Monday 10/7 and Tuesday 10/8- I worked until around noon each day and while I worked, Ramie focused on packing & organizing the suitcases that would be brought back down to CR with us. You would think that this task would really be no big thing, but over the last couple of months, including since we’ve been back in MN, we have ordered and ordered and returned, and ordered other stuff.
Not to mention we were still ordering even more. For the readers who have been with us for a long time you may recall that we did the very same thing the last time we were in the US, and will probably continue to do the same when we go back in the future. If you like, you can read the posts about the last time we brought a whole load of stuff back to Costa Rica by clicking these links.
Back to Minnesota Part 1
Back to Minnesota Part 2
For anyone who hasn’t been reading since the beginning, I’ll give you the short and sweet about it. Where we live, we can’t really find good quality things. We get the choice of mediocre and most expensive, poor quality but less expensive, or cheapest Chinese junk (and sometimes not even that many choices) and you have to decide which of those is going to last the longest or work the best for whatever your purpose is.
This isn’t Ramie’s style, he always prefers to do the job the right way with decent or good quality parts, so we have been ordering replacement parts for things that we’ve Macgyvered together, supplies that we use on a regular basis but can’t find (or are prohibitively expensive) here, and things that we know we will end up needing in the not so distant future. The things that we “want” to bring back will be decided after we know just how much space we have left, after all of the things we “need” have been packed. And this, my friends, is why packing to go back to CR can be a very long and difficult process.
Ramie has “finished” one of the suitcases, meaning that he has packed to 49.5lbs of stuff into the suitcase, as we have a 50lb. limit with the airline so we aren’t charged an ungodly amount for an overweight bag. After so many rounds of packing suitcases beginning way back when we were vacationing here we’ve gotten really good at packing them perfectly to maximize the amount of stuff we can fit into a suitcase to waste neither space nor weight. Ramie thought that he had a second suitcase ready to go, too, but wanted me to go through it just to make sure. The final 2 suitcases (we are only checking 4 bags because another one would be ungodly expensive) were partially packed but still had room for more. While we still have a lot of time left of our stay here in MN, packing and decisions of what to bring back with us is a constantly changing and evolving process as we remember things or see things at the store that we want to try to make room for, not to mention that we also have friends in Costa Rica reaching out to ask us to bring things back for them too. For all of these same reasons, whenever anyone comes to visit us here in Costa Rica, don’t be surprised if we ask you to save some of your suitcase space for things for us too. It’s part of the price you may have to pay for staying with us. 😉
For the last few days we had been hearing that the Northern Lights were supposed to be really good in MN this week, and since I’ve never seen them in person myself, even after living in MN nearly my entire life, after it got dark out I had to go check for them. I could see a little bit of red in the sky, so I called Taryn to come check it out with me. It lasted only a short while before they faded and we couldn’t really see anything anymore. Nicole and Hieu sent us some really good pictures of what they saw, and let us in on the secret: they don’t look great with your naked eye, use your camera to really make them pop. Well, that isn’t nearly as fun as just being able to see them, but we did get a few pretty shots that showed more than we could see.
Wednesday 10/9- Today’s wedding to-do list priority was to pick up the food for the lunch. We have 50ish people who we need to feed in between the ceremony and the reception, so it makes sense to shop in bulk at Costco. The most convenient and least hectic one was back in St. Cloud, so we’d be heading that direction again.
Even when we lived back in MN we didn't have a Costco membership so it was a little adventure to walk the aisles and look at all of the things. Eventually, we made it through the list and had a cartload of supplies and food. Of course, there were still some things on the list that we opted to buy somewhere else, since we didn't need 10,000 napkins or 500 plates.
