Long Island Wedding

So, here I am, back on Eglin with a few pictures to share.

A quick look back at our trip from TN to NY and back again.

We left Josh and Sarah's at 4:30am on Friday morning. We were at the airport by 5am and on our flight by 6:35am. We were so blessed to each receive a row of seats. JB took Isaac and his car seat and I took Elijah and his car seat. JB took one row, and I got a row across the aisle. Both boys slept, and it made for a glorious three hour trip (which included a stop but not a change of planes in Baltimore.)

By lunchtime, were at the airport and in our rental car in Long Island. This made for perfect time to pick up Dave and Lesley from the train station near our hotel. The four of us and the boys stopped at an awesome Mediterranean restaurant for lunch and had some time to catch up before heading to our rooms at the Marriott and all trying to get some rest. Isaac took a nap in his hotel crib while JB rested on one bed and I slept with Elijah on my chest on the other bed. I don't think any of us got much sleep but it was enough to jump start us before the rehearsal.

We left for the rehearsal and dinner at 4:30pm. We got to see Ajit and his brothers: Sujit and Abraham in the lobby. There were nearly 500 people scheduled to attend this wedding but only about 150 of those were people from Ajit's side of the family. We therefore got to spend a pretty good amount of time with Ajit and his family considering that when I go to a wedding, I usually don't expect to see the family except from a distance. It was great to see Ajit and his awesome brothers and parents.

Here are a few pictures from the rehearsal dinner. It was a DELICIOUS Indian meal! Yum!!!

Here is Ajit's Mom feeding Elijah. Ajit's mother is the sweetest woman I have EVER met, and I was so glad to get to see her again. When I reiterated this to Ajit, he said, "Now you see why I could never do anything wrong as a child." His mother, in her sweet Indian accent would stroke his arm and say, "What did I do wrong as a parent to cause you to act in such a way?" I could just see her doing that!

Ajit, Dave, and JB during the dinner portion of the rehearsal. There's some Indian food on the plate! It was AMAZING!

Here are Dave and Lesley in line for food.

Friday evening went as good as it could in the hotel room. We actually put Isaac to sleep around 8pm and then hung out in the bathroom and fed Elijah until we were sure Isaac was down and out for the count! We then snuck out, put Elijah down and prayed he wouldn't cry while he fell asleep, and went to sleep ourselves. Other than a few quick moments of resettling Elijah during the night, we all slept until about 5:30am! A far cry from our last experience at a hotel.

Once morning rolled around, there was a lot to do. The wedding started at 10am, and JB needed to be in the limo with the wedding party by 8:30am. Here I am attempting to feed both boys while JB ironed his suit and headed out the door. Thank goodness Tara showed up a few minutes later to help me get everyone ready and to the church.

On the way to the church, Isaac fell asleep in his carseat. So I stayed in the car for awhile while Tara and Lesley took Elijah into the church. I cannot possibly say enough about Lesley and Tara and their helping hands. I could not have possibly attended a wedding out of town with both boys with a husband unavailable due to being in the wedding without the help of these two gals. They got spit up on quite a bit and changed a couple of diaper doozies but didn't seem to mind at all. Thank you both soooo much!

I meandered into the church around 9:50am for what I thought was a 10:00am start to the wedding. Once inside Lesley informed me that this wedding was at 10:00 Indian time which meant it would actually end up starting at 10:30am. Fashionably late is the name of the game.

Here is Isaac making friends with a fellow wedding guest during our wait for the ceremony to start.


Here is the only photo I got during the wedding. A quick snap of the beautiful bridesmaid dresses. After I took this picture, Isaac saw JB through the glass which you can see in the picture and got very upset that he was not with "Da-da". Tears ensued and I had to spend the rest of the ceremony in the lobby and on the front lawn while Isaac played and stayed close to JB who was still ushering late attenders into the balcony. This, honestly, did not bother me to much as the wedding was VERY long, and I could hear and see everything just as well from the lobby.

From there, we were off to the reception. It was a beautiful reception. The music and food were amazing. Here are some pictures from the day.

Lesley holding Elijah.

Tara feeding Elijah.

Dave and Lesley on the dance floor. Doesn't Lesley look so pretty? This is the outfit she got on their trip to Napal! Some of the Indian gals helped her put it on correctly for the big event.

JB and Lesley after our salad course.

Isaac running from a little girl. The little girls at this wedding LOVED Isaac. He kept getting flogged by them and their cheek pinching. At one point he backed up and hit his head on a table in the hopes of escaping their throngs.

Tara with Elijah after she changed him into a new outfit.

I actually had Elijah in an outfit identical to the one Isaac had on in this picture. But he destroyed it with an exploding diaper that Tara was fortunate to stumble upon. So a backup outfit was the result.

Here is Elijah with Antonio (one of JB's classmates from Mayo) and his beautiful wife Latova. This was at the end of the day. Both boys were completely losing it, but we were attempting to hold on as Ajit wanted to take a picture with us before we left.

This is the last picture taken by my camera. I think Tara took this. This is JB and me trying to settle both boys while we waited for Ajit and Jeny. I don't even have one picture of the bride! Ugh! I also was upset that I had to wear my glasses to the wedding, but my contacts are causing some real eye redness that I can't seem to get around.

So that's all my pictures. Not a very good collection, I agree. We had a wonderful time but with both boys in tow, it was pretty stinkin' chaotic. There wasn't a lot of time for extra photos.

We left on Sunday morning for the Islip airport. Our flight was at 7:35am. After a few hours in the skies with rows all to ourselves again and then an eight hour car ride, we were back on good ol' Eglin AFB.