2006-10-07 :: Todd and Laura, Hitched!
Kodak gallery pictures for this post are
here
and
here
.
The big news in my family this year is that my brother Todd and his
special-lady-friend Laura decided to get hitched (woot!). It wasn't
too much of a shocker, given how couple-y they seemed last Christmas,
but we're still happy for them all the same. The big question on
everybody's minds has been where they'd have the ceremony. Amy and I
put in a vote for "somewhere warm, preferably near a beach, that's
kid friendly". Todd and Laura delivered- the wedding was on the
Turks and Caicos Islands
in the Caribbean at an all-inclusive, family-oriented resort called
Beaches. Aye, so it's back to
the islands for us.
While nowhere near as complex as having to plan a wedding in a
foreign country, Amy, Benjamin, and I had a whole heap of problems to
work through in order to make it to the wedding. We first had to get
passports for both Benjamin and myself (I stoopidly left my
newly-issued passport in my pants and did laundry when we returned
from Portugal). Heh. Benjamin had to sit on my shoulders in order to
be tall enough to get his passport picture done. Next, we had to make
sure Benjamin was up to date on his shots (never fun) since we were
leaving the country. Finally, there was the whole problem of enduring
a cross-country trip with a young child. While we were able to break
the flight into two hops (stopping in Miami to sample the airport's
pastries), the trip took more than 12 hours door-to-door. The long day
was especially hard on Benjamin- when we finally reached the hotel, he
cried and cried for hours out of shear exhaustion. We felt terrible
for putting him through such a long trip at an early age. Thankfully,
our vacation lasted a full week, so he had time to recover and adjust
before it was time to return home.

I have to admit that Amy and I were a little worried about staying
at a resort, mainly due to all the bad travel stories you read about
on the web. Resorts often seem to have
a sinister side
that's orthogonal to the DIY travel philosophy we're used to.
However, as it turns out, this resort was
just the kind of place that we needed for this stage in our lives. It
was easy to move Benjamin from place to place within the resort, and
the all-inclusiveness meant we could get food and drinks whenever we
needed them. There were several pools to choose from and the beach was
just a short walk away from the room. The resort also had its own
scuba boat and dive masters, so Amy and I were able to take a (hard)
refresher course and do a dive. While our dive was too packed to see
much of interest (minus some jerkwad's flipper in my face), Todd and
Laura did a bunch of dives and saw a lot of great stuff (ho ho,
someday I'll make them dive out in the Pacific so they can see what
wetsuits are for).

To be fair, we did stumble upon the sinister side to the resort
about midway through the trip, while chatting with an ice cream
barista about kids. The guy told me he had a son about Benjamin's age,
so we wound up swapping a few of the usual proud fatherhood
stories. However, after dodging a few of my questions, the barista
revealed that his wife and son were actually living back in the
Philippines and that he was doing a two-year contract at the resort so
he could send them money for a better life. Several of the other
non-native workers were doing the same. It was pretty sobering to
think about the sacrifices these people were making for their
families. While it made me feel guilty for being there, it's at least
partly reassuring know that some small portion of our resort fees was
going towards helping these families.

Anyways, back to our vacation. Another great thing about this trip
was that a lot of our family decided to make the trek, as did our
buddy Pete (aka the
Red-Goggled Fish Boxer
). Having all of these folks around for the week meant that we could
talk with people we hadn't seen in a while, as well as give them a
chance to get to know Benjamin. It was a lot of fun hanging out with
my relatives- it reminded me of the summer beach vacations my family
used to take when we were kids. Pete fit right in with my family- it
was almost as if he was that distant cousin from Kentucky that was
always a lot of fun to visit, but we were never allowed to see because
of some unspoken incident that happened long ago. Of course, having my
parents around was great for us because they volunteered to take a few
shifts watching Benjamin for us during his naps. Although Amy and I
could never quite shake the feeling of "this is fun, but we should get
back in case Benjamin wakes up early", it was great to be able to get
out of the room and do things on our own.

Having the wedding in October in the Caribbean was a little
dicey. Everyone kept reminding us that October was hurricane season
down there. They forgot to point out that it's also very, very humid
in the Caribbean in October. Amy and I really had a tough time with
the humidity (guess we're adjusted to California now), but the sun was
especially dangerous for Benjamin. We covered him with sunscreen and
towels as much as we could and made periodic trips to the swimming
pools and ocean. Benjamin really loved the pools. He was old
enough to be scared of the water, but still he loved it when we'd put
him on a float and skim him across the top of the pool while making
motor boat noises. He also liked sitting at the swim-up bar with daddy
and sneaking sips of cold (non-alcoholic) beverages.
Todd and Laura's wedding was a casual, outdoor ceremony not too far
from the beach. The blazing Caribbean heat kept the speeches short
and we all squeezed in for pictures on the beach afterwards. It was a
good little gig, especially since Todd and Laura look so happy
together. Following the wedding, there was a small reception with
drinks and food. Heh.. My cousin Dean made sure to point out that they
were serving Miller beer- which was funny because Dean's dad (my
uncle) works for Coors. Following the reception, everyone went to the
pool and played volleyball (well, everyone but Benjamin and I- we went
back to the room and sat on the air conditioner).
We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed seeing everyone again. The
trip back was horrendous, but hey, if it was easy getting to the fun
places, they wouldn't be so fun. In any case, congratulations to Todd
and Laura. Here's to a lifetime of happiness- woot!
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