South Dakota

I am of the age when my generation is starting to settle down and get married.  My wedding, two years ago, was the first wedding I had been to since I was twelve years old.  Since mine, I have been to three more weddings and plan to attend four more this summer alone!  I love it!  I love seeing the couple on the happiest day of their lives.  I love dressing up.  I love seeing the cake and the decorations.  I love visiting with family and friends.

Two weeks ago, my mom and I drove the 17 or so hours it takes to get to South Dakota to see my cousin Lynnae marry her husband Dane. Following are pictures and stories from the trip...

First things first...packing! Something men don't often understand is that if a woman is packing for a 6-day trip, she needs around ten outfits, including shoes and accessories.  Keeping this in mind, I think it's pretty darn impressive that I managed to cram all of that--including toiletries!--into one standard-sized duffel bag.  This is more than I can say for my mom, who packed two large suitcases, a fact I grumbled over repeatedly as I lugged said suitcases from the car up to different hotel rooms several times!

The first day of the drive was all freeway driving, first I-90, then I-94 after Billings, Montana.  We left early in the morning and managed to get in 11 hours of driving before we stopped to spend the night in Miles City, Montana.  The second day was all highway driving.  We took Highway 12 from Miles City through the rest of Montana, through the bottom corner of North Dakota, and into South Dakota to our destination of Aberdeen.  Highways have much cooler sights than freeways because you get to drive through all quaint little towns.

Smiling for the camera while driving...very safe.

Where do you go if you turn right?  Who knows?

 This picture is for my dad. He's mildly obsessed with windmills.

 We arrived just in time on Thursday for us to check in to the hotel, for me to change into cuter clothes, and for me to head off to the bachelorette party.

We started with dinner and drinks.  It was really nice to see Lynnae as it had been a few years since I had last seen her.  Notice her lovely bouquet, hand-made by her sister-in-law Jamie.  It's made of suckers and condoms.  As we went from place to place, Lynnae and a few of the other girls at the party sold suckers from the boquet to strangers for a dollar, i.e. "suck for a buck."  Needless to say, this got a little awkward a couple of times when creepy middle-aged men bought suckers.

After dinner, our whole party went up to a room in the adjoining hotel to attend a passion party.  Look it up.  Anyway, here's Lynnae holding the consultant's anatomically correct pillow named "Mulva."

Lynnae and her maid-of-honor Sara.












The frivolity continued at the bar attached to the hotel where I was staying, so I chose to call it a night there while to rest of the girls went on to a couple more bars.

The next day was a whirl of visiting with family.  My mom went antique shopping with my aunts and Lynnae's mom.  I, meanwhile, volunteered to help Lynnae finish decorating her wedding cake (so much fun!!!).  After that was the rehearsal dinner, then bed.

Saturday morning, I transported the cake from the church kitchen to the reception venue where I stacked the layers and did some finishing touches.

The cake table (Lynnae painted the backdrop canvas!)

A close-up of the cake.

 After finishing up the cake, it was time to head back to the hotel room and get dressed up for the wedding!

The happy couple getting pelted with birdseed on their way out of the church :-)

Cutting the cake.

Dane's father and uncles sang a few songs barbershop-quintet-style for the newlyweds.  They actually sounded pretty good!

Here's my mom and Aunt Dawn doing the twist.

My cousins playing with the napkins at dinner.

Too soon it was time to go home.  On Sunday, we had a family brunch, then packed up our stuff and started the long drive home.  We gained an extra passenger for the return trip; my grandma came out to visit us for a week after the wedding.  Instead of returning the way we came (Highway 12), we took a slightly different route: north to North Dakota, then west on I-94.  This afforded us the opportunity to see all the crazy tourist traps along the way...

Big chair in Jamestown, ND
















Big buffalo, also in Jamestown

Big cow in New Salem, ND...Sense a theme happening?

After spending the night in Billings, we arrived home Monday afternoon.