We've returned from our trip to Mississippi for Hannah and Daniel's wedding, and I'm writing this as I steadily ignore our overflowing suitcases and the shoulder-high piles of laundry I need to deal with before we can return to normal life. Why does that always happen? I really left the house reasonably clean, and within ten minutes of us bringing our stuff through the door, the place was in total squalor.

I'm being so irresponsible because I have to blog about how much fun we had. So. Much. Fun. I think it would be fair to say that Dan and I loved the trip. We were thrilled to be at the wedding of two people we love very much, we got to see so many people we miss, and we generally had smooth travels, which helps a lot. But our enthusiasm pales in comparison to Kate's. I swear. That child now thinks "wedding" is a word that means "awesome dance party that lasts way past my bedtime and has cake." She had the time of her life, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who probably threw their backs out when they took a turn dancing while holding her after Dan and I got exhausted and had to sit down. She did not want to miss a single song, and unfortunately I am now so old that I have to take a one-song-on one-song-off approach to wedding dancing. But this is where having younger siblings pays off, because they all took turns steering her around, and she is still talking about it. She danced! With Hannah! And Audgy! And Unca Ryan! And Aaron! And Kelly! And Rebekah! We are going to have to ration our exclamation points for the next month because Kate is using them all up reliving this wedding.

Dancing with Ryan:

A few of my favorite moments from the wedding:

The Toast from a Total Stranger. At the rehearsal dinner, the owner of the Lebanese restaurant where the dinner was held grabbed the mic after the father of the groom and gave a toast to "The boy and the girl," and urged us to please come back to his restaurant. It was hilarious, and I bet we would go back if we didn't live in Albuquerque, because the food was great.

The Music: Hannah and Daniel have such good taste. Sigur Ros and Coldplay for processionals.Yes! No one had to do the Chicken Dance at the reception. And during the ceremony, Hannah's friend Hannah (yeah, that's confusing, but hang in there with me) sang a solo of "Wonderful Grace of Jesus." It brought tears to my eyes both because it was so beautifully-done and also out of sheer gratitude that someone has finally written a tune for that song that doesn't make it sound like Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall, as I think the original version does. It's got such beautiful words, and the tune I've always heard sounds like something you'd sing at camp with hand motions and clapping. Here's to progress. And if anyone knows where I could get a recording of the newer version, I'd love to hear about it.

Four out of five siblings ain't bad. I wish Audrey were in this picture, but she was probably off being an amazing maid-of-honor and taking care of stuff. Good work, Audge!

Great Moments in Parenting/The Thrill of Victory: I would say we reached a new peak in our parenting skills when we fed Kate a Lunchable in a pew inside a historic chapel before the wedding. Yes, a Lunchable. One of those awful pre-packaged sandwich meat and cheese things. I'm not proud of that, but I am proud of us for anticipating the fact that if we didn't find something she could eat without much fuss before the 5:30 ceremony, we were going to have big problems. So we shoved processed food down her and flinched at every crumb that fell on the possibly-historic carpet, and she did great during the wedding. We may get some credit for that, because we spent a LOT of time trying to help her know what to expect. The way we explained it was that there is a Quiet Church Part of a wedding and then there is the Party Part, and during the Church Part you have to be super-quiet and sit still. That part of the message seems to have been absorbed, since she was great during the ceremony.

Here she is before the ceremony with her new best friend, Daniel's younger sister Hannah. There were a lot of Hannahs involved in this wedding. Little Hannah was the flower girl and was so sweet to Kate all weekend. They danced together a lot.

The Agony of Defeat: What we might not have done such a fabulous job of explaining to Kate is that there is something of an interlude in between the Church and the Party. This failure to communicate became apparent when Kate started demanding to go to the party the second Hannah and Daniel walked down the aisle as man and wife. Through pictures, through milling around talking to family and friends, she was asking about the party. Where is the party? Hey, remember the party? Party? Party? Party? And when we went to get into our rental car and drive to the party, she thought we were leaving WITHOUT GOING TO THE PARTY and wigged out completely. She was in her carseat, screaming "Paarty! Paarty!" with much weeping and wailing. You could tell she thought we had lied to her about there being a party altogether, and she would not listen to us explaining how we were driving to the party right that minute. It was one of those situations where you realize the here-and-now nature of the two-year-old mind. As in "If it isn't happening here and now, it's clearly never going to happen." The crisis ended when we pulled up at the house where the party was going to be. Her tears instantly dried up. So did mine when I saw the table loaded down with my next point, which is ...

The Food: There were cheese grits at the reception. CHEESE GRITS. I don't think I need to say anything other than CHEESE GRITS in capital letters again to let you know how happy that made me. Also while we were home, my dad made us both Shrimp Curry and Seafood Gumbo. Do you even know how much butter is involved in those recipes? We lumbered home weighing about five pounds more a piece than when we arrived. But it was so worth it.

Meeting Some People Who Read the Blog: During the wedding weekend, I met or heard about a bunch of people who read the blog that I didn't even know about. Hey Mrs. Meigs! And Eli! And Mrs. Vicki's Mom! Sarah Emily, it was great to meet you in real life after being Facebook friends and talking to each other through Hannah for years. I'm glad you're all here.

I'll have more to say when I dig out of this hole my house is in, but as you can tell, we had a glorious time even though I couldn't smuggle any food home with me. We love you, Hannah and Daniel!