Well, we’re back and survived it all. A very long car ride home that took all of 10 hours yesterday with 2 stops, the remnants of Hurricane Hannah who tore through Virginia as a Tropical Storm the day of the wedding, a family reunion, and Mia’s debut as a flower girl. She took the role very seriously, I’ll have you know, and you can tell that she was fully concentrating on her walk down the aisle as she took her time with very careful and deliberate steps. I was very relieved and impressed that she didn’t, you know, sashay, skip, or run down the aisle, or decide to break out into a silly pose or dance or camp it up mid-way in usual Mia-style. It was perfect actually (when we were able to catch her attention to start walking - let’s just say there was a bit of a pause when Mia should have been making her way down). Once up on the altar, she seemed to relax a bit, broke out into a big, long yawn that seemed to last 5 minutes, and then promptly turned to the Maid-of-Honor and asked “um, how long is this going to take?”. We ushered her down quickly after that.

The rest of the short ceremony was stressful as both girls got fidgety, Claudine in particular. The chapel seemed to echo every little peep that came out of her mouth and Mark was desperately trying to get out of the chapel, but the door was locked or stuck or something and he probably aged a few years trying to shush the girls up. Once over, Mia took a few more walks down the aisle (and finally did get to camp it out during photos). We opened the heavy chapel doors and saw that the sun had started to come out as Hannah quickly passed while we were inside, clearing the clouds away like some perfect movie timing.

While Mia was the pint-sized attraction at the ceremony, Claudine stole the show at the reception with her dancing. I have no idea where she learned any of her moves or what came over her, but if I can find the time to edit and upload the video clips to YouTube, I will. It really needs to be seen.