Mary's wedding

On Friday, August 26, Cory picked us up in Sundance and we headed for the hills--the Black Hills, that is. South Dakota, if you've never been, is somewhat of a hidden treasure, me thinks. Gorgeous countryside, and then there's the obvious attractions of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and assorted roadside attraction type of places: Reptile Gardens, Bear Country USA. But my personal favorite is Custer State Park, where they have this awesome wildlife loop road and a scenic road called the Needles Highway. It is fantastic!
But, come to think of it, we were actually in the Black Hills to enjoy the festivities surrounding my friend Mary and her now-husband Willi. Mary's family hosted everything on their "ranchette." We stayed in a log cabin (and when I say "log cabin" I really mean something more like "log mansion"), and that made visiting with all my friends so much easier. Kids went to sleep, mommas got to sit up and chat--it's what I call Living the Dream.

If it were not for Hurricane Irene cutting Anne's trip short, the weekend would have been perfect. Mary looked beautiful, and I was delighted to meet Willi--who, by all accounts, is a genuine person and a smiley guy. The kids had fun on the ranchette, chasing chickens, touching frogs and salamanders. Ruby has discovered the two-year-old within, and melted down pretty hard core on Saturday night. She refused to wear her shoes. She also refused to take her socks off, and thus was a battle I fully agreed to lose.

A photo of the ceremony--a bit dark--but you can see Mary's parents giving her away

At the rehearsal dinner/night-before activities--the menu was Scout's favorites: Hot Dogs

A trip through Custer State Park--the bison crossing the road are causing a traffic jam

Amy, Omar and Elena--at the ceremony

Ruby, Cory and Scout--at the ceremony

Night before activities included a little photo shoot

Scout enjoys her hot dog and watermelon

At Mount Rushmore--we, naturally, do not have one of all four of us looking

Cute lil Elena. Seriously, have you ever seen anything this cute?

With Anne--before we took her to the airport

Family photo courtesy of Amy

Scout in the battery powered kids' car that stayed in the garage and was the source of much interest by all the kids at the party

L to R: Kerri, Amy, Mary, Willi, Jayme, Hope

A photo inside the tent--you can see the prayer flags hanging, a little project that I took on for the happy couple

Mary and Scout--godmother and goddaughter (Photo courtesy of Amy)

Cory and Ruby at the night-before party

A family shot--courtesy of Amy

After our Sunday brunch (see below, I can never get these photos in the proper order), the kids took rides on the horses. Ruby was exceptionally active, a bucking horse like I've never seen.

Scout on her own horse, a much more "easy rider" type of deal. She kept calling her horse "Bullseye"--Thank you, Toy Story

Scout dancing at the wedding--we could have stayed for her sake, but Ruby's screams would have caused a neighborhood disturbance at the Heartland Ranchette subdivision, so we opted to leave. Poor girl, this was her only dance!

Breakfast on the Sunday of everyone's departure--there's kind of a funny story here: Cory randomly picked the place, we ordered, and were subsequently told that the kitchen wasn't taking orders and so we had to do the buffet. Odd.

My only photo of Mary close up--with Ruby and Elena