Wedding Weekend

This weekend we went to a wedding in Manhattan, Kansas. Daniel's cousin, Josh, married his sweet girlfriend, Danele. We all really like her and are super happy for them! They had a somewhat eventful wedding (or reception technically), that will be quite memorable for years to come. Here's some pictures from our weekend.

The wedding party waiting for the ceremony to begin. They actually were all supposed to be waiting in a limo out of the heat, but it never showed. :(

The Moms of the bride and groom going over last minute details. On the left is Aunt Dory, Daniel's mom's sister. Follow that?

Daniel's nephew Caleb was the ring bearer. He was entertaining everyone all weekend! :)

Caleb and Danele's niece, Joss, walking down the aisle. Caleb was a perfect little gentleman. Cute!

Danele walking down the aisle with her brothers.

Our kids were getting a little antsy and hot, so Daniel took them back into the shade to watch.

Check out their enthusiasm. :)

Thus I ended up alone in our row. (Besides the dude I don't know sitting there!)

Vows

Caleb being a 5 year old! :)

I looked over and saw Daniel pointing the camera at me, so I thought we'd have a little fun.

They did unity sand. (I'm not sure what it's actually called) Where they each pour different colored sand into one vase to represent their lives blending together in marriage. Pretty cool.

The view from a bit further back.

At the end they came back and dismissed each aisle.

Abby and I sitting patiently awaiting our turn. She came back to sit with me for a bit.

About to give some hugs of congratulations.

Now to some of the other excitement. :) For the reception we went to the Wareham Theater. It's an old opera house built in the late 1800's, I believe. Everything was going well. We all ate dinner, there was lots of socializing, and the DJ had gone around and collected song requests. The bride and groom were getting ready for their first dance, when firemen arrived and told everyone to evacuate because there was a fire there. I was downstairs in the bathroom. Joanna had asked to go upstairs by herself while I was washing my hands. So, I said OK, and off she went to find all the other kids. They had played quite a bit in the balcony area. When I got upstairs I heard what was going on, then found Daniel. He went to look up in the balcony for the kids and I went down to the bathrooms to be sure Joanna had come up. When I got to the bottom of the stairs 2 firemen stopped me and told me to go back upstairs, so I told them I was just making sure my daughter wasn't down there. They said they would check and when I went back upstairs, Daniel had all 4 kids with him. (Big mommy sigh of relief!) We couldn't see any fire or smoke inside, so their wasn't mass panic or anything. When we got outside we found out the marquee sign was smoking.

The Manhattan Fire Dept. setting up the truck.

The firemen working on the sign.

Josh and Danele posing by their smoking Congrats sign

and a fire truck!

The kids thought the fire trucks were pretty cool, especially Isaac. He was quite intrigued and told us he wants to be a fireman!

We were across the street watching everything and there was a costume store right there. So, Daniel's Uncle Harry bought 2 firemen hats and the kids delivered them to Josh and Danele.

They graciously posed for a picture. :)

Then Uncle Harry generously bought out the store of all their firemen hats for the nieces and nephews. They loved that!!

"Thanks Uncle Harry!"

Unfortunately, the excitement wasn't quite done. One of the DJ's they hired ended up getting arrested. I only saw a little bit of what happened, but it was quite a scene! Here's a few pics. They aren't very clear, but it was night and Daniel wasn't able to get the best shots during the whole thing. :)

The DJ wasn't cooperating with the cops about anything and was being pretty belligerent, so that's what you get.

When things were wrapping up with the fire, the firemen were very friendly and passed out hats and stickers to anyone who wanted one.

Here we are walking over to get in on the action!

The firemen also offered to take the bride and groom up in the bucket. A nice way to end the whole thing!

Getting safety belts on.

Are you ready to do this?

Up, Up, and Away......

So, after almost 2 hours we were given the "all clear" and let back into the theater to continue with the dancing. Daniel and I were busy dancing the night away (with the kids, too!) that we didn't take anymore pictures! Around 11pm he took the kids back and I stayed to help clean up. We were there until about 1am. What a memorable experience! Oh, we found out that a pigeon had shorted out some wires in the sign and that was what caused the fire.

The next day we attempted to take a quick family picture with all the Ashers that were there. (We are missing Michelle's husband and 3 of her kids.) Later, I thought we should have taken a family picture with all of us dressed up for the wedding. I especially wished we'd thought to get one of just our fam! :( Oh well, too late.

Here's a few attempts:

Back Row: Michelle, Mom, Daniel, Me, Joanna, Brenda, Dad, and Heidi
Front Row: Caleb, Brian, Levi, Abigail, Mathias, Calista, Hannah, and Isaac

Mathias thought we were done and started to walk away. Brian's telling him to come back, look we're not done yet.

Mathias reluctantly returning. :)