When we last left our heroine, she was promising to finish talking about her Denver trip. Well, as you’ve probably realized by now, the “I’ll update tomorrow” promise was, like the cake (obscure video-game references for the win!), a lie. Hopefully, this entry will be worth the wait.
So, like I said, I somehow managed to drop one of the rings during the wedding ceremony. Knowing my family, I will probably never, ever live that one down. They’ll tell the story at my wedding. They’ll probably tell it at my funeral. I did, however, fulfill an important role with my ring catapulting. Namely, to relax my stepbrother about his upcoming first dance. I’m sure that his thought process went something along the lines of, “Well, I might step on Vita’s toes, but at least I won’t send the rings flying.”
Still, I offered the girl who had been videotaping the ceremony fifty bucks to edit out that part of the tape. She declined.
The rest of the evening was spent drinking (open bars are awesome), dancing and dipping various delicious things in the chocolate fountain. Toasts were given. My step-dad, David, gave a very touching speech. Most of the other toasts were about Vita, so her Dad talked all of the sisters into going up and saying something about Jeremy. I was happy to let his sister, Jessi, do all of the talking. I am excellent at lending moral support. Crap at holding onto rings, but great at moral support!
Oh, I was also pretty good at putting the runner out before the ceremony. A job that I teased Kristian about when he was a groomsman. Mercilessly. My comeuppance, let me show it to you.
Baby got back
We counted down at midnight. Kristian and I smooched. My sisters said “Ewwwwwww.” And then, at 12:30am, we all went home. I blame the jet-lag and not my total and utter lameness. Jet-lag. I just keep telling myself that.
(Although my lame factor is definitely on the high side these days)
I have to say, it was one of the nicest weddings that I’ve been to. Apologies to everyone else whose wedding I’ve been to. Yours were all lovely and fabulous and fun. In fact, I’ve never been to a wedding that I didn’t have a great time at. I think that this wedding just had that added New Years Eve “let’s have fun!” vibe. I mean, how can you not have fun drinking champagne all night? Plus, I was provided with a bunch of stuff that I was encouraged to dip in chocolate. That’s Hope heaven, right there. Some people make fun of chocolate fountains. I don’t understand those people.
The next day, we had a lovely brunch for family and out of town guests. Kristian was, as usual, a superstar. Not only did he take my sisters and me to Costco the day before to get all of the brunchy supplies, he spent a large portion of the actual brunch frying bacon and cooking eggs. The whole family pitched in, really, it was a collaborative effort. Except for me. I slept in. I’m riding that boys coattails to slackerdom, that’s what I’m doing.
My hero.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, but I believe that it involved a family trip to the movies (if you haven’t seen Juno, I highly recommend it) and a reoccurrence of the stomach queasiness. You’ll forgive me for being hazy on the details. It’s hard to remember a day that you mostly spent doubled over, clutching your tummy. And farting. Lots and lots of farting. I believe that there was also a bagel involved and possibly a family viewing of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
The rest of the family left for the airport the next morning. Kristian and I had the whole house to ourselves, so we eagerly spent the morning…. packing up food. And cleaning. Great googily moogily, we are getting lame.
It gets better, though! We packed ourselves a lunch and headed off to Red Rocks to do some hiking of our own. We did a mile and a half loop. Contrary to what the warning signs indicated, we didn’t see any rattlesnakes or mountain lions. You could argue that the weather, specifically the large amount of snow, was a factor in this. I’d like to think that the sheer force of my personality drove them off. I’m like Chuck Norris, but not a hardcore republican. At any rate, it was a hike that was undisturbed by lions. We also checked out the amphitheater there. Very cool. Someday, when I’m a famous rockstar, I’m going to play a show there.
Hey! Stop laughing! It could happen!
On the way back to Denver, we took a slight detour… through the Coors brewery. How can you turn down free beer? The tour involved a large amount of Coors propaganda (The highlight? Kristian asking about the difference between Coors Light and Keystone Light. The tour-guide’s answer? Basically, marketing). Then, at the end, they gave us beer. I had a Blue Moon. I was seriously tempted to have a Zima. Why? Because I find it amusing that they are still making Zima. That means that, somewhere, there are people who still drink Zima. I would like to know more about these people.
Kristian had three beers and was totally fine to drive home. I had two and had to work really hard to keep myself from taking a nap. It’s probably a good thing that I avoided the Zima temptation.
I have pictures of both Red Rocks and the Coors tour, but I still need to upload them. Bad Hope! Bad!
Anyways, the rest of the day was spent packing up and hanging out at the airport. We also had a final dinner with Jeremy, where we split a pitcher of water and I asked him questions about vasectomies (he’s a urologist). Oh, and what sort of emergencies would require the services of a urologist) he was on-call that night. An appropriate dinner conversation if there ever was one.
So, that was our trip in a nutshell. It was a lot of fun. It was great to get away for a bit. It was wonderful to spend so much time with my family. It was especially wonderful to spend so much time with my family and not want to kill them by the end.
Coming next: 80th birthday party pictures and creepy old man stories. I bet you can’t wait!
