a wedding in the smokies

This past weekend we drove up to North Carolina to attend my stepsister Alissa's wedding. We drove pretty much all day, and arrived at my dad's house unscathed--unless you count the chunks of puke I had to clean up from the backseat. In our family, a road trip ain't a road trip until somebody barfs. Fortunately the puking happened right when we were getting there, so we didn't have to drive in a stinky car for hours...small blessings.

We got to stay in a cabin that my dad is doing some work on, and it was so nice. The kids were fascinated with the loft and the elk skull and--of course--the tractors.

The next morning we headed back up to my dad's house to kill time before the wedding, which included Ilya and Xander practicing a bit of archery and me and Mal playing with my dad's dog, Zoey.

But soon it was time to go to the wedding itself. The ceremony and reception happened in a beautiful place called Ladyhawk Castle, which was a private residence until the owner decided to rent it out for weddings. The grounds were gorgeous, the views perfect, and the house itself full of fun little nooks and interesting details. Since we had to get there early I entertained myself by taking lots of pictures.

It was nice to be outside, and even nicer to get to spend some time with family.

The boys seemed cool with dressing up (such as it was), especially Mal. He couldn't stop talking about his "wedding shirt and wedding bow tie" for the whole week leading up to the wedding.

I can honestly say that I didn't enjoy driving all day Friday and then driving all day Sunday--the drive home was particularly miserable as we were all starting to feel really sick and Mal was chattering incessantly for HOURS. But we did have a nice day in between, with a nice break from the already steamy weather here in Florida. And oh, those gardens! It's hard not to covet thy neighbor's flowers.

❀