Trip to Wisconsin, Day 4

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It was touted as the "Best Day Ever" by my friend, the former Sarah Bohl, now Sarah Zwieg.  Saturday, the 7th of July was her wedding day.  And when my boys woke up they were full of Sweetness.  

he had kindly asked Eric if he would play the family Air Organ, or Melodian, an instrument over a hundred years old, that had revamped and revised.  It was a tiny organ, that used to have a foot pedal to pump air into it, but sometime in the last century, Bohl's grandma 'modernized' it by adding an electrical pump.  So we sat on the balcony while Eric played.  He did a wonderful job.  I got teary when he played Dvorak New Wold Symphony as a prelude.  He used to play that a lot when I was pregnant with Chris, it was instinctively calming...to me.

Bohl had asked if I would take pictures from the balcony. Now you know I took that job very seriously.  I'm not a Pro, but if my friend wants me to take pictures, I'm going to take pictures. I had my big camera out, and the zoom lens, oh yeah, I was gonna get Serious.

But, as soon as the Bridal Party appeared, my kids went batshit crazy. I gave Chris my point and shoot camera to distract him, he took about 20 pictures in 2 minutes, then dropped the camera over the balcony as Sarah was coming. There she was standing on a boat, Beautiful, Breathtaking, like a Greek Goddess on the water,  and crash boom bang, camera goes to smithereens landing on someone below.  They had been so good for so much of the trip, they couldn't handle it, I guess, when it was time to be quiet, they started fighting over the ipad that I had brought to entertain them.  I took everything away, and they flipped out even more. I missed her coming up the aisle because I was putting Chris in time out around the corner. Looking back on it, I should have sent them inside, but I knew that no one was in there, and I didn't want them to wreak havoc.  Instead they did so on the balcony.  Right next to our friend Mike who was videotaping. I hope we didn't ruin the video.  What I saw of the ceremony was Beautiful.

I'm sure, for Bohl, it was The Best Day Ever.  

As the pronounced them Mr. and Mrs. Zwieg they had poppers go off.  Everybody set them off.  It was so cool.  I had a popper somewhere, recently found it in my purse, but since I was being driven so crazy by the kids, and trying to take pictures, I didn't break it out to pop it at the proper time.  

But my kids were done as soon as the wedding began.  By the end I was a crying mess.  You know how you reach that point, when you're so done, that if anyone is too nice to you, than you erupt in a volcano of tears.  Yeah that was me.  So we threw the kids in the car, and attempted to squeak out, back to the hotel to put them to bed, the only thing we could think of was they were exhausted, and get back in time for some of the later lake reception fun.  However, as we were loading the kids up, they started serving lunch.  I realized we were probably all hungry.  I asked the kids, but they were so busy melting down, neither would listen.  Since they are related to Me, that was my cue, that perhaps they needed to eat.  Unfortunately, I can get pretty ugly when hungry.  And Sam gets that from me in a big way.  Usually Chris doesn't have that problem, but he did on this day.  I burst into tears, again, as I was trying to buckle them up.  And my kids stopped, shocked at my crying.  I cried, "We came up to Wisconsin to be with my friend on her wedding day, and you're ruining it for me."  I must've been exhausted and hungry too, because I never yell at the kids like that, I try not to blame them for being kids.  But I was done too and slipping into upset selfishness.  Surprisingly, Chris listened, and immediately apologized.  That surprised me, moreso when Sam followed suit.  Amazing.  I asked if they wanted to stay for lunch, there would surely be something yummy.  There was, fresh fried fish that both boys went wild for.  I put mine on a bun to make a sandwich, but the kids like their buns plain with their fish on the side. Once they started eating, their moods changed entirely.  They were sweeter, happier, and calm so I could get a few pictures of the Reception activities.  We even stayed long enough for Cake Cutting!

It was an angel food cake covered in fresh fruit: red, white, and blue.  Delish! 

The kids started to have some fun playing with some of the other kids.  So we stayed a bit longer, long enough for the first dance.  They danced to Huey Lewis' Power of Love.  It was so sweet. 

Then the kids started to get a little agressive in their play, a little too vocal if you know what I mean.  Giving me the clue, that exhaustion was probably a culprit too. So we popped back to the hotel for naps.  The hotel was about 30 minutes away, so popping wasn't exactly the most convenient, and Bohl had so kindly set up a room  for naps, but I could just tell, that no child of mine was going to sleep by the lake when there was Fun to be had.  So we left.  Probably the wisest move for the boys.  Because the moment we returned, they were gearing down for supper.  So the boys had a couple snacks, and hit the water.  Even the bride was all geared up for lake play time.  We apparently missed her waterskiing in her veil.  That would have been an awesome sight to see.  But the fun was still going when we returned. 

The boys went down to the water, which was blissfully shallow, to play.  

Christopher desperately wanted to go on a boat ride.  Just about the time he was getting annoyingly whiny, he was thrilled to learn that Bohl's brother was taking someone out to teach them to ski.  However, when it was time to get on the boat, Chris started to have a tantrum.  He was freaking out that there weren't enough vests, and that he didn't want to get on the boat, I don't even know what all.  It was one of those big ones, and I tuned out.  As soon as he started, I grabbed Sam who also wanted to go, and we got on the boat.  It took Chris quite a while to calm down.  Luckily, Steve stayed near the dock long enough for Chris to calm down, so he was able to join us.   The stars aligned so that we were parked long enough for Chris to get comfortable and adjust to his surroundings.  

It took us a while to get going, the boy who was learning was experiencing technical difficulties too, that blessedly he triumphed over the next morning.  He was a tough kid, and kept trying and trying and trying.  My kids were getting antsy.  But just when I started to wonder if we'd ever get moving, or if my boys were going to lose it, we started going.  And we started going fast.  Chris loved it.  In spite of being nervous to get on the boat, he was afraid it would be too fast, and too bumpy, once he was on and it was going, he LOVED it.  

This was our last turn as we were coming back in, and he raised his fist, and yelled, SPEED BOATS ARE AWESOME!!!!!  His voice lost in the wind, I only know what he said because I was close, my arm was wrapped around him the whole time.  It was another one of those great Therapy moments, when his Joy triumphs over all the weird sensory processing stuff going on in his head that make him tend to lose it sometimes.  He won.  He found the Joy.   Hooray for Speedboats!  

One last quick dip as the sun set.  

The Happy Couple as they head out to enjoy fireworks in town, we didn't end up staying for that, once the sun went down, we packed up and went back to the hotel and to bed. Being on the water wore us all out, whether we were actually in the water or not. The Big Boys wanted to do a little authentic Wisconsin beer drinking after the yahoos went down. ;) It ended up being a Great Day.