Summer...

is over and I have not been on here since July.  August was an epic month as I did yet another whirlwind tour of the US, taking in about 9 states and two coasts, if you consider the Mississippi a coast ( a little Christopher Guest humor for you there).

Toby's Wedding: The Rehearsal
One of my main reasons for going home was that Toby got married to Morgan!  If you don't know that's my older brother.  I just now realized that in this day those names are both gender neutral so to add to that, Toby is the guy.  Anyway, they had been dating forever (met at church out in Virginia where they lived) and had been waiting "in line" to make the commitment.  I say in line because I had my wedding and then Morgan's brother had a wedding as well as her half sister in the past three years, making Morgan and Toby not wanting to steal anyone`s thunder.  So though they only just got engaged this past fall, it was a long time coming.

The wedding was in Virginia Beach (which is why I took in soooo many states- we drove there from Iowa- we being my dad, sister, and grandma) which is Morgan's hometown.  I had never been before but it reminded me of when we used to go down and stay in Florida.  We picked up Motoaki on the way (he flew into Washington DC) and got to the hotel everyone was staying at late Thursday night (the wedding was on Saturday).  It was good to be greeted right away by the Stalter side of the family- ie my dad's brother, his three boys, and the boys' wives and kids.

Morgan is a super organized kind of person and since it was her hometown, she and her family had most of the wedding prep taken care of.  So we spent the moments leading up to the wedding spending time with people we haven't seen for awhile.  Motoaki and I spent Friday morning with Auntie Ann, Connor, Uncle Bob, Ann's brother Jan, and Jan's wife Kathy at the boardwalk along the beach.  Ann is actually my mom's old college roommate, but she is just like a real Aunt to me.  She lives in Texas and I spent most of my childhood Christmas vacations at her home in Dallas (along with Jan and his family).  Unfortunately with moving to Japan I don't get a chance to visit Dallas much and with my mom gone I don't get to hear much about their family.  I do call once in awhile, but not enough.  So it was definitely nice to have the whole morning with them. 

At the beach we put our feet into the ocean but chose shopping over swimming (mostly because we didn't have that much time before the rehearsal/dinner).  Nothing too major though Motoaki and I did pick up some cute Christmas ornaments.  I like the idea of slowly building our family stash and he liked the surfboard and beach santa we found.

The rehearsal was your standard run-through.  Poor Motoaki had severe jet-lag and kept falling asleep during it.  I couldn't help keep him awake because I was on candle duty.  Not a big deal but the wedding planner definitely made it out to be a big job.  Apart from my duties I spent most of the time making faces at Jack, my cousin Shane's one and a half year old son (his sisters were flower girls)- such a  cutie.

At the dinner for the rehearsal (held in the hotel) I hung out with my mom's side of the family and Stuart friends.  It was especially nice to talk to my cousin Scott as I haven't seen him since Christmas (and even then it was only for a short time).  He lives in Colorado so it is hard to see him when I come home.

After the dinner Motoaki finally got to get some sleep (despite being invited to a strip club for the bachelor's party) and I went to the hotel bar to talk with my girl cousins and boy cousins' wives.  Nothing wild- Maggie is the youngest at 27 and the other girls are all in their 30s/40s.  They had wine and I had ginger ale.  We mostly talked about kids and babies (since I am due in November and my cousin is adopting a baby in October) and were in bed by about 11.  Morgan had a bachelorette party but it was held earlier in the year, and so she was at home that night.