Wow

What a week.

What a weekend.

Wow.

Last week that Spouse o' Mine and I went to Kansas City for a couple of days. It was stinking hot, but I had fun doing the city things, and he had fun doing the scientific agricultural meeting stuff, inbetween which we met for dinner and drinks and swims in the hotel pool.

And a day later, off to the Rocky Mountains: my niece Melinda's wedding.  Whoo!  This was a lot of partying and celebration.  I mean partying in the great and fun sense; there were no drunkards lying by the wayside.  Rather, we celebrated brunch, lunch, and dinner, and mountain climbing and mountain biking and family and laughter and wonderful repartee the entire weekend.  We came from all parts of the world: rural Kansas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Seattle, D.C., London, Christ Church, Paris, Cape Cod... what a gathering. 

Niece Melinda and her fiance met years ago on a boat in Antarctica.  She, currently a PhD candidate specializing in sea ice, and he, a photographer for National Geographic.  (Backtrack to last year...daughter Claire's wedding: he generously photographed her wedding and reception.  What talent we enjoyed!) 

And now back to present-day celebration:

The piano.  Boreas Pass. (Google it.)

 I am not sure what it is I am laughing at...would this be the moment when I am telling the photographer NOT to photograph my shoes??  (Brooks Adrenaline Running Shoes.  At least they were black.  And anyway: I had my black leather heels lying in wait in the car for the reception, and they saw lots of movement on the Bluegrass dance floor that night!)  

Family: 

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. - Frederick Buechner

Yep, family.