The ‘Day After’ – Gift Opening Picnic

TRAGIC NOTE: To those who may use our blog to visit similar blogs or keep up on comments we receive, I must pass on to you some very sad information. My online friend, Margie M. and her husband, Bruce, were killed in an accident on Saturday when hit by a car while walking in Pismo Beach, CA. The night before her accident, Margie had left her last comment on our blog, a testament to the kindred spirit of a parent of a child on their wedding day. Margie actually had 2 blogs, one I’ve always included on my sidebar that focused on her weight loss journey and the second that you can click on here to find our more about what happened direct from her daughter. Also, the local newpaper article can be found here (thanks, LeVonne). Margie had the unusual foresight to be sure that her daughter knew how to update her blog in case of emergency which is something many of us had never considered before now. Margie was always so nice to follow her fellow RV bloggers and provide encouraging comments. It’s as if I’ve lost a dear friend I never actually got to meet face-to-face. Our hearts go out to the family on the terrible loss.

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Luke was the first moving around besides Ken and I at the house the next morning. Actually moving is a relative term. He stumble in like a zombie from being out all night with his brother, grabbed a cup of coffee and sort of passed out sitting up on the couch!!

Not all of the family could stay around for yet another day of wedding festivities. For example, godson, BJ, had to get back to his job. We are very proud of him landing a position in the GE management training program and enjoy hearing about his travels, most recently to Shanghai and Thailand. Here I snapped a shot of BJ and girlfriend, Jona, holding the refrigerator magnet souvenir they brought us – a picture of the Shanghai skyline.

Trevor, Leah, Chris and Courtney were up by about 9:30 and began setting up and decorating outside. They did a really awesome job getting creative with the decorations we had leftover from the rehearsal dinner and shower.

This allowed me to get the food from home going and then to head to Hyvee to pick up what they were to cater for the picnic. The idea was to have pull-porked sandwiches, potato salad for 50 from them and nacho chips and cookies that I provided along with any leftovers from the reception. I’d given them detailed printed instructions on what was needed when and asked that they call me to discuss how to reduce the order based on food left from the reception. I was a bit suspicious when I didn’t receive a call but figured since it appeared that all food had been eaten at the reception, they just made the full amount of pulled pork and potato salad. When I arrived at the store, I faced what I thought could be the first panic attack of the weekend! They had no record of my picnic order and I had up to fifty people to feed in a few hours! However, as it turned out, they had a considerable amount of food left over from the reception. While we had assumed all the food was eaten since they’d been told to leave it out, apparently they had picked up what was left at 10:15 and packaged it.

I returned home with plenty of sandwich materials, chicken wings, stuffed mushrooms and fruits and vegetables to feed the picnickers. We quickly re-assigned work assignments to get some of the foods warming and everything was in good shape.

Before long folks started arriving and we began the eating and gift opening.

Once again we were blessed with such a glorious autumn day that most everyone just kicked back in the backyard and enjoyed a long afternoon of de-stressing.

Of course, for many of the guys, being Sunday football day, the family room with our new 46” flat screen was the preferred hangout.

We’d secured Grandpa’s Chevy in our garage overnight but late afternoon Maria dropped in and decided to get a few more pictures of the newlyweds with the car.

The party broke up by about 5:30 and with plenty of help from the Richmillers and the kids we were quickly cleaned up.

Wow!! The wedding weekend has come to an end. We were back to just Kyle, Jenni, Leah and Trevor at the house for the night. We were all tired and had no interest in having leftovers any more so about 8:00 we drug ourselves out to Qdoba and enjoyed a late family dinner together. When we got home each couple was soon off to their own part of the house to get some much needed rest.

And so, as I have a tendancy to do, I didn’t leave much room for a breather. Stay tuned as Ken and I quickly switch gears and head out for our autumn travels.

Hugs, C