It was finally here! Saturday, March 14th, the whole reason we had all traveled so far, to celebrate my sister's wedding!
When I am a bridesmaid, house party, family member, "honorary maid of honor", whatever, I do my best to tend to the bride. I want her to enjoy her day and remain as stress free as possible, enjoy the getting ready process and be excited about her day! The same was especially true for my sister!
Since the wedding wasn't til 5:30 pm, we had some chill time in the morning. We were all a little nervous because it was an overcast day and looked as if it could rain at any second! Not only did we not want it to rain, but we were praying it wouldn't be cloudy during the ceremony! Kelly, Katy & Ashlyn headed to the salon to get mani/pedis! Check out their cute wedding day shirts!
The rest of us hung out by the pool, just for a little while though, because after lunch the getting ready process would begin! Around 11:30 my dad & I went across the street and got Subway for the whole fam. After lunch Kelly got all of stuff together and called for a Bellhop to come take her stuff to the honeymoon suite, where she would be getting ready for the wedding. The lady at the hotel had suggested that Kelly get checked into that room and get ready there because it was apart from all the rest of the rooms that the wedding guests were staying in. That way things would be calmer and no one would see her. Plus, it was a gorgeous room with a view! This is Kelly on her balcony, waiting to get ready! As you can tell, the sun had broke through and it had turned into a PERFECT day for a wedding by the pool overlooking the beach!
Yes, I said waiting to get ready. You see, Kelly & I headed over to her suite around 2pm. She got all her stuff settled, changed clothes so that she could easily get into her dress without messing up her hair. Her wedding coordinator had arrived and was beginning to get everything ready at the reception location, setting tables, tying bows on chairs at the ceremony, etc. Everything was going smoothly...until...the dumb hair & make-up lady that was coming to Kelly's room was 45 minutes late!!! UGH! She was supposed to be there at 2:30 so that Kelly could be ready by 4:00 to start taking pictures. So 2:30 turned into 3:15 and 4:00 turned into 4:30. I was so mad at that darn lady! We were on schedule, everything was great, Kelly was in a good mood, and this dumb lady messed us up! UGH! Sorry, I feel better now, I had to get that off my chest. Well, of course, alls well that ends well. Kelly looked great, and the lady still had time to do Ashlyn's hair and make-up as well! Ashlyn soaked up every minute of it, and loved it when people told her she looked like a miniature bride!
After pictures in the Lobby (mainly bridal portraits for Kel), everyone went to their places, guests arrived and the wedding started on time!Now here's the deal about getting married on a bridge by the pool...a lot of people that you didn't invite might or might not being hanging out in their bathing suits all around the pool area. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating when I say at least 75 people were in the pool area, some only 10-15 ft from the bride & groom. Luckily this didn't bother Kelly, and was just part of making it a destination wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. My brother-in-law is a pastor, so he did the service, and Ashlyn & Brady read scripture as well...yes, precious!
After they were announced Dr. & Mrs. Brandon Hill, they headed down to the beach for professional photos with the photographer. The guests headed to a nearby patio for a cocktail hour. After Kelly & Brandon had taken enough pictures, they called all of us down for a group picture on the beach, and then some family shots as well.
2 of the 4 ring bearers down by the beach during pictures!
Then after pictures, it was up to the reception for dinner and dancing!! And OH DID WE DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!!! What a fun night of celebration with the fam!
And they're off!
I really think I can say, it was everything she hoped it would be, and more! What a night to remember! If you want to see more pics, click on this link to my facebook albums.
Man, did my feet hurt and were we all tired! After a little bit of clean up it was off to bed for us party animals!
Next post: disappointing shopping day :(
Thanks for tuning in!
Super Duper: somewhat catching up on school work
Super Pooper: it took way to long to write this and now I'm late getting to bed
The next stop we came to was a look out tower. It gave a really great view of the whole rain forest. I didn't get many great pictures up there, but here's an idea of the beauty we saw.
Finally, we came to the main attraction which was a .7 mile trail that lead to a large waterfall. To my family .7 miles didn't sound far. But to me, with 2 parents who are not normally the hiking type, 2 1st graders and a baby in a stroller (yes, my bro-in-law pushed the 1 year old in a stroller through the rain forest! hilarious, you should have seen the looks we got!) and with varying terrain, I knew it was going to feel like 5 miles, but we were up for the challenge. It really was a beautiful hike. Hearing the sounds of the rain forest. The trail was very narrow and bumpy, which made things interesting for Brent, who was pushing the stroller. Thankfully all that bouncing around didn't seem to bother Bradley one bit! Here's a few pics of us on our way to the waterfall.
