Last night Stella and Porter attended their first wedding. Unsure of how kid-friendly the event would be, the original plan was that I would attend (alone) as the designated representative for the Walston family, and Steve would stay home and tend to the young ‘uns. As it turned out, this was an unpopular decision with many of the other wedding guests who, after the ceremony, insisted I call him and let him know that his, Stella’s and Porter’s presence was requested. This was good anyway since I had forgotten the gift on the dining room table.

While Steve and I took the opportunity to catch up with friends that we haven’t seen in years, Stella quickly became the life of the party. She became one of those wedding guests. You know, the ones who end up with a tie tied around their head, and incessantly request Free Bird from the DJ.

She participated in her first conga line:

She got her groove on on the dancefloor:

She managed to dance so well everyone backed up into a circle around her:

She even managed to comandeer Lisa’s veil:

Porter even managed to get in on the action. (Please disregard the fact that he is wearing overalls, and looks like he should be attending a hoe-down.)

Aside from the fact that our kids proved their genetic heritage and tore the house down, Steve and I had the wonderful opportunity to see friends that life has cycled out of our orbit over the last years. Throughout the night, the word “full-circle” kept coming to mind. Some of these friends I have known since the very first days that I moved up here. Everyone has moved on to different places (both physically and metaphorically) and getting to see them all again, and catch up was so much fun.

On the way home in the car, Stella and I had one of those conversations that made me immediately relay it to Steve when I got home so that I wouldn’t forget.

“Hey Stella, did you have fun at the wedding tonight?”
“Yeah. Mommy, what is a wedding?”
“It is something where two people who really love each other say a bunch of nice things to one another and promise to be together for ever and ever. Then everyone helps them have a big party to celebrate.”
…silence for about 30 seconds.
“Mommy, I really love my grandparents.”
“Do you think you want to marry them?”
“Yeah.”

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Correction: I just realized that this was actually Stella’s second wedding. The first being Jodie & Anthony’s when she was 2 months old, and before she had realized the true scope of her party powers.
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