Jessica & John's Wedding Day

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

I can confirm that after three years it's still the hardest to get through as an expat.

And that's about all I can say about that through this turkey-sized lump in my throat.

Instead, I'm going to show you some photos from the girl-child's wedding day.

It may seem from the photos that there were only a few people there.

That's not the case, there were probably 80 people there.  It was a lovely crowd.

These are not professional or posed photographs.

These were taken by me, Matt and some by my mom.

There were professional photographers there and I can't wait to see what they came up with.

But, this is the wedding through my eyes and the last thing I was worried about

was capturing that perfect shot.

I simply wanted to experience this beautiful day.  Every sweet moment of it.

And like now, these faces were all usually seen through the blur of tears.

But, aren't they beautiful?

There are few things as precious as seeing your daughter in a wedding dress.

Jessica has only ever wanted to be a wife and mother.

For 18 years I tried to convince her of her calling...

to be a teacher, a nurse, a chef.

She will make a wonderful teacher, nurse or cook.

But, from the age of about three, no matter how much I pressed her,

she has only ever wanted to be a wife and mother.
She is now 26 and making her dreams come true.

To see this happen is an absolute joy.

I'm so proud of how she's gone about fulfilling her life's dream.

She waited until she knew she had the perfect partner for her.

We met John just days before the wedding, but we all fell in love with him immediately.

He's easy going with a huge heart and is madly in love with Jessica.

My mom has already claimed him as her grandson.

I'm also proud of the celebration that Jessica and John planned.

It was always about their future together and surrounding themselves with family and friends.

Typical Jessica, honest and straightforward.  No fuss or drama.

They weren't worried about a fancy party.  They just wanted to be married.

The ceremony and reception were at this old general store in Pleasanton, Texas.

Her bridesmaid was her cousin Rebecca, my brother's daughter.

She is as smart as she is beautiful.  You can see she gets it from my sweet sister-in-law Donna.

My momma, Linda.  I have great genes.  You should have seen her and my step-dad Bob on the dance floor.

I guess it was what you'd call a country wedding complete with boots and a branding iron.

Apparently, it's quite the thing.  Michaels and Hobby Lobby both have wedding sections

dedicated to burlap and mason jars.  It was adorable and perfect for Jessie & Johnny.

It's not a Texas wedding without some barbecue and iced tea.

Jessica did all of the flowers herself.  She would also make a fabulous florist.

She gets that skill honestly from her Grandpa Tom, her dad's dad who helped her with the flowers.

The cake was so good.  A friend of the groom's family did a wonderful job.

Jessica tragically lost her aunt Michelle just a few months ago.

Michelle was just 10 when Jess was born and they were always so close.  Unconditional love.

It was so bittersweet for her not to be there in person.  She was so excited for Jessica to get married.

Jessica found several ways to pay tribute to her aunt, including blue toenail polish.
Michelle's daughter, Carissa was at the wedding which was so special.

You'll have to excuse my puffy face, but I think I started crying on Sunday and carried through until the wedding on Wednesday.  But, they were absolutely tears of joy.

I could not have been happier for my sweet baby girl.

She deserves every happiness.

There were a few glitches.   Jessica and I were shopping (for wedding lingerie mind you)

when John texted a photo of his face with a big gash under his eye.

He'd run into some machinery at work.  Those wedding nerves.

Luckily, he was okay.  Then the day before the wedding as we were rushing around

decorating, Jessica dislocated her knee cap!

She's always had wonky joints and it had happened before about 10 years ago.

She spent most of her wedding day on crutches with an ice pack on her knee.

But, she didn't let it slow her down too much.

Her dress was so pretty, lacy and white, knee length so as to show of the boots.

Out behind the general store is this sprawling old live oak tree, which Texas is known for.

Also known as an evergreen oak it's the perfect guardian for sacred vows.

Under this live oak is where Jessica and John pledged to be Mr & Mrs Brymer.

Her dad gave her away, of course.  They've talked about this day since she was just a little thing.

That walk down the aisle was very long, but Jessica was determined not to use crutches.

Then it was all about John and Jessica.

Our family friend, Cassandra, conducted the loveliest wedding ceremony for them.

Simple, sweet and meaningful.  It was exactly what they wanted to say to each other.

As the sun set, Jessica wed John under that big oak tree.

It was one of the most beautiful and moving things I've every experienced.

Later on when we had a quiet minute together, I asked Jessica "What was your favorite moment?"

Her quick and easy answer.  "The ceremony.  Saying our vows."

I only had eyes for her.  She only had eyes for him.

Just as it should be.

You may now kiss your bride and let those dreams start coming true.

Then they danced.  And sang softly to each other.

They kissed again and again.

Family and friends celebrated all of the love.

Momma watched and cried and savored every second.

I was so very thankful to have Matthew there by my side through it all.

Jess even wore penguin socks under her boots because she knows Matt loves 'em.

This is the rest of my brother's family. My wonderful nephew Connor and cuddly niece Morgan.

My dad Gene was there which meant the world to all of us.
My dear friend Leann was there, as well as my sweet friend Paige with her mom, Karen and her boys.
I can't tell you how special it was to see Jess surrounded with such love.

John's family were terrific.  Jessica is an only child and now she's married into this great big family.  She now has three sisters & three brothers in law, six nieces and nephews (with one more on the way) not to mention John's parents and extended family and friends.

I love you, Sugar Bear.  You make the most beautiful bride.
You're going to be an incredible wife.

What's that you ask?  What was my favorite part of the day?

Seeing this look on your face. You've never looked more beautiful, Jessica.

Later in the evening, as everything was being cleared away,

my new son in law asked me to dance.

