Beers, A Wedding & A Graduation

The last weekend in May was a busy one, hence why it has taken us a week to recover and blog about it. Friday we left Geneseo about 4 p.m. and headed towards Nashville, TN for my "little sis" and good buddy Nathan's wedding on Saturday. We stopped in Mahomet for gas, and some yummy Monicals pizza. I was jonesin' for some Monicals, one of the things I miss from C-U. We were back on the road after filling our tummies and the fuel tank, but had to make an unscheduled stop at the rest stop just south of Champaign for about 15 minutes to wait out the most wicked storm... that at one point included hail. Back on the road, and we stopped for the night in Mt. Vernon. Saturday we hit the road for Nashville, and and stopped at Yazoo brewery for the afternoon. Thank you Nathan & Stacey for having a 6:30 wedding!!!! Yazoo was lots of fun, had great beer, and we could have stayed longer. I reminded us bit of what Schlafly Brewery in St. Louis was probably like about 5-10 years ago. Definitely a similar vibe, everyone was totally loving their jobs and the beer. We had a great time. After a bit of a traffic jam due to construction we finally made it to our hotel in Franklin, TN and met up with Nikki to go the wedding.

The wedding was outdoors at the Carnton Plantation. It was beautiful. Stacey looked stunning, and Nathan although a tiny bit nervous, looked ridiculously happy. The reception was fancy yet totally casual and just relaxing and fun. Ironically enough they served Yazoo beer, so that was good. And in lieu of a cake they had a sundae bar... yummy and totally hit the spot after more than our share of graduation cake. The wedding was super special for lots of reasons, it was the first one Eric and I went to as husband and wife and well that was just kind of fun, Nathan & Stacey met and started dating the same time as Eric and I, had a long distance relationship, and got engaged and married about the same time we did so that has been kind of fun. But most of all it was special because even though I haven't had the opportunity to get to know Stacey all that well I can tell that she makes Nathan so happy (and she is totally cool to boot) and to quote "Friends" it is very obvious that "She's his Lobster!". I also got to meet Nathan's mom, who I got to know a bit through comments on Nathan's blog. Way cool... I enjoy the Moms.

Sunday we left Franklin at about 8 a.m. to start the drive home, stopping in Carlinville for the afternoon/evening to see my nephew, Eric (the other Eric, Eric Pfeiffer) graduate from high school. Kind of amazing that he is a high school graduate. Seems like yesterday he was sucking his thumb and dragging around his blanket aka "Keewawa". He plans to got to SIU-Edwardsville in the fall to study biology. He eventually wants to be a dentist. After the ceremony we hung out at Jan & Larry's for a bit and had a light supper and then headed for home.

Needless to say it was a LONG and tiring weekend, but totally worth the time and effort to share some very special moments with family and friends.