O frabjous night!

Cousin Katie, her new husband Dave, and my girls.

The impetus behind this whole roadtrip was that my cousin Katie was getting married in Chicago, and even with a small wedding planned, she was kind enough to make room on the guest list for us. Her wedding was the only excuse we will have for who knows how long to get the family together, so I really wanted to go, and thought it would be so cool to drive and get to see some of this grand United States, and D was so sweet to literally go along. : )

The wedding and reception took place at the quaint (read $$$) riverside Harrington Inn and Spa, in Geneva, a suburb of Chicago. The wedding was simple, and gorgeous. Katie looked amazing (so unfortunate none of my photos highlight her gown, her hair, her overall radiance--guess that is what the professional photographers are for), my aunt and uncle looked so elegant, the groom cried when his bride approached him down the aisle, all the words spoken were eloquent and moving, all was beauty and glow and happiness.

My cousin and aunt, in their thoughtfulness, had reserved a room at the inn so that we had a place to take children for nursing, naps, etc., and had engaged the services of two twenty-something women (the young, single childhood development teacher at my aunt's high school and her sister--dream sitters!) to stay in the room with our children during the reception so that D and I could party with the grownups while our kiddies were tucked safely and snugly into bed. And my aunt and uncle, in their graciousness, encouraged us to just stay the night in that room, so that we would not have to wake the kids up late and move to a different hotel.

When my aunt first asked us if we would like the option of childcare for the reception, of course we said, "Sure!" But at the time we did not realize that our children would be the only ones using it! So it was very humbling to be the recipient of such a generous gift. It was awesome to be able to simply take E upstairs and nurse him and settle him down in the portable crib provided by the hotel, and then waltz away to dinner with the rest of the family while E was watched over by two extremely nice and overqualified nannies-for-the-night. And then to come up with the girls later, after dinner and a few dances, get them in their jammies and say goodnight and leave them for games and stories with the nannies while D and I danced the night away. Ok, I danced and D took blackmail photos. But it was so much fun, and such an unusual feeling of freedom! Sometime around 11:00 pm the caterers brought out the "boost of energy" food--coffee, mini hamburgers and tatertots with the fixin's and dippin's. I had never seen that done at a wedding reception, esp. one that served a full sit down dinner only hours beforehand, and yet the food was so welcome! And thus fortified, D and I helped close down the party.

The experience would not have been possible without the luxury of the hotel room on site. And I do mean luxury; when we tiptoed back into the room so late, we just had to say goodnight to the nannies (already paid by my aunt) and then we got to wind-down in style: whirlpool bath for dance-tired legs and feet, spa-quality little shampoos and soaps, complimentary cookies and milk brought to our room by the hotel ("tuck down service," they call it. I call it fabulous).

When we left the reception, the caterers had been gathering up the floral table arrangements and those of us still around were encouraged to take what we wanted. I took a white rose for each of the girls, and then took one whole bouquet up to our room--the flowers were just so fresh, so beautiful, I had to rescue at least some of them. Without a vase, I just tucked the bunch into the hand-towel rack next to the bathroom sink, and that was the crowning touch to the overall elegant bath. And, perhaps, to the whole beautiful, delightful night.