A Long Overdue Wedding

On Saturday, October 12th I attended my first gay wedding and I loved it.  Now this wasn't just any gay wedding, this was my aunt's wedding, my two aunts, who have been in each other's lives for 14 years.  It was a long overdue marriage and I am so happy that they finally got to make their love official.  I hope to attend many more wedding like this in the future.  Yay for marriage equality!

This is my aunt Donna and her partner Sonja - my other aunt.  I asked them what the colors were for their wedding, because you know I like to dress the "theme" and she said rainbow.  So I ordered Lemon a dress on eBay and found a vintage dress for me on Etsy and had to make clips to match!

Their wedding was at the end of our fall break so on Friday the 11th we took off for Palm Springs, CA.  We stopped in Quartzsite on the way and Ian fell in love with Gem World.  And the jerkey shop that claims to have the best jerkey (with 3 exclamation points!) - none of it is gluten free.  Lemon slept almost the whole way to Palm Springs (over 4 hours) and I knew something was up with this baby that usually only sleeps 30 minutes on road trips.

We got to our Groupon booked hotel, Posh, and discovered they don't accept kids (after we arrived there with Lemon crying at the door that we had to wait 15 minutes for someone to open).  So my step-dad called the Quality Inn and got us a room.  It was close to downtown, super quiet and had a beautiful view, we liked it.  And check out our matching Indie Nook pants!!

We spent the evening with our family and put Lemon to sleep in my mom's bed.  It was fun seeing everyone and getting to stay up and chat.  Lemon fell right to sleep and stayed asleep until we had to wake her to go back to the hotel.  Then she wouldn't sleep in her pack n play and instead slept with me, keeping me up most of the night whining.

After a terrible night's sleep we headed to breakfast at the restaurant at Carrow's, walking distance from our hotel.  It looked like Denny's and was super run down but had the most delicious gluten free potato pancakes.  So delicious I wish we had one here!

After a nap for everyone (only an hour) and after stopping at an estate sale (OLD house, RAD stuff) we went back to the villa were some of my family were staying and let Lemon run around with my mom, her Nani.  Then we heard that we had to go to Cheeky's for lunch and after seeing a grass fed, local, organic burger on the menu, I was sold.  So we put our name in and walked around downtown.  I wish we would have had more time on Saturday afternoon, before 2nd nap, to walk around downtown.  I'd love to go back to Palm Springs to spend the weekend going to yard sales, eating out and shopping!

This baby was a pill the whole trip, I think she had a cold or was still feeling terrible from her shots earlier in the week, but she had an awful cough and was just miserable.  But, at lunch she smiled for the first time the entire trip!

After lunch we headed back to put the baby to bed.  She ended up sleeping an hour and a half and Ian and I headed to the pool, face-timing the iPad (because someone suggested I not bring the monitor), to hear her when she woke up.  It was AMAZING and for a not super fancy hotel the heated pool area was super relaxing.

That night was the wedding so we get dressed in our rainbow dresses and went back to the villa!

It was a gorgeous ceremony, right on the grass at the villa, and Aunt Donna and Sonja wrote their own vows.  You could feel the love and I had tears when it was over.  I am just so so, indescribably happy for them.

After speeches and dinner, there was dancing!  We had a super tired baby on our hands so I tried to put her to bed, hoping she'd fall right asleep like the night before (and after we lugged the pack 'n play to the villa and set it up) but she didn't.  By 9:30 she was so over tired and so were we so we headed back to our hotel and went to bed.  She slept even worse that night, and ended up in bed with me and then with Ian early in the morning so I could get some sleep.



We stopped at the giant Marilyn on the way home, then at Fresh 'n Easy for breakfast and snacks and then were off!  We had another wedding to get to that night and wanted a happy baby instead of a grumpy one.  It turns out she slept only about a half hour on the way home and only I made it to the wedding that night so that my sick babe could finally get some sleep in her own bed!  I ended up taking the next day off to recover, take Lemon back to the doctor, shop, clean and do our laundry!

It was a whirlwind trip and I wish Lemon would have been feeling better.  I also wish we would have had more time to spend with everyone, I always love seeing my family.  I am so happy for my aunts, though, and wish them a lifetime of happiness - and am glad we got to be a part of their long-awaited marriage!!

We love you Aunt Donna and Aunt Sonja!!