Just as things started heating up in Wichita for the season, we dropped Ben with Nana and Papa and headed east to the heat for Rob and Carolyn's wedding. As the Denver weather had been warm with late-Spring patterns of snow and cold, I was looking very forward to the Wichita heat and humidity-whaaaa??
We made it into town with perfect timing to greet friends Angela and Brian and grab a hug before we headed to the rehearsal dinner and they headed to a baseball game. The rehearsal dinner was at Flint Hills National Golf club where Rob had been a member when he lived in Wichita. It's definitely a hidden gem in the town and we joked that Rob had had a bubble placed over the club for the evening as the weather was perfectly warm, calm and dry. The BBQ dinner was simple and delicious and had just the right amount of Flint Hills Fancy. It was a very relaxing evening and lacked the traditional toasts and slide-shows often included in rehearsal festivities. It was great to see some friends of Rob's we'd known before and to meet his new wife and her family.
The next morning allowed a breakfast date at an old favorite restaurant, a drive by our old house and a couple different visits with friends. There wasn't enough time for any of it but it was great to visit and squeeze growing kiddos and babies and see that our friends are doing well.
We hurried back to the hotel to prep for the 2pm wedding and grab the shuttle to the Cathedral. Extensive renovations had recently been completed and I was thankful the wedding was there as I'd never visited this beautiful church when we lived in Wichita. The traditional Catholic mass and ceremony was typically lengthy but beautiful. A long gap before the reception meant lots of time for drinking with friends Brian and Angela and other wedding guests at the hotel. Lots of Rob's friends had had a little too much fun the night before and were slow to join our party. I was just overwhelmingly thankful that for once it wasn't me.
The reception was fun and seeing Rob so blissfully happy was delightful. The toasts were beautiful and tear-inducing (the true test,) and dinner was delicious.
The second-shift bartenders were extremely generous and made drinks too strong to take down. That blessing in disguise meant we were back to our room at 11pm and bidding a sad adieu to Brian and Angela.
The bride and groom hosted an amazingly delicious breakfast in the hotel the next morning before they headed to their mini-honeymoon at a spa in Kansas City. They will take a longer honeymoon to Europe in the fall. They have a beautiful home in Omaha, Nebraska and Rob has surprisingly taken to cutting his grass and being a proud suburban home-owner.
We made one last stop on the way out of town to meet brand-new baby Charlotte. She is the first baby of some of our first friends in Wichita, Ken and Tracy.
As we drove through Hays, KS on the way home, the temperature reached 95 degrees. Sadly we knew we were driving home to a VERY late Spring snowstorm with temps barely reaching 30 degrees.
We got home to Nana and Papa's and enjoyed a Mother's Day dinner and got reports of the fun weekend they had had.
Flint Hills National
Seriously the MOST gorgeous evening
More excitement in Wichita that morning than we'd ever witnessed
The wedding party used the trolley for pics and to get back to the hotel.
Brian and Angela, aka, "AB"
the one and only Patron
Hydrangeas and tulips and statice, oh my!
A lovely pic of AB
Our deck Monday morning-SO painful!