He said to me "She's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

All I could think was "me, too."

Happy Thanksgiving.  Cheers to love, light, family and friends.

TWITTER | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | SUBSCRIBE | BLOGLOVIN

Loch Lomond & The Trossachs in Scotland

Whooshhhhh!

That's the sound of November flying past us.

The holiday fun has already begun.

We went ice skating at the Natural History Museum over the weekend with a group of friends.

It was so much fun!  Yes, I used  on one of those kiddie skate buddy penguin things.

 (Someone snagged it for me.  Hopefully, we didn't leave some poor child crying on the ice.)

But, I'm so not embarrassed, because I got out there, I didn't fall and had the best time.

There's evidence on Instagram.  There might even be a video.  

This weekend we are combining two traditions for the perfect celebration.

Thanksgiving + Pubs.  Fun will be had by all!

Today I'm sharing photos from another stop on our road trip with my dad & brother.
After our stop at the Giant's Causeway, a night in Belfast and one in Derry,
it was time to leave Northern Ireland.
(On a side note, Derry was the home of the first immigrant from my dad's family tree
that came to America in the 1700's.  So, of course, we had to stop there.)

Then it was back on the ferry and across the waters to Scotland.
I expected the landscape of Scotland to be very similar to Ireland.
But, it really has a completely different feel to it.
(I'm not sure yet how to explain it, but I'll try to as I post more about our time there.)

These photos are from Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.

'Tis beautiful, is it not?

(Doesn't it make you want to talk with a Scottish lilt?)

(I've used an excessive amount of parenthetical statements in this post. Apologies.)

How would you describe the difference between the landscapes of Scotland and Ireland?

TWITTER | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | SUBSCRIBE | BLOGLOVIN

Matt's Million

Matt's back!!

I don't know about you but

I've missed having Matt post on the blog. 

I would walk (fly) 500 (a million) miles…

As we returned from Texas, where we were celebrating the marriage of Selena’s daughter to the lovely John, I reached a landmark that I’d been building to for literally my entire life – flying a million miles.  The 4,900 miles from Austin to Heathrow took me to a grand total of 1,002,864 miles flown.  So I reached the landmark 42% of the way through the flight, which (by my calculation) means I was overhead Halifax, Nova Scotia when the magic moment happened.

 

The only picture I took when I was in Halifax.  Was going through a video phase at the time…

A million miles?  That’s a million proper miles, rather than a million air miles, which you can accumulate with credit cards and hotels and rental cars.  A million miles is London to the moon, and back.  And then to the moon again, then back again with enough left over to get from London to Sydney.  And back.  And then from London to Sydney again.  And back again.  With enough left over to get you to Cairo.  You get the idea!

Your correspondent in Sydney.  No, wait…

At this point, I need to apologise if this sounds like I’m showing off.  Travel has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember, and while some people spend their money on kids, clothes or crazy stuff like pensions, I’ve spent mine on travel.  And after all, you are reading a travel blog!

How do I know I’ve flown a million miles?  I have a spreadsheet.  I’ve wanted to blog about my spreadsheets for some time now but according to Selena, the subject is “too niche”, “too introverted“ and (what’s was the phrase she used?) – “too mind-numbingly tedious” to blog about.  But here’s my chance!

I’ve tracked every flight and using webflyer.com, checked the distance between each airport flown.  It took a bit of work to get started, and required me to trawl through my parents’ photo albums to remember where we went on our Summer Holidays in 1976 (Gatwick to Gerona, 653 miles each way).  But I have what I believe to be a complete record of every flight flown, including the flights to the Grand Canyon we took in 1987 (Las Vegas to an unnamed landing strip in the Grand Canyon, 169 miles each way).

Las Vegas, whose airport I’ve transited 39 times…

Once you’ve compiled your records, you can see some fascinating things.  Well, fascinating to me, at least.  I’ve taken 564 flights, so each was 1,778 miles, which is almost exactly the distance from Calgary to Ottawa (which I flew on Air Canada in 2009).  The longest flight was Sydney to Los Angeles (7,490 miles, which I’ve done 8 times) – San Francisco to Sydney is actually 70 miles shorter (which I’ve only done once).  The shortest flight was only 56 miles (between La Ceiba and Roatan airports in Honduras), closely followed by Carlsbad to Los Angeles (only 82 miles, but it could take 3 hours by road).  Third shortest was from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba (120 miles, which I only mention because Tegucigalpa is one of my favourite places to pronounce!).

Tegucigalpa was too ugly to photograph, so here is your correspondent in Roatan.

My most active year was 2003, when I flew 93,880 miles on 34 flights.  I have had many years of zero miles flown, although none since 1991.  I’ve flown British Airways 54 times, for a total of 91,200 miles, but Singapore Air wins the distance title with 112,200 miles spread across 36 flights.  In 2002 I only flew 9 times, but each one averaged 4,483 miles, which is roughly the distance from London to Miami.  Heathrow is my most transited airport (with 96), followed by Gatwick (88) and Sydney (80).

 

Only went through Bandar Seri Begawan airport twice, but it gives me an excuse to post this photo!  Bandar Seri Begawan is right up there with Tegucigalpa in my list of favourite place names!

Ok, perhaps I am showing off a little…  So what’s next?  Another million miles, obviously (London to Budapest soon - 923 miles each way).  A friend has also turned me on to openflights.org, which will track your flights online (and will turn your history into maps and other fun things), but even if I sign-up for this, I think I’ll maintain my little spreadsheet for as long as I’m still flying!

He's such a numbers geek.

One of the many things I love about him.

Do you collect miles? 

TWITTER | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | SUBSCRIBE | BLOGLOVIN