A nap...and a wedding...to remember

I took a nap the other day. Now, I know some people with kids never get this opportunity, so this might be special in itself.  But I've taken a lot of naps in the last year, so a nap is not special.  But this one was.  About 95% of the naps I've taken since Brady has been born have been short, and have ended on someone else's terms.  Of course, that someone is Brady.  The other 5% of the time, I generally end my nap out of guilt.  If Brady is still sleeping, I feel I should get up and do something productive.  If Brady is awake, then someone else is playing with him and I feel I should go join (and of course, I want to!).  With a limited number of hours in the day, if I nap, I'm not doing something else.

Oh, but not this nap.

We spent the night at Eric's parent's house on Thursday night and drove to Charlotte Friday morning.  Eric was in a wedding the next day and needed to get there early to get fitted for his tux.  We stayed at our friends, Sean and Grace's house for the weekend, and I stayed back while the guys went to get fitted.  I had nothing to do, and it was glorious.  At 10:30, I crawled under the covers of our guest bed and fell asleep.  Around noon, Eric called to check on me and see if I wanted to come meet them at Sean's basketball camp that was finishing up.  A house fire, a million dollars, a free massage...those are things that would have gotten me out of that bed.  It is not stretch to say that hanging out with some sweaty kids was absolutely not on that list.

So for a few minutes after the phone call, I savored the joy of knowing that I could fall back asleep uninterrupted.  And after an additional hour of blissful slumber, I woke up on my own accord.  No baby monitor buzzing, no guilty conscience.  I slept for 2.5 hours and I hadn't missed a thing.  I still had nothing to do. 

Oh, it was a nap to remember.

The wedding of Raymond Felton the next day was memorable as well.  When an invitation arrives in a box and you need a ticket to get in, you know it won't be a wedding where the bride makes the centerpieces herself and gets her dress from David's Bridal (ie, my wedding...which I would have had no other way).  It was gorgeous and money was certainly no object, but it was also heartfelt.  I judge a wedding's worth not by how big the flower arrangements are, but how many times I tear up.  Watching Raymond's lip quiver when Ariane came down the aisle, seeing the mother/son dance, and hearing a few poignant speeches each got me a little choked up.

I can't imagine lighting all these candles, let alone setting them up.  There was an equally ridiculous number of candles and flowers at each table.

Some handsome guys

And pretty gals.

To keep our crazy summer going, we're heading to Punta Cana this weekend for a getaway with all of the gals above and their other halves. 

The only thing better than my nap in Charlotte might be a nap in the Dominican Republic!