East Coast Vacation Part 1

Oh so much to cover! I divided our trip into two sections because it was just so manic, it'd be way too much to cover in one post. Also, this will be mostly pictures because sadly, as I feared, I've forgotten a great deal of the little details and stories of our trip.

Ed loves red eye flights!

Thursday we came in and basically just ran around the entire day. I went in to see Mikyla at The Shop in Bethesda to get my hair trimmed for the wedding that weekend. We even got to meet up with Michelle for lunch. One shopping trip and manicure/pedicure later, we had wrapped up our day of errands and could settle in with Mom.

Scheming!

We bought Omi an iPad mini, hoping it's lightweight nature would be more appealing to her than her fullsized iPad. (Long story short, she didn't touch it in the two weeks she had it so it managed to find it's way into my luggage!)

The next morning we started our drive down to Virginia Beach, listening to A Visit from the Goon Squad on audiobooks. Traffic was... epic. Every single major road had some kind of awful traffic and it was truly ridiculous. Rush hour turned into a day long event apparently. We saw some truly awful car crash aftermath so it must have just been something in the air...

We made it to the beach house in time for dinner with Mel and Brian which was a nice little break. Also, I wish we could have stayed a bit longer, the house Mel picked out was pretty awesome and I badly longed for more east coast beach time. I know, I know, I'm not a 'beach person' per se, but I have so many fond memories of visiting Rehoboth that I just get super nostalgic.

Kim's wedding was the next day and because it was on the beach (and raining) I opted to try my hand at a fishtail braid for the first time. Mikyla gave me these nifty hair ties that are bungee cords. If you're looking for something that refuses to budge, this is the product for you!

Finished product. I brought my denim blouse in case it got a little too wet and windy.

Miraculously the rain lifted for the ceremony and it was wonderful. Everyone looked fantastic and the set up was beautiful. Hard to go wrong with beach weddings as long as the weather cooperates!

I forgot to take pictures but there were two other weddings happening along side ours. The mother of the bride told me later they worked out a timing arrangement with them so no one would be disrupted. 

Like I said, the rain held off for the ceremony, and then started in promptly for the reception.

But that didn't stop the dancing! 

Kim's reception dress was wonderful, and she wore a ka-bar (?) knife on a sash.

The food? So good. I wish I had taken a picture of the dinner because it was just great. Dessert was wonderful too, wedding cake and little apple pies! After months of dieting, I was pretty much completely done in with all this eating.

The site they used was amazing, we're talking indoor and outdoor pools, multi-level massive rooms, and an elevator? It was ridiculously nice.

All of the 'buds' got together for a toast or two:

The photographer here, Jamie, would also be one of the people toasting but she was working and expecting - two conditions not great for drinking!

And then it went a little bit crazy after this picture. It was still a great night but yeah, just a little bit crazy as expected. :)

The next morning we had to roll out early to make our way to Rob's graduation. Ok, maybe it wasn't early... but when you have a 3am bedtime, 9am comes up a little too quick. We met up with Susan on the way, forming a little caravan on the way to George Mason for the ceremony.

Everything was very nice and the ceremony went by really quickly. I'm a jerk and did not take nearly enough pictures. I can't believe I didn't even get Rob on stage getting hooded! I did try to cheer a little but got the stink eye from a neighbor in the audience. Oh well! It was a wonderful moment, recognizing a huge accomplishment.

Susan, Ellis and Rob posing in the crush of graduates and families rushing around 

Rob, Alexis and Ellis - all happy and... blurry. Ugh, I don't know what happened. Such a good picture and all three I took came out blurry. Photographer fail.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay for dinner - I had received a call that morning that my mom had fallen down the stairs and was hurting. Mom said she was mostly okay but that she hit her head and knee and wasn't moving around much at all, so we knew we had to make it back to try to help her out. She did send us out to get dinner after we helped set her up and determined that I would teach for her on Monday so we decided staying close and going to Quarry House was a good option.

Seriously. How come I got such a blurry picture of Rob, Alexis and Ellis - and here I get a great burger picture? So frustrating.

So the next day I taught the 830, 930 and 11 to the amusement and confusion of the students. Several of them thought I was my mom when they viewed me from across the pool. They all said marriage appeared to be treating me well and were disappointed to learn that the secret to my weight loss was diet and exercise :)

Ed suggested we go out for lunch and what tastes better after working out for 3 hours than Moby Dick's sushi!

So that covers Thursday - the first Monday of our trip.... one week's worth of activities and pictures left!

(Side note - Mom is alright now, she just needed some time to heal after the fall)