My sister Tracy’s wedding was in Texas this past Saturday, and I have to admit that even for a bitter divorced lady like myself, that it was a really beautiful wedding.

Now, excuse me while I inundate you with pictures.

The kids did really well on the flight out. In fact, aside from a couple of diaper disasters (which I had prepared for – I have a rule that every traveler must have at least one full change of clothes in their carry-on, and those who aren’t potty trained need multiple sets), it went about as smoothly as one could hope.

Although I admit this was my favorite part of the flight.

Actually, one random moment on the way there: we had a connection in Atlanta, and I was walking up to our gate, I saw this girl and she and I kept staring at each other, doing double- and triple-takes. Finally, I said, “I think you’re my cousin!” She said, “YES I AM!” It was my cousin Cici. Who I haven’t seen each other since… oh… my wedding back in 2005. Kind of hilarious to run into her in the airport of all places. (She was on her way to the same wedding as us.)

We got in on Thursday afternoon, and within a few hours, Lucy randomly barfed twice. Once at our rental house, and later when we were at my aunt & uncle’s house. I prayed that it was just a delayed reaction to motion sickness, and apparently that’s what it was, because she never got a fever and she seemed fine the rest of the time we were there. *whew*

On Friday, we had a brunch for the bridal party (during which I took no pictures because I was too busy wrangling my kids). Later, we drove out to the wedding venue for the rehearsal.

Practice aisle walk.

Tracy had said that, for the flower girls and ring bearers, there would be prizes at their seats after they walked down the aisle, and Catie had a little meltdown because she thought it meant she wouldn’t get any prizes. Tracy hugged her, and we all assured her that all she had to do was wear the dress and smile pretty in the pictures, she didn’t actually have to do the aisle walk if she didn’t want to do it.

I admit that I totally melt every time I see how amazing Chris is with my kids. Lucy absolutely adores him. I love this picture.

On Friday evening, Greis arrived from Houston. YAY!

Tracy and Everett rented out a BBQ restaurant to have a “welcome reception” for their out-of-town guests, and it was a lot of fun to see people that I haven’t seen in years.

The Colliers lived next door to us when we were growing up. I honestly cannot remember the last time the four of us girls were in the same place at the same time. It was so fun catching up with them. (Wish their mom & brother had come too, but you know, I’ll take what I can get.)

On Saturday morning, Catie said, “I think I might walk down the aisle after all. But I’m not making any promises.” That was the first time she’d given even the slightest hint that she might do it since the whole engagement/wedding was announced over a year ago, so I didn’t want to get too excited and scare her off the idea. I just said, “Ok, I would love it if you would walk down the aisle with me, but just so you know, it’ll be ok if you don’t, too. It’s your choice.”

We headed down to the wedding venue to get our hair and make-up done for the wedding. I have to say that with a full up-do, 10 pounds of hair spray, airbrushed make-up, and false eyelashes? I felt pretty dang fancy.

And Catie, my little tomboy, actually sat still and let someone style her hair.

It looked so pretty.

I don’t have any pictures of Lucy’s hair because she didn’t really have enough to do much of anything with it. We pulled it back into a half-ponytail, stuck in some sparkly bobby pins – which fell out long before the wedding started – and sprayed the crap out of her poor little head to try to hold it all in place.

But seriously. YOU GUYS.

And then there was me and Catie with all of the other bridesmaids.

And the kicker: Catie and Lucy both walked down the aisle with me. I held my bouquet in my left hand while Catie held onto my elbow, and I held Lucy’s hand with my right, and we walked together. They were both champs. (And their prizes – the flower girls & ring bearers had little Star Wars Angry Birds plush dolls waiting for them at their seats. It kept them quiet through the whole ceremony. My sister = GENIUS.)

I realized that I was so busy being in the wedding that I didn’t get any pictures of my sister and how beautiful she looked in her dress, so I just stole this one from one of their Facebook friends.

Amazing, right?

Then there was the reception, which was really great because I got to see and talk to all kinds of people who I haven’t seen in forever. And continuing my sister’s genius streak: the kids (2 flower girls & 2 ring bearers), since they were the only kids there, each had a little gift bag at their seats with coloring/activity books, crayons, matchbox cars, plastic dinosaurs, etc. It kept them quiet and happy while everyone ate and socialized.

And the one part of the wedding that I was dreading: my speech. Greis filmed it and texted it to me later. The lighting is terrible – you can only see me when there’s a camera flash – but if you want to hear how I sounded, there you go.

Tracy & Everett’s wedding toast

For the record, that nervous laugh at the beginning is when I completely forgot what I was going to say. I also realized that I talked way too fast and said “like” and “umm” way too much. But you know, I got through it, and I didn’t die or have a panic attack, so I’m going to chalk that up as a win.

We flew home on Sunday, and it was – again – a pretty uneventful flight, thankfully.

I’m just so, so happy for my sister, and my new brother-in-law. Which is kind of nice to know: that as turned off as I am by the concept of marriage for myself, I can still get giddily excited for other people.

So, hey, maybe I’m not such a bitter old divorcee after all.

When my sister got engaged last year, and I found out that her wedding was going to be in Austin, I immediately texted Greis and asked her to be my date. She only lives a couple hours’ drive away, and even though I’m excited for my sister and looking forward to her wedding, it was also basically an excuse to hang out with one of my favorite people for a weekend.

When Chris and I got back together, Greis joked that I was going to ditch her for my boyfriend. I said I wouldn’t, mainly because (a) I don’t ditch my friends – that’s a big no-no for me. And (b) Chris is kind of a quiet guy and my family can be really overwhelming when there’s a lot of them in one place. I didn’t want to scare him off. When my sister was in town and met Chris, she made a point of letting me know that it was totally cool with her if I had both Chris and Greis as my “dates” for the wedding.

We went back and forth about it a lot. He had some custody/childcare stuff to handle on his end, and I was worried about how it would look to a lot of my family. I haven’t seen the majority of my extended family since before I had Lucy. So it felt weird to go from a few years ago, when I was married with one kid, to seeing them again now, divorced with 2 kids and a boyfriend.

But, when it comes down to it? I want Chris to be there. I tend to get nervous about a lot of things, and he has a way of calming me down when I get anxious (like, say, about flying, or handling the kids when they’re completely off their routine).

Not to mention that, you know, I want my family to meet him because I’m kind of in love with him and stuff.

Sooooo, on Thursday, I will be boarding a plane with my parents, my kids, and Chris, and flying to Texas for my sister’s wedding. It’ll be Lucy’s first time on an airplane, and the first time Catie’s been on one since she was 3 years old. I was nervous about flying with both kids, but I figure that if we have four adults and two kids, that’s a pretty good ratio. And with 6 of us, we’ll basically just take up an entire row on the plane, and hopefully it’ll all go smoothly.

And it’s funny, because Chris and I have never traveled together, and somehow I didn’t imagine that our first little getaway together would involve staying with my children and my parents. I’m going to nickname it the Vacation House of Awkwardness.

And Greis will be there with us too! Five adults and two kids in a four-bedroom house. Yeah. This won’t be weird at all.

I kid, I’m actually looking forward to it and I think it’ll be a lot of fun. But it is weird to sleep in the same house with my boyfriend and my parents. It just is.

Now! I need to go work on my maid-of-honor speech for the reception. Which I still haven’t written. For a wedding that’s taking place in 5 days. And I have a fear of public speaking. Honestly, what could POSSIBLY go wrong? *cue maniacal laughter*

Wish me luck.