I’ll get back to the epic diaper posts tomorrow. Today, I want to talk about a subject I’ve already mentioned over on The Monkee Diaries and Monkeying Around The Kitchen, but with a new spin. Last weekend, the missus, Lucy and I went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for the wedding of my longtime friend Shannon to all around cool guy Matt. The wedding itself was beautiful and the hotel we stayed at–The Eden Resort–was probably the best non-Disney hotel and grounds I’ve ever been to, but I was most impressed with how Lucy handled everything from the drive down (which she mostly slept through) to the wedding itself.

Our original plan for the weekend was to have my parents come down from Ohio to watch Lucy during part of the wedding and reception. Lucy was invited to the event–even got her name on the invitation AND table card–but we knew she would get tired long before the reception was over and my parents offered to watch her so we could hang out with our friends. It was a long way for them to come for a short time, but they have no problem making trips like that and were pretty excited about their first solo babysitting experience. Friday night, when we got to the hotel there was a very nice welcome bag waiting for us that informed us that Shannon’s mom–who was also my fifth grade teacher, by the way–was having a gathering in her room, which was actually like a small version of a town house. We went over to grab a drink or two–the strongest and therefore best hurricane I’ve ever had–and kibitz. We expected to chat a little bit, but Lucy wound up being quite the conversation magnet. People I’d never met were coming up to us and striking up conversations, it was kind of nice.

I’m a shy person by nature, but I’ve noticed that, since having Lucy around, I’ve gotten to be a little more social. Maybe it’s because more people just come right up and talk to you, but I also think that a baby is kind of a natural conversation starter. “How old is she?” usually kicks these talks off and they either die out right there or move on in a nice natural progression. Anyway, Lucy did really well at that party considering we went 20 minutes after she usually goes to bed. It was kind of hot and she was tired, so she got a little fussy and we went back to our room. Before we left the party, Shannon asked why we had gotten two rooms and I told her about my parents. She told us that they had had a couple cancel at the last minute and would love it if my folks came (we’ve known each other since grade school, through high school and college till now, to give you an idea). I called them as soon as we got back to the room to let them know so they could bring proper clothes. Our plan changed to having everyone come to the wedding and the reception and then having my folks take Lucy back when she started getting sleepy.  The next day at the wedding was very similar, with many of the same people from the previous night and a few new ones coming up and talking to us about Lu. During the wedding itself, she got a little loud, but my wife picked her up and stood in the shade with her and she settled right down. I held her as we made our way to the reception and she wound up sleeping for a half hour or so on my shoulder which was super adorable. We were all really proud of how well she did. We’d been to a few gatherings, but those were with people she had met for the most part and none of them had the loud noise or theatrics that come from a wedding. Generally speaking, she doesn’t seem to get scared, so it was nice to see that carried over into a much larger and louder setting. You can file this one under the “brag” category (which you can see I actually created after writing this post). Thanks to Shanon and Matt for the invite, my parents for coming down, our friends Geof and Eileen who we hung out with most of Saturday and Sunday and all the people we talked to whose names I never caught. It was a great weekend!