The "Wedding"

Well, the wedding has come and gone. We had been waiting for the official photos to arrive to put on our blog but except for a couple, they have not yet arrived. Depending on how much they differ from what we have here, we may put them on a later blog.

The photos that we do have are here*. The first photo is of our picture of Kirsty when she was two-and-a-half, our little baby. The wedding began with Will and Kirsty and Fossil, their dog, arriving the Saturday a week before the wedding. All kinds of small, last minute preparations were handled. Adam, Cindy and Isaac arrived from Thailand on Tuesday. (If you wonder what they are doing in Thailand you can see their blog.) Then the rest of the family arrived on Thursday. Even Nancy's folks came down from Oregon, both are 87 years old. But they came probably not only to attend their grand daughter's wedding but also to check on where Walt has taken their special little girl!!

We had our house full for two weeks with various family members staying here. During the weekend of the wedding we had eleven people sleeping in our house so it felt like there were beds all over the place. The beds are visible in the first set of photos. The rest of the visitors from the States stayed at Real de Chapala, a very beautiful hotel on the lake. Speaking of the lake, it gave our guests a special treat. It is the fullest it has been in over 30 years!! Here are some pictures of it at the lakeside park in our village of Ajijic.

The remainder of the photos give a glimpse of the wedding before, during and after. In a word it was "perfect". The tail end of rainy season took a break for the week, and we had perfect weather. The wedding itself was a pleasant blend of American and Mexican. The food was authentic Mexican prepared and catered by a local caterer. From the pictures you can see that there even was a Mariachi Band entertaining us as we ate. You can hear them here. Nancy made the dress and one of the cakes, and the girls made their own bouquets. Moisés, a pastor and one of our Spanish Class teachers, officiated. He gave an excellent reminder how as married couples whatever seeds we plant will dictate the harvest we will reap. So if we plant seeds of love, respect, affection, admiration and so forth, we will reap love, respect, affection and admiration from our partners. Good words to remember.

The day after the wedding, half of the family headed home. The last of our family left us on the Friday a week after the wedding. It is nice to have the ability to do what we want, when we want. But we sure miss all of our family. We are looking forward to when we can see them all again. It was especially nice to have Nancy's Mom, Dad, and sister from Oregon. It was quite an adventure for them, since Mexicana no longer offers non-stop flights from Portland.

* Just a note of a new feature of Picasa. If you go to the single image per page view, by double-clicking on a particular album photo, you can move your mouse across faces and identify individuals. This is not in the slideshow mode. Or, on the right panel of the album you see "People in this album" and if you "View All" you will see all the people and the number of photos they are in. Click "View All" for any one person and you will just see their photos. Kinda cool!