Near and Far

What a whirlwind of a weekend. We did, amazingly, stick to our plan and manage to leave yesterday morning just after 5. But, not according to our plan, Owen insisted on staying awake, instead of falling right back to sleep as we'd hoped. He was more chipper at 5 than he is at 6:15 on school days. I guess a trip is more exciting (duh, mom).

The anniversary party was fun. Once Nora loosened up, she was out on the dance floor. And her dance partner of choice? Two packs of travel wipes. I feel so rejected.

Owen, on the other hand, was hanging out in the Legion bar playing computer slots (thank goodness for demo mode) and buying gumballs with the stash of quarters he had in his pocket. Since we had the run of the American Legion, he was pretty much on his own, which still is a new thing for me -- not having to keep an eagle eye on him at all times (unlike the shorter redhead, who was trying to tear down the decorations, walk into the men's bathroom, pull the tablecloths off, etc. etc.) At one point, Owen came back to the table with two cups of punch, one for me and one for him. I thought that was pretty cute.

So, here are a few photos from the event. Though none of the actual couple of the day. My bad.

The family chided Jon's cousin into playing drums on a couple songs with the polka band.

Nora and cousins were their "No. 1 fans"
Owen chatted it up with the ladies.
Nora shared some love with her great-grandma Ovren, who we stopped to visit on our way out of town.
Then when we got home, they "helped" us rake our leaves into the street for pick-up (thank you city of Milwaukee!)

At one point, I was sitting at the party and looking around at all the gray and white heads and I thought, wow, someday, this will be us. Forty or 50 years from now, I hope Jon and I will be sitting around at an anniversary party surrounded by the people in our lives who are most special. We will all be wrinkled and gray-haired and there will be parts of our bodies that hurt that we didn't even know COULD hurt. If we're really lucky, the room will be full of laughter and memories and maybe even some great-grandkids.

Though I do wonder what kind of band will be playing.