The Wedding and Our Trip Home

The Wedding was in Chino Valley at The Windmill House which was simply beautiful.

It was an outdoor wedding and the most perfect day.

The golden leaves were falling under a blue October sky.

Such a lovely place and it was decorated perfectly.

We were seated at Tables 10 and 11.

The menu was prime rib, chicken Alfredo, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad and rolls and every single thing was delicious!

I have Deanie to thank for most of the photos.

I deleted the ones I took and am using hers because they are so much better.

She has a gift for getting that perfect shot.

Here is Nita - grandmother of the groom beautiful in burgundy - and Lily - great grandmother of the groom right behind her.

Father of the groom.

Taylor watching for his bride to be.

Deanie caught this most precious of all the pictures.....

tears of pure joy......

Mr. and Mrs.

It was such a happy reception.

Toasts, champagne, music, dancing, laughter and so much love!

The groom and his mother dancing together was one of the most touching scenes of the entire reception.

The groom and his great grandmother.

Nita was glowing with happiness the entire weekend.

Here she is dancing with Chloe. Nita was everywhere.

On the dance floor, feeding and holding Baby Olivia (her first great grandchild) , talking with absolutely every one and getting to know the bride's family as well as visiting with all the groom's.

It was a fun wedding for all!

There was a neat photo booth set up in a tiny camper trailer.

The four of us!

So many came from so far to be a part of this special day and the bride and groom made sure everyone knew how much they appreciated them being there.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and began our road trip home.

It was such an amazing historical hotel.

Lonnie is in a lot of pain all the time what with a bad back, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis among other ailments, riding in a car for a long time is truly hard for him and we have been so concerned for him. Deanie told him as we were driving, "Do we need to take you to the airport and put you on a flight home?" Lonnie said, "Why? I'd just have to sit there and wait for y'all to get there and pick me up??"

We were packed in there tighter than a drum!!!

But we were having fun!

We drove through Sedona on our way to Four Corners National Monument and saw so many beautiful scenes!

I definitely want to go back to this area!

We arrived at the Four Corners Monument!

Alas, it was closed!

We knew it would be cutting it close to get there in time but we thought we could at least walk around the area.

Not!!

It was fenced off with barbed wire and lots of No Trespassing signs.

So we stretched our legs and took pictures and had a good time anyway!

I loved getting to spend some time with Andie and Trish.

Andie is a great gal to travel with because she kept us all in stitches with her antics!

More photos of Arizona from Deanie.....

She sure takes good pictures!

*Andie's photo*

The moon was up and we were still in the mountains with no cell phone reception or Internet to use our navigational systems. We made a group decision to go on instead of back tracking.

This seemed like a good idea until we crossed over into Colorado.

No worries!

 It turned out we had gone the right way after all and arrived at out hotel back in Albuquerque before midnight. I'm telling you - that hot shower and soft bed never felt better!!!

Monday morning we headed out on the last half of our trip home. 

We saw Toby Keith's stage truck on I40.

There's always something to see along the way.

We stopped plenty of times for potty breaks and to walk around.

We would all climb out of the car and stagger around until we got the kinks out.

Then we would get back in the car and start all over.

We had been eating fast food and snacks for the most part on the road both coming and going but once we rolled into Amarillo Trish suggested we eat a nice meal at Jason's Deli and that's just what we did. Oh, it was all so good!!

Our sweet Andie!

She and Trish were the extra special blessings on this trip!

With every rest area we were getting closer and closer to home.

Pretty soon we were sailing into Fort Worth......

until all of a sudden we weren't!

Construction was the culprit.

Just about all the driving was done by Trish and Lonnie and Trish was at the wheel here.

She kept her cool and we all kept our sense of humor and we eventually ran out of the bumper to bumper and sometimes stand still traffic.

They dropped me off at Nita's to pick up my car before making the rounds of taking Lonnie home and finally Trish and Andie who live just a few blocks from Deanie.

By this time we were all exhausted and ready to get home and in bed.

I called Louis Dean who was getting anxious for me to get home.

I had been calling him to let him know where we were and our estimated ETA.

Well, shortly after I got on I20 - with cars on either side of me so I could not get over - I ran over a cardboard box. It was stuck underneath the car and after driving a few miles, I figured it must be stuck good and was going to stay there. I pulled off and parked at a fast food place and then put the car in reverse where at last the box came loose!

I was so glad to get home!

Louis Dean was sitting on the porch waiting for me.

He had a bouquet of roses to greet me when I walked in the house.

I think he missed me.

He had been a good boy and stayed off the roof while I was gone.

He worked on his music mostly and did some cooking.

He went over to Amber's on Friday for Popcorn, Movie and Cokes and spent the night.

He watched the quads at hockey practice on Saturday.

He went to church on Sunday.

We were both happy to be back together again.

I was so tired last night and it was so late that I didn't even look around to see how much damage control there would be.

This morning I saw that most of it was the kitchen.

The rest of the house looked pretty good.

It took about an hour and a half in there and then it was back to normal routine.

I was in the guest room taking things off one wall that I intend to paint in the next few days when I hurt my already painful finger.

That blue vein marks the spot that hurts the worse.

It's all centered in that arthritic joint.

In spite of it, I managed to bake 2 dozen cupcakes which I will frost in the morning.

Louis Dean and I are going to the nursing home before lunch so we can get back in time to set up for the trick or treaters. 100% chance of significant rain is in the forecast for the entire day tomorrow.

We plan to dress up and sit out on the porch to hand out candy to the trick or treaters as is our tradition. However, I'm thinking it may be a lonely Halloween for us.

PS....I had some trouble with Blogger getting my pictures uploaded so I hope they all show up!