really good sport about it.

The dregs of the river, buried under the sand.

"Whee! I'm swimming!!"

Honestly, I had a great time. It was lots of fun spending time with the family, and we have quite a few wonderful and lasting memories from the trip. However, I'm not a very outdoorsy kind of gal, and going a few days without a shower was a real challenge. I hate feeling dirty, sweaty, and/or sticky, and those are pretty constant states of existence while on a camping trip. By the time we headed home, I was fantasizing about a bubble bath.

These memories stand out among all the others:

1) The heat
The temperature hovered around 100 degrees most days we were camping. It was too hot to do pretty much anything other than sit in the shade and hope for darkness to fall.

2) The wind
The last night at the Great Sand Dunes, there was a terrible windstorm. It kicked up right as the sun was going down, and lasted all the way through until morning. These winds were FIERCE. Trying to sleep in the tent was a real challenge. The sound of the wind howling and ripping and flapping through the vinyl of the tent was incredibly loud.  There no way to overstate how loud it was. It was like trying to sleep while skydiving. The wind would catch the sides of the tent and blow them in so that just as you were about o fall asleep, you'd be startled awake by the realization that the fabric of the tent was collapsed in so far that it was touching your nose. Not a restful wilderness experience.

3) The bugs
Biting flies are jerks. They think I taste delicious. No amount of bug spray will stop them.

4) Frankie
When we woke up at our campsite at the foot of the Great Sand Dunes, Frankie crawled out of her sleeping bag, wiped the sleep out of her eyes, and took a look around. The first thing she said (in a reverant hushed whisper) was, "Oh... It's so beautiful!" The smile on her face made the entire trip worth it.

5) The Moth
Inside the camper, Jo and I complained about an irritating moth that kept flapping around up. Jim, in a ninja-like manuever, looked up from what he was doing and SNATCHED THE MOTH RIGHT OUT OF THE AIR WITH ONE LIGHTENING-FAST GRAB. It was awesome, and totally unexpected. He's a real-life Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. im caught the moth in his fist, and (because he has a kind heart) opened the door and shooed it back outside.

Jim rules!!

6) Climbing the Great Sand Dunes
The sand dunes were breathtakingly beautiful. I'm so happy I was able to see them. Bugs, heat, and wind... It was all worth it.

Camping face!!