Wednesday, June 25
Tis summer and the wedding season is upon us!! Tomorrow we will fly out of St. Louis and head to Baltimore for the first of two family weddings this summer. Our godson/nephew Steven is marrying the beautiful and talented Miss Emily Genshaw on Saturday, June 28. The wedding will be held in Seaford, Delaware. Seaford is located in the southwest corner of Delaware on the border of Maryland. We're so excited to be able to witness their marriage and welcome Emily to our family!
We dropped Cooper off at Camp Little Paws and we headed to St. Louis to begin our journey. I admit it was hard for me to leave Coop behind; I was concerned about him as he had never been boarded before.
We spent the night at the brand-new Holiday Inn Express in St. Louis. By brand-new I mean the hotel opened on June 24th! It's a beautiful hotel, located close to the airport.
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| Holiday Inn Express, St. Louis |
Thursday, June 26
We have a 11:55 flight leaving from St. Louis to Atlanta where we will have a two hour layover...
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| waiting to board the plane... |
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| all boarded...ready to take-off... |
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| and...we're off! Atlanta, here we come! |
Our flight from Atlanta to Baltimore, MD was scheduled to depart at 4:44 pm...we all had just boarded the plane when we were asked to disembark. The plane was taken out of service due to mechanical difficulties. We walked across the aisle to the next gate where, within 30 minutes, we were all boarded and ready to take off. We were in "line" to take-off for another 30 minutes (a quick thunderstorm had passed through Atlanta prior to our flight, which caused the back-up). All in all we were only delayed for an hour. It was almost 8:00 when we arrived in Baltimore. Seaford is two hours from Baltimore. We rented our car and off we went. The hotel where all of us stayed is located in Delmar MD, just across the state line from Seaford. A long, but fun day.
Friday, June 26
Wedding preparations are in full swing!!! Lots of last minute details to be taken care of. In the afternoon Ron and I took a drive to Berlin, MD. In February of this year Berlin was named America's Coolest Small Town by Budget Travel.
Berlin is a very cool small town!! It's an old town, dating prior to the colonial period. Walking down main street is the same path that the Assateague and Pocomoke Indians traveled well before the colonial period...
Although the village began in the 1790's, it was not incorporated into until 1868, after the Civil War.
Forty-seven individual structures are noted in the National Register of Historic Places.
Berlin has starred in two major motion pictures. In 1998 Berlin was the location for the filming of Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. In the movie, Berlin became the fictional town of Hale, Maryland, Maggie's (Julia Roberts) hometown. Then in 2001 Berlin became "Treegap" the fictional setting for Tuck Everlasting which starred Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley and William Hurt.
Berlin is also home to a great yarn shop, A Little Bit Sheepish. It's housed in a structure that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Naturally we had to go into the store and look around. The shop is located on two floors of the building with lots of architectural details. A beautiful building. Of course I had to purchase some yarn while there!!!
We came across this Cedar of Lebanon Tree right behind A Little Bit Sheepish.
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| Cedar Lebanon tree. It was huge, as well as beautiful! |
As we still had time before the evening's festivities, we decided to return to Delmar via Ocean Beach...
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| this is across the parking lot from the beach... |
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| seen as we approached the beach... |
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| time for the shoes to come off! |
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| gettin' our feet wet... |
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| yikes!! the water's cold!! |
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| we had a blast at the ocean!!! |
Saturday, June 28
The Big Day is finally here!! Can't think of a better way to start the day off than gathering for breakfast...
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| My brother John & my sister-in-law, Marie. Proud parents of the groom |
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| my dad & his wife, Joyce |
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| Daniel (brother of the groom), Steven (the groom) & Chris (Steven's best man) |
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| Barb (close friend of Marie & John) & Ron |
As it was a late afternoon ceremony, some of us went to the pool...
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| David, the younger brother of Daniel & Steven, in the pool |
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| hangin' out with David |
Soon, it was time to head to the church...
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| Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, Seaford Delaware |
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| beautiful church, dating to 1897 |
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| the sanctuary was so beautiful |
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| proud father of the groom. loved the stained glass... |
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| David, younger brother of the groom |
for the ceremony...
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| pure love & joy on Steven's face has he sees his bride walking down the aisle... |
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| beautiful Emily with her dad walking towards her groom... |
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| exchanging vows |
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| their first kiss as husband and wife |
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| may I present Mr. and Mrs. Steven Humphrey |
It was a very touching, as well as, beautiful ceremony. Their pastor spoke many times of grace, and of course, love. And yes, I did cry. I always turn to look at the groom when the bride begins her walk down the aisle. It was then when I saw the look of pure love and happiness on Steven's face as Emily began her walk towards him that the tears came.
The reception...
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| my beautiful and proud sister-in-law Marie...aka mother of the groom |
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| my proud brother, aka father of the groom |
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| one of my favorite pictures... |
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| loving the look on Marie's face |
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Daniel, Steven's older brother, with his fiancee Katie. We'll be attending their
wedding in St. Charles, Missouri in August |
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| my dad with beautiful Emily |
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| Steven with Ron & Joyce |
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| love this picture of David with his mom! |
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| Welcome to the family Emily! Love you both with all my heart! |
All too soon it was time for us to leave. We had an early morning flight out of Baltimore, so we headed back to Baltimore to spend the night...
The sun was setting as we approached, then crossed the Chesapeake Bay...
Sunday, June 29
We arrived back in Branson just before 5:00 and immediately headed over to Camp Little Paws, or as I referred to it, as the Spa to pick up Coop. Ron jokingly referred to it as the puppy penitentiary. We think that Cooper, not so jokingly, agrees with that description.
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Coop on the way home after being sprung from the
penitentiary |
Monday, June 30
Cooper did not seem to be doing very well. He wouldn't eat, or drink (he's on steroids, so he always drinks a
lot of water) and he vomited through the night. He was lethargic enough that we felt there was something wrong going on with him. We took him to see Dr. Cone in Kirbyville. His diagnosis was exhaustion possibly brought on by severe separation anxiety. He probably didn't eat, drink or sleep very much the entire time we were gone. Dr. Cone gave him a B-12 shot, as well as a shot to settle his stomach. He also gave us some bland dog food for him and suggested we give him one 10 milligram of pepcid a day. Dogs can develop a stomach ulcer in two days after vomiting. Dr. Cone also suggested we refrain from boarding him if possible, or leave Cooper with him if we need to board him. Needless to say, Cooper will be staying with Dr. Cone when we attend the next family wedding in August!! After a couple of days, Coop was back to his normal self! Thank goodness!!
Til next time,
Dawn, Ron & Coop