Our side-quest today while we were at Costco involved Ramie making a new friend. Well, kind of. We got stuck behind an old guy in an electric scooter who was blocking the aisle, we waited for him to move and started down the aisle along side of him when he made a joke about wanting to race. Ramie just laughed and then the guy crashed his scooter into our cart saying “that's how you win a race”. I just looked at Ramie like WTH and we stopped walking because we needed to grab some stuff. The guy didn't realize we had stopped but when he did he then turned around and came back stopping right in front of the thing that we actually had to look at. At this point he started telling us his life story about his kids that don’t talk to him any more, his wife that left him (and there was probably something in there about his truck not working or a dog dying too, or maybe I’m getting him mixed up with a country song). I’m not sure if the guy was all there or if he was just lonely, but Ramie continued to entertain the old man’s stories for about 15 minutes. I am not a patient shopper on the best of days, and we were kind of in a hurry and on a mission, so I was getting quite irritated and did not participate in the conversation, but kept giving the guy and Ramie “looks”. The guy, of course, was completely oblivious to them (probably why his wife left him). Yes, we kept trying to find a way to get out of the conversation, but this guy just wouldn’t shut up. Eventually Ramie found a way out and we went our separate ways. Hopefully we made that guy’s day a little better with our suffering.
After Costco, we stopped at a couple of CBD shops, which has been one of the things we’ve been doing since we’ve been home. We can buy CBD in Costa Rica, but it's not very good quality and it’s expensive (just like all of those replacement parts I was talking about earlier). I like to use it during stressful workdays, and Ramie uses it when we have a long drive ahead of us. He gets tense driving on the twisty road and it helps ease his mind and his muscles. We found a few shops on Google Maps, checked them out and made some purchases. Then it was time to head home to Taryn & Steven’s with our truck full of food. Thankfully they have an extra fridge to store all of this until we bring it up north for the wedding.
Thursday 10/10- With the wedding day nearing and a lot of setup to do for it, today we’d head up to Aitkin to start the on-site prep for Saturday. We woke up, had our coffee and headed north for the two hour drive. Since we’ve been driving around so much, we noticed that the leaves on the trees had not really started changing color yet in the metro area, but on the drive north, we started spotting the change around Mille Lacs Lake. It was beautiful! We don't get the colorful fall leaf change in Costa Rica, it’s just always mostly green here, so it was nice to see all of the colors.
We made it to Aitkin around 9:30 am and at around 11 the large party tent showed up so Ramie and his brother Tracy told the 3 guys where to put it, and they got to work. Then it was time for us to start getting the garage set up. All of the food, the gift table, the candy bar, and liquor bar would be set up in there. Last weekend, Taylor, Dylan, and some of Dylan’s family made a trip up here to drop off a whole bunch of that kind of stuff, and we started by moving everything from one garage where they had it stored to the other where it would be set up. Since we were the ones here setting things up, it would be our job to decide where to place things. It took the tent guys about 2.5 hours to set up the 40 x 40 tent, and when they were done with that, we moved our focus to the tent.
After walking through the tent to and from the garage so many times, we noticed that there was a lot of dust being kicked up just by walking through the area. Tracy said it hadn't really rained here since early September and everything was super dry. Part of the tent was set up over a cement slab, but the other part was on the dirt driveway and with all of the people that would be spending the afternoon and evening in the tent, it would be a dust storm if we didn't find a way to control it. At that point we shifted our focus to dust control. After some discussion, it was decided we’d check the hardware store in town to see if they had any Calcium Chloride, the same stuff you use to melt ice in the winter, which supposedly, if you spray it on the dirt, it minimizes the dust by creating a sort of barrier. For those of you that grew up in the country way back in the day before it was “banned”, it's very similar to pouring oil on the road to keep the dust down, except this is friendlier for the environment and won't get your shoes and clothes all full of oil. They didn't have the exact product that we were looking for, but they did have something similar enough that should work for our purposes. Step 1 - dump the bag of crystals into a drum of water and let it dissolve. Once it was fully dissolved, it was time to put it down on the ground. We started by using a pump sprayer that Tracy had, but this was a very slow process, and the rate it was going, we would be working on it late into the night. A watering can, like you use on your flower pots and flower beds would work much better. Tracy thought he had one, but it turns out that he didn’t have the “sprinkle” end for it, so it was back to town again.
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| Watering the dirt. |
We decided to get one more bag of the crystals too, just to make sure we had plenty. Back at home, filling the watering can in the drum and then pouring it out went so much faster than the initial sprayer. We emptied the 55 gallon drum in about 20 minutes, and then it was time to dissolve the other bag into another barrel full of water. For this 2nd round, we’d let it sit and dissolve over night and apply it tomorrow morning. By now it was late enough in the day that we decided that was enough work, and it was time to visit with Ramie’s mom and relax.
