Adam's beautiful cousin Ann-marie planned her wedding for September 28 in beautiful Duck, NC to be held the backyard of a beach house facing the Sound. When we got the invitation about six weeks ago, we thought no way would we take little high-maintenance Emery to someone's wedding and have THAT BABY that wouldn't stop screaming...and we didn't even want to think about driving down with her and staying in a hotel - it just sounded like way too much for us to deal with.
Fast forward a few weeks when we realized that she was really and truly growing out of her fussy stage, we decided to give it a shot. My rationale was that it was an outdoor wedding so sound carries differently, if she started fussing I could always just walk her away from the crowd and most likely it wouldn't bother anyone. Adam's parents were attending as well, so I knew I'd have lots of help. My friend Sara also was invited to Ann-marie's wedding, since they went to college together - and coincidentally, Sara and her husband had rented a beach house in Corolla for that same week! She generously invited Adam, Emery and me to stay at their beach house Friday and Saturday night (the wedding was a Sunday afternoon) so it worked out perfectly! Adam and I were so excited for Emery to see the ocean for the first time.
The drive down took us almost 5 hours, and I have to say that Emery did pretty well. I thought she would sleep the entire time - we left around 5:30pm on Friday and most of the drive was past her bedtime, but wouldn't you know our nosy little girl would NOT SLEEP. She probably slept a total of one hour, so when we arrived in Corolla around 10:30pm she was exhausted and starting to get a little fussy. However, as Adam and Zach unloaded our car (it was filled to the brim with her stuff, you would have thought we were staying for a week!) and set up the Pack 'n' Play, I nursed her and she went right to sleep. Of course we were in an unfamiliar environment so she was up every 2-4 hours, but I expected that. The second night she did the same thing - by the time the weekend was over, I was exhausted!
The beach house was beautiful! Lots of space, a pool and we even had our own bathroom downstairs. Sara cooked lots of yummy food and we walked down to the beach a few times on Saturday. Emery LOVED the beach!! The first time we walked down was early afternoon, and it was a little cloudy/windy but then the sun came out. We took lots of pictures of her with her little feet in the sand and dipping her toes in the cold water! Adam, Emery & I walked down to the beach in the early evening and I had her in the Baby Bjorn carrier - we spent maybe 45 minutes walking as it started to get dark, and Emery was so incredibly calm and content. I really think she loved the sound of the ocean, it seemed to be very soothing to her. She didn't move or make a sound the entire time we were there.
Saturday was a very relaxing day, we didn't go anywhere...we had planned to go to some of the shops nearby, but Emery finally (FINALLY) fell asleep and took about a 2 hour nap, and we were not about to wake her. She had been horrible about napping all week. Sunday Sara had to be out of the house by 10am, so we spent the morning packing, said our goodbyes, and then headed to meet up with Adam's parents. We had lunch and shopped for a while, then went over to the wedding site.
The wedding was beautiful - Ann-marie wore what looked like a hand-made linen (I think?) gown with lots of embroidery detail, and the men wore suits. The flowers were breathtaking, and I wonder if Ann-marie did them herself (she used to own a flower shop) - lots of oranges, reds, browns mixed in with cream-colored hydrangeas. Emery did great during the ceremony, she slept through it. Once it was over, though, she started getting a little cranky. I am not surprised - it had been a big weekend for her! She did let us get through dinner, but then we decided to go ahead and leave, which was disappointing. We didn't get to see any of the dancing, cake, etc...but it was getting late and there was that 4+ hour drive looming ahead of us. And boy, what a drive that was...before we even got out of NC Emery started fussing and it turned into a complete meltdown. We had to pull over twice to soothe her, and I was wondering how we were ever going to get home. She finally fell asleep for a good part of the drive.
It was a good weekend and we are so appreciative of Sara & Zach allowing us and the little girl to stay at their beach house for two nights for free - it was such a nice gesture and really saved us a lot of $$. Sara even cooked for us both nights, so we didn't even have to pay for food! Emery had a great time and we'll have to do it again next year. And congratulations to Ann-marie and her new husband Jeffrey on starting their new life together. What a beautiful wedding!!!
Below are a few pics of Emery at the beach. There are lots more on our MySpace/Facebook pages!
