Cold Spaghetti

Friday was a big day.

WAKE-UP: 4am

DEPARTURE: 7:08am for direct flight to Washington Dulles. We got drugs in Will early enough to help him sleep through the flight and be groggy during baggage claim… yippie!

RENTAL CAR: Although we paid for an upgrade from what we had in Detroit, using the same car company (Alamo), we ended up with an older version of the same car (Chevy Malibu). Apparently, car types are not consistent in markets, even within a company.

PAIN IN THE ___ MOMENT: Waiting 40 minutes for a child safety carseat (they were out). The plus: we ended up with a brand-spankin’ new seat, which, by virtue of being new, still had the proper latch straps (something we rarely see with child seat rentals).

PIT STOP: For a visit with Randy, who was working from home that day (wife, Katherine, was out of town for work) and super-fun dog, Murray.

LUNCH: With Randy at Anita’s in Fairfax. Anita’s is a long-standing Northern Virginia tradition. We went to one of their branches in Fairfax and had what we thought was a good lunch… this would haunt us later in the weekend…

ROAD TRIP: After lunch, we piled in the car and headed to Fredricksburg (about an hour’s ride from Fairfax County). We stayed at the bride’s house (Paul’s sister, Amy), a beautiful little white house (just as cute a tidy as can be!) right outside downtown Historic Fredricksburg.

REHEARSAL DINNER DRESS: After finding out that the rehearsal dinner was a BBQ and the groom was wearing shorts and a polo, we had to re-think our outfits. So much for getting Paul’s pants and shirt cleaned and making the extra stop before the airport on Tuesday to get my shoes! Luckily, we had back-up clothes. We all looked fabulous. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time at the dinner to show off our beauty.

REHEARSAL DINNER: At the Kenmore Inn in Historic Fredricksburg. It was a great location with a fun fish pond, which served as endless entertainment for Will (“Fishy! Fishy! Fishy!”) Yummy BBQ mushrooms, hot dogs, corn, onions, zucchini, and more!

FORTUNATE EVENING: Getting to meet Kevin (the groom’s) family and friends. It was great to meet everyone (Kevin’s brothers and families were great). We especially enjoyed meeting Janice, who is Amy’s long time friend that we have heard a ton about for years… and is also supermom to THREE incredible 13 month old triplets!

UNFORTUNATE EVENING: We left the dinner early, a few minutes into speeches with a fussy baby and a green Paul, who was complaining of an upset stomache. Since this is not an unusual complaint for Paul (he has a sensitive tummy) I didn’t think much of it but respected his desire to retire to a restroom more private and less gross than the typical men’s room.

MORE UNFORTUNATE NIGHT: Paul became incredibly ill. My money is on food poisoning. Sicker than I’ve ever seen him in the 7 years we’ve been together. The evening required multiple clothing changes and a few loads of laundry (Paul managed to be sick in all of his clothing as well as some of his future brother in-law’s). Amy’s bathroom got cleaned many times that night. It was a late night for both (especially me) and Paul finally found solid rest around 5am.