After dinner the 3 of us were relaxing and watching a movie when Tracy came in to tell us that we we had to go outside to check out the Northern lights. These were much better than the little glimpse we saw at Taryn and Steven’s a few nights ago, and now that we knew the secret of looking at them through your phone, they were even better! You could see them with your eye, but it was just light without color; if we used our phone it really made the colors come out! Now I can really say I’ve seen the Northern Lights. We checked them on and off for the next couple of hours to see how they were changing and evolving. There are no words to describe the beauty of this natural wonder.
Long after we went to bed, Taylor and Dylan snuck into the house sometime around midnight. We knew that they would be coming up tonight so they could help with all of tomorrow’s preparation, but they were super quiet and no one even heard them come in.
Friday 10/11- Today was crunch time! Everyone who was there worked all day to set up for the wedding. There was so much to do today! Ramie and Dylan started the morning by going to a farm to pick up hay bales that they would be using as part of the decorations, the rest of us were working together, to hang all of the lights, set up the tables & chairs, assemble the bar, set up the food tables, assemble the arch that would be part of the ceremony, and set up the yard games.
After I received instructions of what she wanted, I recruited the ladies to help put together the centerpieces for the table, and the guys tried to figure out how to load the CDs into the jukebox. We were thankful for our helpers today! Tracy, Cindy, Janice, Taryn, Steven, and Will were all there all day with Taylor, Dylan, Ramie and I. Later on as we got closer to the evening, Tawnya, Marty and Morgan, as well as Dylan’s family (Brad, Chris, Nate, Jordan, Kylie) arrived to help finish up everything that was left. If there is anyone who we’re forgetting, I apologize.
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| Steven and Cindy lending a hand with the lights. |
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| Assembling the Candy Bar or the Liquor Bar. They were similar |
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| Some technical difficulties programming the Juke Box but eventually it was ready to go. We also had motivation music. |
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| Will made a Lego army using the guest book Legos. Sadly it all had to be taken apart |
Shortly before it got dark out we could finally say everything was coming together, and thank goodness because the day was coming to an end and we were exhausted. We still had to walk through the rehearsal and have the groom's dinner tonight too. Fortunately, this was all happening right here in the garage & tent, so we just gathered everyone together to move on to the next step.
While Taylor had all of her ideas when it came to decorations and food, neither Taylor nor Dylan had a plan for the actual wedding ceremony. Everyone who was here who was involved in the ceremony gathered in the garden by the pond where it would be taking place tomorrow to come up with a plan. The one thing that was clear was that Taylor didn't want to walk down the aisle because she was afraid that everyone would be looking at her. Yes, we all know how a wedding is supposed to go, so Ramie had to put on his dad voice to tell her she had to walk down the aisle, that’s just part of having a wedding. He was also looking forward to walking her down the aisle, so she really had no choice but to do it. Everyone else agreed, Taylor was vetoed, and the bride was going to walk down the aisle, just like you'd expect at a wedding. After formulating the plan, everyone practiced it once, and we all knew the order of things for the most part. We'd wing the rest of it tomorrow, and the guests would never even know it! Now it was time to move on to the next event.
After "wedding practice", it was time to eat. Brad and Chris, Dylan’s parents, had prepared a grooms dinner of pulled pork sandwiches with all of the fixings. The beverages started flowing, but not too many because we know that tomorrow would be a very busy day with lots of things to pull off, and those of us who had been working on the preparation all day were ready to get to bed early. Dylan and his parents stayed at Airbnb, while Dylan’s brothers slept in their campers parked in the front yard. Taylor, Ramie and I, and a handful of others all crammed into Grandma’s house for the night.
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| Taylor thinking to herself "What did I get myself into?" |
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| Relaxing after a very productive day |
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| The tent is all ready to go! |
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| Getting ready to shut everything off and head to bed for the night! |
Saturday 10/12- Happy Wedding Day!! The Best Day Ever!!!
