As I previously mentioned, my Uncle Layne and Paula got married November 14 in Detroit . I was so excited to go and see my family. My mom got here around 11pm the Friday night before. Of course we chatted until 1am and then I decided I should pack so I went to bed around 2am. Anyone that has ever lived with me (i.e., Mom, Dad, Bill, and Waylon), knows that I pack at the VERY last minute possible. It's usually in the morning, right before we leave. However, we were leaving at 6am so I thought I'd get it done early.
So after 3 hours of sleep, we got up at 5am and got ready. I think we ended up leaving at 6:30. Pretty good for Waylon and me!
We made awesome time...until we got to Detroit (you knew there was SOMETHING, right?).
I had fallen asleep in the car so Waylon turned the Garmin to silent so it wouldn't wake me up. So nice of him. However, he never turned it back on.
I woke up a while before we got to Detroit, but I didn't realize the Garmin was muted. I saw that a turn was coming up but I figured the lady would say when to turn. After a bit, I realized that she didn't tell us to turn. So I told Waylon that we were supposed to exit and the Garmin was "recalculating." (that's when he told me it was muted...)
So, it told us to take another exit and cross the Ambassador Bridge. We got off where it said to and it was not a major road, which I thought was odd. We kept seeing signs that said "Bridge to Canada" but our trusty Garmin said we were supposed to cross the Ambassador Bridge, not the Bridge to Canada. I think I made a comment that went something like this: "Do you think the Ambassador Bridge IS the Bridge to Canada?" and I believe Waylon said no. I'm not sure, but I think that's how it went.
Well, next thing we know, we are in line to pay the fee to go to Canada. On all one-way roads. Lovely. It would not have been a big deal, but my mom was with us and she didn't have a passport. (Ours were located in the Tahoe glove compartment from our Canada trip. I know, so safe.) So Waylon tells the money-taker that he just wants to get out of there. She gives us a (used/wrinkled/written on) sign to put in our window that says "Return to US" and tells us to "drive to the other side of that brown building and wait for an escort. It might take 15-20 minutes." Yes, an escort...to escort us back to the US.
Sigh.
So, we waited. Let me rephrase that...my mom freaked out, Waylon got mad, and I put my make-up on.
Thirty minutes later, Waylon walked back to the toll booth to make sure someone was coming to get us and the guy said "oh yeah, they'll be there..."
Ten minutes later a man walked over and told us he didn't know where our escort was but he could tell us where to go but we have to be VERY careful.
His directions went like this:
1. Go through this gate (into the one-way semi truck traffic).
2. Stay along the fence (because we were going the opposite way).
3. Be very, very careful around the corner because the semi's might not see you.
4. When it's clear, drive across all the lanes of semi's.
5. Remember to be careful.
6. When you see a ramp that has one-way arrows pointing down, go up it. Just ignore the arrows.
7. Then you'll see the Border Patrol and you'll be good to go.
Um, okay. Thanks!
We followed his directions, going against the traffic in every situation and we finally made it to the Border Patrol.
Then we have a whole other story.
We had to get in line at the Border and all we had was a little note that said "Return to US." Of course we get the cranky old man who pretends to never have seen this sign before (and it was obviously not a fresh one...AND we had to fill out a form that had a list of other people that had done the same thing). So Cranky Old Man says "Proof of Citizenship?" Since Waylon and I had our handy dandy passports, we had no problem. Mom, on the other hand, gives them her Arkansas driver's license. Cranky Old Man says "that's not going to work." (DUH! but we didn't technically even go to Canada!) We explained a million times to him that we didn't mean to take this road and we were just trying to get to Troy for a wedding. Blah, blah, blah. Cranky old man was giving us a hard time and questioning everything.
Then he says "okay, have a good day. Do you know how to get to Troy?" LIKE NOTHING EVER WAS WRONG! Crazy cranky old man!
It was a good thing we left at 6:30 because we got to the church at about 11:20 (the wedding started at noon) wearing jeans and T-shirts. We had planned on stopping somewhere to change but that didn't happen. At least I had my make-up on by that point!
So we changed at the church in the bathroom. Very classy I might add.
Layne and Paula had a beautiful ceremony and reception. I didn't get any ceremony pictures (after all that, I left my camera in the car) but we got some at the reception.
after they were announced
she wore her twin sister's wedding gown and veil
my cousin's Jake, Nate, and me...they're very entertaining
This cracks me up...my cousin Chad's youngest son Charlie sneaking out with a cookie in his mouth...haha!
Layne, Paula, and the nieces and nephews
back row: Chad, Steve, Jake, Taylor, me, Nate.
front row: Charlie, Miles, Corey, Layne, Paula, Kelsi, and Emily
Layne and Paula with my grandparents and aunts and uncles
back row: Kregg, Terri, my mom, Ron
front row: Grandpa, Paula, Layne, Grandma
Me and Grandma!
Somehow I didn't even get a picture of Waylon at all (he was taking the pictures). Boo.
I ended up getting sick the rest of the weekend with a bad cold so pretty much right after this picture was taken, the weekend went downhill. We stayed at my Uncle Kregg and Aunt Jeanine's house and had a wonderful dinner and brunch the next day.
Waylon got his booty kicked by all my younger cousins playing Rock Band.
I was pretty much a zombie from my cold and the three hours of sleep that kicked off the weekend. So sad because I was SO looking forward to having a great time with my family.
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