Days 4-7: Meeting New Family
Tim’s paternal family attended our wedding but aside from a few hellos, I hardly knew them. I’ve finally spent some quality, and quantity time getting to know them. It was a great time too.
Friday we went to the local mall and found Tim swim trunks which he’d forgotten to pack. We spent time in the hotel pool and had it all to ourselves. That night was a barbeque dinner. We spent a number of hours just hanging out and chatting.
Saturday we played a game with Corri in our hotel room, and later shared a pizza before going over early to the Collis’. We hung around while the finishing touches were prepared. I rocked in a hammock with Sara Ellen while the photographer’s daughter kept us company. The wedding started right on time. It wasn’t too hot and the sun wasn’t too much. I wore a normal dress I’ve had for a while and a white poncho over it because I had to unzip the dress to feed Sara Ellen. It actually worked out quite well. Amanda was so happy, giggling and bouncing around. The ceremony was really nice. Both their parents read bible passages. Corri sang a german dedication prayer (Matthew’s surrogate family is German). Matthew’s younger brother played the violin. Afterward there were a few photos, snacks, and more hanging around. The dinner reception was at 5 with a small buffet, dancing (Tim and I took a few turns), and a dessert buffet (sooo, yummy). Matthew and Amanda actually cut into a round of bree, his favorite. Sara Ellen was amazing, being passed among many different people, aunts, uncles and cousins in Tim’s family. Between the ceremony and reception she actually took a nap on Tim’s dad’s cousins shoulder. He was one of those dad’s who says he must be boring because babies always fell fast asleep on their shoulder. We left around 8pm and went for a swim in the hotel pool which was now quite crowded. Tim’s parents joined us for a while before we all evacuated.
Sunday we packed and headed to the Collis’ for breakfast around 10. Tim had taken pictures for his Uncle Hank (Father of the Bride) during the wedding so he copied those to his own computer. We left for the train around 11:30 and it took 20 minutes instead of the 45 I was expecting. So finally we were right on schedule. I zipped onto the train though, after changing Sara Ellen right as we were being boarded. We had 2-3 hours in Chicago between trains so we stored our small bags (the suitcases we being transfered between trains) and took a walk in town. The nearest sight was the Sears Tower. We thought about going up to the SkyDeck but it cost $12 so we kept walking and found a nearby pizza place. It took nearly an hour to get our food and Sara Ellen sat relatively happily in a highchair while we ate. I fed her spaghetti and cheerios. As we walked back to the station she fell instantly asleep in the sling. She’d sounded a little demanding during lunch, she was just tired. It seemed the air-traffic security was effecting the trains but I don’t think it did. There was just a long line to get to the tracks. Our sleeper car/first class ticket enabled us to wait in the lounge but it seemed like we’d still have to wait in line I asked Tim to see if we could bypass it. The service person took us right past into the lounge. What a relief. As we waited, a mother with a tiny baby and young son came in. I’d seen them in line earlier and wondered why she didn’t try to get past. I knew before our trans-atlantic trip we’d be able to board first so I applied this to trains also, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. We’d had a late lunch so we reserved a late dinner table but again, by this time Sara Ellen was tired. After I managed to eat, I took her back to our room and eventually went to sleep.
Sunday we were an hour late coming to DC. It should have only been 30 minutes but there was work being done on the track. Tim’s dad was meeting us at the New Carrolton metro station which is closest to home and also close to Fred’s office. We got lunch at Union Station before taking a MARC commuter train to the metro station.
It was a really great trip. Now we have a little time to pack our suitcases again and hope Sara Ellen takes her first nap for a while in the car on the way to Lynchburg. 
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