Katie and I just got back into town from Houston for Joseph and Melanie’s wedding and now it’s storming like crazy, so here’s a bit of a rundown of the weekend:
Thursday: After I cut out of the office I stopped by the house real quick to pack before my flight to Houston Hobby on Southwest. Pat graciously gave me a ride to the airport and I got to “pre-board” because of my jacked up knee with my brace. Earlier in the week while flying back to Lubbock from Houston one of the flight attendants scolded me for regularly boarding and sitting in an emergency exit row. I made it safely to Houston where Katie and her mom picked me up and then we spent the night in Katy preparing for the festivities ahead.
Friday: After sleeping in a bit Katie and I had breakfast with her parents and we packed up our things and headed down to her Aunt and Uncle’s bay house. Once we arrived, we hung out for a bit, Katie went to go meet the ladies for pre-wedding manicure/pedicure time while I stayed at the bay house. I spent time with her extended family for a bit and then it was wedding rehearsal time. That all went fairly quickly and it was off to the rehearsal dinner. We went to a place right off of 45 called Las Haciendas Mexican Bar and Grill, it was quite pleasant. We had gotten there ahead of almost everyone so I bought us a round of frozen margaritas; one for Katie, Kevin, Megan, Lindsay, and I. Then came the dinner in their party room. Quite a bit of family showed up, the food was great, the toasts were heartfelt, and a good time was had by all. After the dinner it was bachelor/bachelorette party time. We all met back up at the hotel and headed out from there. As the guys were taking Joseph out I got a call from Megan telling me that Katie has passed out and gotten sick. So the ladies didn’t end up going out but just staying at the hotel and taking care of Katie. We took Joseph to a pub since the original plan of sports bar/go-karting fell through. Plenty of random people throughout the pub bought Joseph drinks and food once they found out it was his bachelor party. It was a great time and the night ended with me picking Katie up from the hotel, taking her back to the bay house and tucking her in for some more much needed rest.
Saturday: Having fully earned a late start time Katie and I woke up around 10am. We all went out on the boat in the bay, went down by Kema, waved to the tourists, and came back for a little relaxing on the dock. I then took Katie to the hotel where her and the ladies got their hair done (Katie was a bridesmaid, I was an usher) and got some grub from Wendy’s for lunch. Once I was finished eating I headed back to the bay house to finish up some laundry so I’d have a clean shirt for the wedding. I hadn’t planned on going to a bar before the rehearsal dinner the night before and so I ended up wearing the shirt I planned on on covering up with my suit jacket. After I got all snazzed up I headed back to Dickinson from San Leon to begin the round of pre-wedding pictures. Then came the wedding. It was very simple and went quickly, especially for a Catholic wedding. It was in a church of the Society of St. Pius X that still celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass with minimal audience participation, part of the reason it went so quickly. The priest homilized first, married Joseph and Melanie second, and celebrated the Mass third. Once Mass was over and everyone had gone on to the reception with the exception of family and wedding party we took our final round of pictures. We had a great time at the reception, Katie and I sat with my parents, as well as Hunter’s parents, the Caskeys. The BBQ buffet line was great, so was the cake. Plenty of dancing was to be had and if you see some of the pictures you’ll know we had a great time. Katie and I ended up getting back to the bay house a little before 1am and then went and sat on the dock and relaxed and enjoyed the outdoors.
Sunday: Katie and I got up early for 8:30am Mass in League City and dragged her two cousins Allie and Joseph with us to meet my parents up there. Once Mass was over we headed to Katy to have brunch with both her parents and mine. This was the first time the two sets of ‘rents had met and I would have to say that it went very well, no problemo. We hit the road back to Lubbock around 1pm-ish and had a pretty interesting drive. We made it back to Lubbock in just over 8 hours with 5 stops; 2 for gas, 2 for restroom, and 1 to clean the windshield when it got sunny, I couldn’t see through all the splattered bug guts, too much glare. Just outside Cameron, TX we ran right under a developing Severe Thunderstorm that had clouds that were starting to funnel, damaging winds in excess of 60 mph, and torrential downpours. We made it safely back to Lubbock just in time to get hit by another storm as we began unloading Katie’s stuff at her house, thankfully she didn’t have too much. Then I drove over to Andy and Abby’s new house to unload a bunch of stuff for Abby, went back to Katie’s to tuck her in, Andy picked me up and we went home and called it a night.
It was a long and action packed weekend and I am definitely exhausted and Katie and I have at least three more wedding weekends this summer and countless other travel weekends to go.