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| Taylor and Dylan's wedding program. They made a Newspaper. |
Where do I even start?? I suppose I’ll start at the very beginning, that’s the very best place to start! When morning rolls around at Granny Janny's house, there are usually several “shifts”: the early risers, the ones who wake up at a normal time, and the stragglers. This morning, there would be no stragglers who slept inside the house, because there would be a lot going on starting pretty early in the morning. At nearly everyone’s request, but mostly Taylors, Janice made her homemade caramel rolls. These are quite a hit, and if you don’t get in on it early enough, they will be gone before you even get a chance!!
Everyone was up getting ready for the hustle of the day and eating the caramel rolls, except for the woman of the day… Once it was about as late as we dared let her sleep (because he hair and makeup ladies would be showing up early), Taryn went to wake up sleeping beauty, and this was how we were greeted.
As Taylor went to make herself somewhat presentable, her mom (Cassie) arrived to get her hair and makeup done too.
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| Nervous smile and thumbs up! |
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| Taylors mom (Cassie) waiting for her turn |
There were still a lot of things to be done this morning that couldn’t get done yesterday, so while Taylor and Cassie were sitting in the nice warm house getting all of the things done, the rest of the family got to work. It had gotten cold overnight, and it was quite chilly this morning. While I was running around and really too busy to think about much other than what I was doing, I was questioning my choice of the dress I’d be wearing today. These first 4 hours this morning were all kind of a blur with people coming and going from Janice's house, and tons of chaos, instructions being given to anyone who could help, and tying up all of the loose ends.
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| The wedding area with the beautiful backdrop |
I really don’t know where the morning went. The photographers showed up at some point and were scooping out the yard, looking for perfect shots, and snapping some pictures.
It was now getting too close to go-time, and I think Ramie and I were the last to stop with the prep work and get dressed. I quickly rushed to start putting on my makeup and asked Taryn if she would be able to tame the mane of hair on my head, as I didn’t opt for a leisurely morning of getting my hair and makeup done. My mom came early to drop off some jewelry that I was borrowing for the day because somewhere in all of the shuffle of houses I lost what I had planned to wear somewhere between Taryn and Steven's house and this morning. Thanks Ramie for grabbing some candid shots.
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| You are not amusing, Ramie!! |
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Granny Janny, Tawnya and Kylie waiting for the event to get going
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| Kylie, finishing her makeup |
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| Taylor and her mom |
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Of course we cant forget about Kota. He always looks handsome and ready to go.
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It was getting close to the 11 am start time and Dylan’s brothers were in charge of directing the guests to the ceremony area in the garden. Once Ramie was all snazzy and ready to go, he went outside to start greeting the guests who were starting to arrive. When Dylan showed up, he wasn’t allowed to go in the house because he couldn’t see Taylor before the scheduled “first look” photos. Dylan looked very nervous, but you could see the excitement, so Ramie kept Dylan reined in while we waited for everything to start rolling.
At some point Ramie was told that he had to go stand in a specific spot and could no longer go into, or even face the house, and Dylan had to go stand on the other side of the garage and not look toward the house either. It was almost time for the first looks. Ramie hadn’t seen Taylor’s dress before this either because she wanted to do a first look with her dad as well. While Ramie waited for Taylor, Taryn was keeping Ramie company, and being the softie that he is, Ramie started crying. Of course, it was tears of happiness and he made fun of himself for being such a baby. Fortunately, he was able to pull it together before Taylor came out, because she is just as much of a softie, and Ramie didn’t want to be the reason Taylor ruined her makeup already!
Before I knew it, the house was nearly empty as I was finishing getting myself ready. Taylor and the photographers were the only other people in the house, taking a few last “before” shots, and Taylor asked me to help her put her earrings in and pin the straps on her dress that kept falling down before it was time to head out the door. I went out first and had to quickly pin the Boutonniere on Ramie before his first-look photos with Taylor.
Then it was time for Taylor to come out. I stuck around, peeking from behind the corner of the garage for a few minutes to see these first special moments, but I couldn’t stay long because my next task was to run down to the other side of the yard to inform Dylan that an executive decision was made by Taylor, the boss of the day, and the photographers that we had run out of time and he wasn’t going to get to do a first look with Taylor. He will have to wait until he sees her walk down the aisle. It was time for him to head down the aisle and wait for Ramie to escort Taylor to meet him there.