Some of the leaves were HUGE! We found this one that someone had formed into a hat and Brady wore it most of the way to the waterfall. People along the trail thought it was hilarious! It was especially great when some guy walked past us and said, "Oh, wow, I made that hat earlier today!"
When we were about 3/4ths of the way there someone told us that the last part was a bit treacherous and the stroller probably wouldn't make it. My mom was looking a bit winded and I wasn't sure she needed to push herself all the way, and then still have to trek it back. So, she, Brent & Bradley turned around early, leaving my dad & I to press on to the waterfall with the kids! This is what we saw when we got there! That's me and the kids on the rocks kind of in the middle there.
The four of us hiked it back, with only about one melt down per child, which I consider about par for the course. It had been a long day, it was after lunch time and we were tired and hungry. We made it back to the car around 1:30 I guess. Someone told us where we could grab some quick food and then we were back on the road back to the hotel. Of course, when we saw they had coconuts for sale that you can drink out of, we thought this was an experience we just had to have. So, my dad got one for the whole car to share. I'll just be honest and say it tasted like dirty watered down milk, which is really bad to me, since I don't even like milk! Yuck! But it did make for a cute pic.
After the rehearsal we had the Welcome Dinner at 7pm. It was supposed to be on a patio restaurant by the beach, but as I mentioned earlier it had been raining, so it was moved to the Plan B location...the 10th floor patio area that was open air, but with a roof. Um, let me just tell you, this might should have been the Plan A location because it was AMAZING! So, alls well that ends well. 
Friday was a long and event packed day. After the dinner a lot of us headed down to the Casino. No, I didn't gamble, I was just along to see what it was all about. I did give my sister $20 to play blackjack with. She had already put in $40. When she was $15 up she cashed out and gave me my $20 bucks back...see, no harm done. I guess it was around 11:30 and we all headed up to bed in preparation for THE BIG DAY!!!
Shopping was fun. Just a cool experience in general. I think everyone bought something. Kelly got a lot of cool things to remember her wedding location. My favorite purchase was a Puerto Rican photo album. Well, actually I accidentally picked up a journal that looked JUST LIKE the photo album, but I was able to put pictures in the journal, and probably fit more pictures in the journal than the album would have fit anyways.
After shopping we were pretty hungry, but also ready to hit the pool, so what better option than to order lunch at the pool? You know, where you lay by the pool and the guys come by wearing all white and ask if they can get you anything, yeah, we did that. It was kinda pricey, but not terrible, that is until we started ordering drinks. Even my virgin Pina Colada was $8!!! OUCH! Thankfully we could just charge it to our room, although I was concerned my dad might have a heart attack when he realized what we had done...oops!
We spent the afternoon dining...it did rain while we were waiting for our food, but we were able to go eat on a patio nearby and by the time we were done eating it had stopped raining and we were back hanging by the pool, and then hit the beach. The best part was when Katy & Brent got there and Blake & Brady could join in on the fun! They got to hang out with us at the hot tub for just a few minutes before we had to go in and get ready for dinner.
Mid-afternoon the guys had returned having caught one large Mahi Mahi fish. It was enough to feed about 10 adults. They had found a place by the marina that would cook up a fish that you caught, so my family, including aunt, uncle and 2 cousins were headed there for dinner.
It was late when we got back, so quick to bed to get ready for the big weekend!
Like I said, Ashlyn could hardly wait to get to the pool, and since we had gotten up and out pretty early, it was only about 9;30 and we hadn't had breakfast, so my parents ventured on foot to get us all some breakfast, while Kristy, the kids & I headed for the pool and waited for my parents to bring us breakfast at the pool. Did I mention, this is the life!
Oh, just for FYI - Kelly & Brandon had been up and our early that morning with the wedding planner to go get their marriage license, that's why they weren't hanging with us.
When we were done with the caterer, Kristy & I were pretty hungry, so we walked across the street with my mom and her kids and had lunch at Chili's. Yes, I know, not very adventurous or Puerto Rican, but so good and convenient!
Things went smoothly through security, thankfully, since checking in had taken so long. We get to our gate just in time to go to the bathroom, grab some food and magazines and then begin boarding. Once we boarded we had a 30 minute delay for some computer problems on the plane. Thankfully it did only talk 30 minutes, but still seemed long, having to entertain a 20 month old in a confined space.
And that's how we do the Rodeo! I think I could really like being a cowgirl, a blinged out cowgirl that is.