Nathan was in the wedding of his friend and coworker yesterday afternoon. Originally, I thought I’d be left behind at home once again. However, the bride and groom graciously allowed our boys to come even though for the most part kids weren’t there because of a lack of space, and because frankly, the place was really really nice and not really fit for 2 and 5 year olds. I was excited to get to see them tie the knot, and to not have to spend more time solo parenting.
We drove up to Lakewood, WA on Friday morning. Believe it or not, this was Simon’s first time to Washington state ever. Only 20 minutes to the state line in good traffic, and he had never been there! The wedding took place at Thornwood Castle. I learned it was built in Europe over 500 years ago, taken apart and shipped here, and rebuilt on the grounds. It was truly a beautiful spot.
After arriving at our destination, we fed the boys lunch in the back of the van and got them dressed. They were excited to be there.
We had an hour or so before the wedding was to start, and Daddy had to get ready and take pictures with the rest of the groomsmen. The boys and I explored the grounds and the gardens. They had a blast running around. Elias managed to get himself pretty filthy just in time for the wedding to start.
The wedding began at 1:00, just when Simon is usually getting ready to go down for his nap. Knowing this, I was slightly worried, but he seemed to be doing ok. Then the ceremony started. And Simon decided that was an opportune moment to start throwing a fit. At one point during the vows he did yell out “I want to go back home!” It was super embarrassing since there weren’t many kids there. I gave him my phone to look at, and he was quiet the rest of the ceremony. Phew!
After the ceremony, the boys got to run around and enjoy the grounds some more. We also watched the wedding party take some photos. Here is one of all the good looking groomsmen with the happy couple. This really is a great group of guys. They are all Nathan’s coworkers. Sorry about the poor quality, but I was trying not to get in the way and was standing quite far back.
The boys also got to play with some light sabers that one of the other groomsmen brought with him.
Then it was time for the reception. We had afternoon tea. How many people can say they’ve had afternoon tea in a castle? Everything was super nice so we tried not to let the boys touch anything. The bride and groom had provided coloring books for us. This picture is for Nana: It’s Nathan trying to get Elias to color in the lines.
(There is a family story that when a teacher told Nathan that he didn’t color his school projects well enough, he told her that “coloring is not education.” So I thought it was funny that he was impressing the importance of nice coloring on his son).
After a lot of fun at the reception, it was time to head home. There was horrible traffic in I5 South so we decided to stop and eat at Red Robin to let the traffic disburse. While it did still take us 3 hours to get home instead of a little over 2, we were glad we had taken it easy. Plus, the boys fell asleep in the car right about their normal bed time, and we were able to transfer them to their beds when we got home without incident. A perfect end to a great day. Congrats to the couple. It was one of the best weddings I’ve been to, truly!