Ramie heard the door of the house open and Taylor come out, she walked up behind him and the photographers kept telling him not to look. Taylor started sniffling and it took all of a half a second for Ramie to start crying as well. In typical Ramie/Taylor fashion they started cracking jokes to each other to keep their minds off the current situation while the photographers laid out her dress behind her. On a count of 3 Ramie was told to turn around to see the beautiful bride in her dress for the first time.
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| Thank you Cindy for sticking around to take these pics. |
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| This pic was a sneak preview from the photographers. |
With everyone in their place in the garden, the moms and stepmom were ready to start the procession down the aisle.
Ramie helped Taylor down the hill and to the waiting area, hidden behind the fence so that the guests wouldn’t see her just yet. On the way down the hill Taylor’s garter kept sliding down so she took it off and flung it up the hill toward the house. Ramie didn’t figure this was a great place for the garter to stay, so he ran back up to get it and kept it in his pocket saying that if she decided she wanted to, she could put it on later. Right on queue, the music started, the moms took their places, and then dad and daughter made their way down the aisle.
Ramie’s job during this walk was to distract Taylor from looking at the guests who were looking back at her. Since she was so nervous there was more joke cracking, just like at the first look! When they made it to Dylan and Brad standing at the front, a heartfelt hug was shared between dad and daughter, some words were exchanged under their breaths and a handshake of agreement or acceptance was shared between Ramie and Dylan.
The ceremony was a little bit un-traditional with Brad (Dylans dad) being the officiant, and very brief, clocking in at under a half hour, but everything went as well as anyone could have asked for. If anything got mixed up, no one would have known it. The colorful fall leaves on the hillside made for the most beautiful wedding backdrop.
The evening before, during the rehearsal, Taylor and Dylan were instructed that, after their exit from the ceremony they were to stop at the bottom of the hill for the “receiving line”. They were not excited about this, but we bribed them to make it happen! Uncles Tracy & Troy would be waiting with each Taylor’s and Dylan’s alcoholic beverage of choice, and would greet all of the guests who participated in the ceremony. Once everyone had a chance to hug or shake hands with the new couple, it was time for the family photos with the bride and groom, followed by off-site photos of just the bride and groom.
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| Taylor, Cousin Allie and Dylan |
Taylor and Dylan didn’t have any attendants, so the coordination of just the 2 of them was much easier than with a full wedding party. While the new couple was away taking pictures, the guests who were invited to the ceremony ate a simple lunch that we provided, started enjoying beverages from the serve yourself bar that was already open, and playing the board and yard games that were provided to keep people occupied until the next event. Fortunately, even though it was chilly (downright cold for people used to Costa Rica temperatures), it was a beautiful, sunny fall day.
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Weird, Ramie and I already hanging out at the bar. We could use the liquid warmth on a day like today, plus useful to help us be social!!!
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| Spencer, Dylan's best friend and Kota also hanging out at the bar. |
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| None of us know what we were looking at but we really like this pic.. That is Tracy and Cindy (Ramie's brother and sister in law) |
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My family took the opportunity to snap a few photos of us all together and dressed up too!
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Being the father of the bride, Ramie was being pulled in all different directions to catch up with people he had not seen in years and other people that just wanted to talk to him. I made my rounds as well and was introduced to many people who I had never met before. After a few hours away, the bride and groom, along with the photographers, made it back to the party. Guests who they wanted to have as part of their celebration, but weren’t part of the smaller ceremony, started showing up while Taylor and Dylan were away, and now that the rest of the guests had arrived, it was time for a couple of whole group, large family photos before we moved on to dinner.
At a little after 3 pm it was time to gather everyone to sit down, and introduce the new Mr. and Mrs. officially, as they entered and made their way to their special head table at the front of the tent. Brad led us in prayer and Dylan’s best friend Spencer gave a nice speech about his friendship with Taylor and Dylan over the years and in school. Finally, it was time to eat and get this party started.
Dinner, at the newlywed’s request, was walking tacos (great choice, we had tacos for our wedding dinner too! A funny side note, when Taylor told us months and months ago that she was going to have tacos, she didn’t even remember that is what was served at our wedding). When people had their fill of tacos and all of the fixin’s you could ask for, it was time for fun.
