Weddings & the Wild

Okay, I know I have not blogged for a while. I had a few deep moments, but then I saw something shiny on the walls and felt compelled to chase after it. Thus, my deeper thoughts about how we should all rectify our lives have remained unpublished. I hope that each of you have also survived the busy of summer and are also not weirdly sunburned in a pattern like an albino midget giraffe like me .

So, where have we been? Well, most recently, my little brother had a hitching party down in South Carolina. Amazingly, the bride was not related to my family in any way, or at least we can say that they met at college and not at a reunion. So, on June 24th Jared and Heather were married. Aren't they cute?

Little did they realize that their rehearsal dinner was about to be interrupted by the overly smiley annoying older brother.

Mmmm..... mmm..... is this corn handshucked? It's delicious!

And now to pics of the special day: Undeniable proof that they are happy together...


Performing my best guy duties, I handed the rings off with no hiccups. I know you were all worried. Sarah dressed in her swinging bridesmaid dress and we tore up a rug, or a patch of hardwood or something (i.e. we moved rhythmically). I do have to say that it was like 117 degrees that day, and we were all wearing black (minus the bride) while standing in the sun for an hour. So it is questionable whether being part of the "wedding party" was an honor bestowed on us or a secret plot to inflict revenge on the older brothers and sisters in the crowd. I can say that now, as a mature man, that all those wedgies were done in love and with the best of intentions to build your character, Jared. I hope you are mature enough to see that as well.

Smooches....
The ladies were lovely, and the men were sober. What more could you ask for at a wedding?




Following the wedding, the fam traversed to Asheville for some quality time to recover from the wedding events. Here we are exploring the WNC Nature Center. The otters are my favorite. Sarah and I discussed flooding our basement and creating an otter habitat. It was a brief discussion, but I think I made the main points well.

1) Otters are awesome.
2) Wouldn't it be really awesome if we had otters in our basement?
3) If the basement was flooded, you wouldn't have to do laundry anymore.



Later we met up with Jared and Heather and explored Pisgah National Forest. No, they did not honeymoon with us. They were down the hall two rooms (Just kidding). Here we are in front of Looking Glass Falls.


And here are the cute parents, also known as Dave & Diann.


I would like to say that we were all brave enough to swim in the 40 degree pounding falls, but alas, it was left to the Burton Boys, the future of a long line of infamous Burtons, to pioneer the freezing falls. We're the blue people behind the water.


We also went Whitewater Rafting at the Olympic training facility in Charlotte. The camera didn't want to go with us, so here's an overhead of it. We all have nice sunburned knees. Sarah, braved the water with us and is considering a career as a whitewater guide.


Here I am in Asheville practicing being a dad with our penguin baby at a toy store. Notice the baby doll penguin that our penguin is carrying. I remembered it. It's the details that get you.


Sarah had some trouble communicating with this North Carolina moose, as her moose dialect was learned in South Dakota. They never really understood one another, but the moose seemed polite.


Here we are reenacting the Native American mating ritual scene from "Dances with Wolves 3". It went straight to podcast and skipped the big screen, and DVD. Despite its low budget, many in the store were moved by our vivid portrayal of the inter-species love story. I don't want to spoil it for you, but the buffalo leaves the wolf in the end to attempt to make it on American Idol.


And finally, I want to say to all the detractors who say that the Carolinas are behind the times, I have undeniable proof that North Carolina has entered the 1960's. In our exploration of Brevard, we can now say without a doubt, that men and women can now see movies simultaneously. What an amazing time we live in!!