Saturday was the race day and rehearsal night. It started off pretty good. I made sure I stretched out that morning and took a quick walk to wake up my muscles. I'm glad I did because I ended up needing those muscles that day. When we got to the coarse, we were faced with a mile walk from the parking to the race. My future mother in law can't walk too well and complained a lot all the way to the area. I walked with her and was sure glad I had been preparing for this race for six months. I knew there would be walking involved and we would be standing in the heat. Speaking of heat, it was a pleasant 85 degree with a steady breeze coming across the lake. In fact they had to cancel the swim because the breeze caused an under current that posed a danger to the athletes. The officials added a short run to make up for the swim which people like my daughter hate since she is more of a swimmer than a runner.
I knew my future son in law, Aaron was in trouble when he hadn't come over the finish line in five hours and asked my husband to start looking for him in the medical tent. Sure enough, he didn't finish the race because he pulled a muscle. ( his groin ). I had a hunch he was going to all week long. His body was acting all tense and he wasn't relaxing like he usually does. You could tell he was up tight more than usual before this race. I WONDER WHY ! My daughter past him on the coarse and said she knew he was hurting and joked that she knew who had the stamina of the marriage !!! We all laughed as she raced her best time ever ! This from a girl who took up running when she met him two years ago Amy ! She was a cyclist and swimmer and not a runner.
That night we met them at the Brooks Lodge in Augusta, Michigan after meeting up with our son and his room mate at our new hotel in Battle Creek, Michigan. Yes, we were traveling through Michigan as the triathalon was in St. Joeseph and the wedding was to be in Augusta. We had to make two different hotel changes and meet up with our son on Saturday who was coming in from Dallas. We traveled together to Augusta and used his GPS phone to find our way. We called her Tina. Tina didn't know anything about Michigan's lefts. These are where you have to turn right in order to make a left. Only in Michigan !!!! We still managed to get to the rehearsal on time. Speaking of traffic differences between the states, Michigan has a turn left on yellow law. You have this turn signal that if it is clear when on yellow, you can make a left hand turn. We don't have those in Texas. We also don't have the turn right to turn lefts either.
The dress rehearsal went off ok, but FMIL trip over a loose brick step and we all though she broke something at first. Now, that would have been something because what I haven't told you is that her day hadn't been going so well. She of course didn't to well at the race course the previous day. The day before we found out the Maid of Honor and one brides maid couldn't make it to the wedding because they did not get real plane tickets like we told them to. They flew stand-by. My daughter had told them not to and to get the tickets changed. Had they !! Nope, and no one knew it . My daughter told them don't even bother showing up, or trying. She would just move up the other girls and have one of Aaron's cousin's fill in for the other. This meant the cousin had to rush and go get a dress at Davis's bridal. She graciously did. My daughter was a little peeved, but my FMIL was, well %(%%$(%&^. I'm staying cool, calm, and collected down at my end because there is nothing you can do and things are working out just fine anyway. We ended up with a great looking bunch of bridesmaid. The dresses were all the right color which is all my daughter and I cared about. We never wanted our bride's maids to wear the same style dress to begin with. That was the plan from the beginning anyway. So, to me things were just dandy. That's the way Beka looked at it too.
The dinner that night turned out real good too. My FMIL asked for an extra veggie plate for me. I got cucumbers ( again ), tomatoes, shredded carrots. They had corn on the cobb, potato salad, baked beans, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled portabella mushrooms ( these were suppose to be veggie burgers...for people like me...:angry1, salad ( which they forgot to wash the lettuce...I looked ), fruit salad, brownies, apple crisp, and camp fire smores. I had a mushroom, beef pattie, salad ( the clean parts ), veggies, one corn, fruit, 3 marshies.
The landscape to this place was absolutely breath taking. I should have taken more pictures than I did. I came back the next day when I had time and took some of the surrounds around the honeymoon cabin and the lake around where the marriage took place. I will show you a few of these places over the next few days. I leave you with a pic of Beka that Aaron took on their honeymoon that he e-mailed to us yesterday. He took some pics of her in her dress on Lake Michigan. Hope you enjoy the one I picked out.
Tomorrow the wedding. Oh one other difference between Michigan and Texas, NO SMOKING in restaurants. OK folks who live in MICH. call your state reps and get on the ball ! Your state needs you. Yes, not every where in Texas is smoke free, but we are getting there. My brother lives in Colorado which the whole state went smoke free two years ago. My lungs really could tell the difference in going to places there. I forgot how much I take for granted the ability to breath clean air now. I can now go to places I once never could. Why my brother even mentioned taking me to country western dancing now since I should be able to find a place that is smoke free now. I thought about it and said yes. That is why I never went before. I couldn't handle the smoke in those places. Now I could go enjoy the dancing since I can not only move now, but that there is no smoking. I will look forward to my brother's visit and him taking me dancing ! Now, I will have to learn how to dance. Speaking of dancing, My husband did quite well with his Texas two step with the Father daughter dance.