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| Steven was not shy about taking a plate. |
As we mentioned, Taylor and Dylan bought a jukebox for music instead of having a DJ, so the guests were in charge of picking whatever songs they wanted to hear (and they didn’t have to worry about all of those old chicken dance and conga line songs!) They also rented a photo booth to capture all of the fun, candid memories that wouldn’t be captured by the photographers. Taylor and Dylan are both into Lego, so as part of their guestbook idea, they had a build their own Lego personand place it on the wedding scene.
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| Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the final product, so this is Will's army from yesterday, but the idea is the same: you get to assemble your own Lego person and write your name on a blank tile to place next to your person. |
Both the kids and adults were loving the candy bar (which I also don't have a pic of) that Taylor insisted upon (she might like candy just as much as Ramie does). If you don’t know what I mean by candy bar, imagine a help-yourself candy buffet filled with Taylor and Dylan’s favorite candies. They even provided little bags you could fill up to take away for later. During all of the months of planning, we could tell that this one piece of the wedding was Taylor’s priority! This candy buffet had Dylan’s favorite malted milk balls, Taylor's favorite runts, as well as skittles, sour gummy worms (which, probably not by coincidence are Ramie’s favorite), Hersey kisses, jawbreakers, and an actual old-fashioned gumball machine filled with more gumballs than anyone would ever be able to chew!
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| Taryn and Taylor |
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| Father/Daughter Dance |
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| Mother/Son Dance |
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Kota (Taylor's dog) and his 2 grandpas (Ramie & Brad)
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The party didn't go late, the extremely exhausted bride and groom left around 9:30, after we assured them that the Bride and Groom are supposed to leave before all of the guests do, and Ramie and I stayed up until everyone else left in order to shut off all the lights and lock the garage. We made it inside at around 10:45 pm, utterly exhausted and ready for bed. Ramie and I got the pleasure of babysitting Kota, Taylor’s Australian Sheppard, for the night. Kota is not a small dog, and the bedroom we were sleeping in has 2 twin beds, of course the big baby wanted to sleep on the bed. After trying to sleep on my bed with me, I kicked him out, and Kota ended up sleeping with Ramie most of the night. I’m pretty sure Ramie didn't sleep too well on the little corner of bed that he got.
Sunday 10/13- After the busy day yesterday, it was a slow start to the morning. Even Tracy, who is typically a very early riser like I am, didn’t get off to his usual early start. Eventually everyone who was part of this whole wedding setup was outside starting the tear down and cleanup process.
The tent people would be here to pick up the tent, tables and chairs at around 11am, so we had to have it completely cleaned out and everything off the tables. Even Taylor and Dylan eventually showed up to help. When the tent guys showed up, it was the perfect time to take a break and stay out of their way. We moved a handful of chairs into the garage and set them in a circle so that we could all watch Taylor and Dylan open their gifts. They didn’t have many, as their request was that they prefer cash for their upcoming honeymoon, but it was still fun to watch them open their gifts, many of which were very thought out and specifically given for a special reason. The timing worked out well, as just as we were finishing up with the gifts, the we had to give up our chairs for the tent guys to pack them up.
Surprisingly almost everything was cleaned up and packed into the vehicles of whomever was taking it, and it all fit, with the exception of the jukebox. No one was quite sure where this was going to end up, so it would just live in Tracy’s garage for a little while. Once the final person, other than Ramie, Taylor, Dylan, and I left, we, along with Ramie’s mom, sat down to relax in the quiet house. After all of the chaos leading up to the wedding, a couple of hours of quiet conversation was nice. These have been an exhausting last 4 days, but the wedding turned out beautifully. Taylor and Dylan would be staying at the Airbnb that they rented for one
more night, and we would be heading back to Taryn and Stevens this
evening.
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| Gma Janny, finally getting a chance to read the wedding program. |
I hope everything was up to Taylor & Dylan’s expectations 😉
(Thank you to our family and friends for contributing some photos for today's blog. Ramie didn't have his phone out at all during the wedding, and I only snapped a few since things were so busy!)
Pura Vida!
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