Stefan and Katie's Wedding - Miami

Sometimes I get wild ideas. Most of the time they are pretty spontaneous. Usually they have to do with rearranging the house, baking something new, or moving the kids through a phase (like this morning when I woke up and decided that Skogen should be all done with diapers. I have no idea if he is ready to potty train or not, but for today, at least, we're done with diapers). My wild ideas, however, very rarely consist of such things as flying to a foreign city with no thought-out plans on how we will get to our hotel, or waking up at 5:00 in the morning and hauling a baby to a very windy beach to watch the sunrise. I am very thankful for a husband who doesn't seem to have a care in the world when it comes to things like this, and I'm very slowly learning to let go of worry and embrace the moment. With Erik, the possibilities are endless and wild ideas run crazy.

Last weekend we flew to Miami, Florida for our friend, Stefan's wedding. Stefan is a friend from St. Olaf and he married his friend, Katie, who he grew up with. They have very similar story to Erik and I! Our adventure started at 3:00 in the morning when we had to get up and get ready to make it to the lightrail station by 4:30. Of course we were running late, and as soon as we left the house and almost ran out of gas on the way to the lightrail station, things were just beginning to get stressful. Making it on the lightrail, just seconds after Erik was shoving the dollar bills into the ticket machine, and a split second before the doors shut, we were on our way. And as if our morning wasn't crazy

enough, I read the map wrong and had us get off at the wrong stop! If we would have missed our plane because of this, it would have been a lot worse, but since we caught the next tram 15 minutes later, and eventually made it to our plane (after standing in the longest line I've ever had to stand in at the airport, running through the airport like crazy people, and then jumping on the plane just as they were closing the doors). It all worked out, and for the best, because if we wouldn't have almost missed our plane, we might not have ran into Tim, Aubrey, and Aivey, who were on the same plane and also almost missed the flight! They were on their way to the same wedding and were staying at the same hotel, too, and agreed to be our new best friends for the weekend!

Klaasen did well on his first flight. He loved looking out the window and watching the sun come up. He ate on take off and landing and didn't seem to be bothered at all. We had a short layover in Memphis, with enough time to find our new plane, and talk with our new friends. We discovered that they had rented a car in Miami and they offered to take us with them to the

hotel. Klaasen did well on his second flight, too, sleeping most of it, and then saying, "Dada," for the first time as we were landing! After landing, we picked up our luggage, and got on a bus to go get the rental car. Right as we were getting on the bus, Tim remembered that they didn't get baby Aivey's car seat off the plane, so Aubrey jumped off and said she'd go get it and take the next bus to meet us. After she met us there and we found the car, we were on the way!

My first impression of Miami was, "This place is weird!" and thought the place looked pretty dirty. People were walking everywhere and didn't seem to mind stepping out in front of a moving vehicle. It was a pretty crazy place! As we pulled up to our hotel and found that it looked like an old rundown place, I was wondering if we were at the right hotel. However, soon we

discovered that this small hotel was newly renovated and was the perfect place to stay and a great place to hang out with the rest of the guests from the wedding.

That first night Erik and I borrowed a car from a friend and drove down to South Beach. It felt so funny to have the air conditioning on in the car! I really treasured this special time of bringing Klaasen to the beach for the first time. He wasn't sure about the water, and even cried when we put his toes in, but it was fun to take in the

sounds and smell of the ocean and feel the heat of Miami, even after the sun went down. Erik and I grabbed a quick bite (which was actually our breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at Subway before joining everyone else at the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was at the bride's parents' house. It was so fun to hang out in the backyard, catch up with our St. Olaf friends, and meet more of the bride and groom's families.

The next morning Erik and his friends planned to get up at 5:30am to go out to South Beach and

watch the sun come up. The original plan was to skinny dip in the ocean while the sun was coming up, so I naturally passed and chose to stay in bed and sleep. :) Well, when Klaasen woke up at 5:30 to eat and Erik found out that all the other spouses were going, I decided to join everyone since we were awake, anyway. I am so glad that I did! Not only was the beach relaxing and the sunrise beautiful, but it was fun to get to know everyone better. Erik, Phil, and Tim went swimming (WITH their suits on!) and Erik and Phil got stung by jellyfish, which were all over the place. After swimming and watching the sun come up, we walked a few blocks down the street to a diner that was rated one of the top ten places

in Miami to eat breakfast. There we

enjoyed a yummy breakfast outside on the porch. Klaasen slept all through breakfast and woke to eat again at 8:00, just as we were getting back to the hotel. By this time, it had seemed like we had lived an entire day already! I was surprised to find out that the morning had only just begun.

After hanging out with our friends in the courtyard of the hotel, we decided to go on a hunt for a coffee shop that our friend, Kristin, had found online. In the process of trying to get out of the hotel parking lot (which was extremely cramped), Erik hit a stucco retaining wall with the rental car, leaving white paint on the front bumper! After finding the closed coffee shop and leaving with no coffee, we headed back to the hotel where we googled how to get the paint off the bumper. I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon talking with the girls in the courtyard while Erik ventured out to find some car polish, which google promised would take off the paint. On his way home, Erik witnessed a girl get hit by a motorcycle and used his doctoring skills to help her and keep her stable until the ambulance came. I was so proud of him!

The wedding was so unique and beautiful. I enjoyed watching Stefan and Katie become husband

and wife. After the wedding we all got on a catamaran for the reception. As we went out into the ocean, we were served hors d'oevures and drinks on the deck of the boat. Soon we were invited downstairs where dinner was served. We were seated right by the window with most of our St. Olaf friends. Dinner and conversation was great, along with the toasts, dancing, and wedding cake. We ended the reception outside on the front of the boat as we docked.

Our last night in Miami was spent sitting beside the pool as Erik and Mike had swimming races. We talked and laughed and dreamed of the next time we are all together again. Sunday morning came all too quickly as we packed up our stuff and got on our plane home. We had another layover in Memphis, where we had more time this time, so decided to eat lunch at Corky's, voted one of the top ten places in Memphis for BBQ. Both of the plane rides went smoothly. Klaasen fell asleep before we got on the second flight and slept until we landed! Catching the lightrail seemed to be easier this time around (I let Erik be in charge of telling us when to get off!) and went fairly quickly, which was good because we were anxious to get home and watch the Super Bowl.

To see all of our pictures from Miami, click here.