Auntie Pi's Wedding

On Labor Day weekend we headed back to California for yet another celebration. This time it was Auntie Pi's big day. It was a great opportunity to shower Alicia with love and affection and showcase how much we care about and are happy for her. So often she is the one spoiling those around her, so it was good to be able to turn the tables. Or at least we tried. But Alicia and Bill managed to put on quite a party.

To give you an idea of what we experienced, here are Lauren and Sarah standing in front of the castle that was the backdrop for the wedding ceremony. And this was a true castle, moat and all. In fact, all the bridesmaids, and of course the bride herself, arrived at the ceremony via horse and carriage.


Here we see the bride pictured with part of her "rainbow ladies" as she called them. The rainbow was a reference to her bridesmaids and flower girl, who all wore different colored and styled dresses. Yes, Sarah was in fact the flower girl, which was probably a little payback for Alicia playing that same role at our wedding.



The ceremony was wonderful, the company was fun, and food was pretty darn good. However, one of the highlights of the dinner was Auntie D's toast to the bride. She did a fabulous job - she captured Alicia's competitiveness, generosity, and good humor all in a toast that people who knew Alicia could appreciate and people who didn't know her as well could enjoy. Auntie D is certainly a professional.

Speaking of Alicia's generosity, only Alicia would figure out a good way to celebrate the birthday of her guests at the rehearsal dinner, including a huge birthday cake and gifts. And the gifts didn't stop there. She doled out "Pi's favorite things" themed gift baskets to every member of her bridal party. The gift baskets could probably be mistaken for ones given out to presenters at the Grammys, Oscars, or Tonys. Little does she know that none of us needed a gift of appreciation from her - being a part of her special day was more than enough.


Oh right, there was also a groom involved in this wedding. Here we see Bill and Alicia greeting their guests as they prepared to leave the reception. But no, the party wasn't over. They were just leading us all to an after hours party in downtown Paso Robles. The night was truly only beginning. Good thing that Alicia put Aleve in all of the welcome baskets we found in our hotel rooms. I guarantee that this was one of the most widely used items that weekend.


We did tell you that the bride and bridesmaids arrived in a horse and carriage. We may not have mentioned that they stuck around throughout the evening to provide romantic tours of the winery throughout the evening. We decided to share the romance with Lauren and JP.



Honestly, the props throughout the castle were hilarious. There was no way you could leave them alone. They demanded to be photographed.

For example, you couldn't just walk by this medieval device without sticking your head and arms through. In fact, it is important to note that Sarah had this picture taken the moment she arrived at the castle, which means it was two hours before the wedding ceremony. Hopefully you can see the hair and makeup done earlier that day for the occasion. This picture is a keeper, that's for sure.


John was not going to escape the shenanigans that night and was able to join the fun. Here we see pure royalty. As we are looking at these pictures something is becoming more obvious to us. It was our first weekend without kids in a long time. The irony is that without the kids present we apparently needed to act somewhat less than our age. A good time was had by all.




As the wedding weekend drew to a close we headed back to Los Angeles to check on the girls. Auntie D couldn't resist a visit to see how much they have grown in the month since she had seen them last. She especially had fun playing with Reese and watching her show off her crawling and climbing abilities. Callie and Reese are so lucky to have so many aunties in California who love them.

And that brings us to the folks who made all of the above fun possible. While we celebrated the big day up in Paso Robles, Callie and Reese spent the weekend with Auntie Gret, Uncle Scotty, and Josh. By all accounts they had a wonderful time together and it was great for us to know the girls were in good hands.



As crazy as it sounds, with this post we have completed our summer travels. We've had a lot of fun over the past several months, but it went by so fast it's ridiculous. Now we get a two month break before the family heads to Sacramento for Thanksgiving. Surely we'lll be up to a few things here or there between now and then.

Picnic with the Pops Goes Cuban

This August marked our fourth time enjoying the fine stylings of the Lexington Philharmonic and their musical guests at the annual Picnic with the Pops. This year the title of the performance was "Havana Nights" with the Cuban group, Tiempo Libre. It was quite a show. In past years although we have had done well we have never been as successful as we were this year in keeping our food, fashion, and decor in sync with the theme. This was definitely the best food we have had and everyone had their best linen on. And for those willing to take the plunge, we had a set of inflatable arm swimmies to aid with the swim from Havana to Miami when the evening was done.

This year we also stepped out of the traditional wine and started the evening off with raspberry mojitos made and mixed with style. Sarah brought the recipe back from Cabo San Lucas and it is safe to say that everyone was very happy she did. At the very least the mojitos helped fuel some of the fine dancing that went on later that evening.


We always enjoy the company of our friends at the Pops. But it has also become an evening on which we are assured the pleasure of a night out without kids. Although we have made a commitment to have more of these this year, this night was special because we cashed in our silent auction winnings of free babysitting. Well, not completely free since we bid on it. But we had paid the money months before so it seemed free by this point.



So while Callie and Reese played with their wonderful babysitters, Clara and Gibbs McKinley, we did our best to move our hips like the lead singer of Tiempo Libre. Those guys really put on a show.

The last photo captures the whole table at which are seated the usual suspects - Sharon and Chris Chrisman, Rebecca and Chad Mueller, and Tommy Glover. The spice and mystery every year comes from the question of who will Tommy bring as a date this time around. This year it happened to be Pete, who was great fun and who made a fabulous centerpiece for the table. She even contributed to the evening's shenanigans by bringing a couple of fine cigars.

A Trip to Music City

Two years ago in August we started a Lucas-Bowes family tradition. We met up with Grammy Gayle in Chicago and took in the sights of the Windy City. At that time we decided to meet up in nearby cities every year and tour the places we have never been to before. Last year we were scheduled to go to Nashville, but the trip had to be postponed due to the serious flooding they experienced. So this August we were finally able to make it happen.

Our first capture finds the whole group in the wonderful world of the Opryland Hotel. It is quite an impressive display of the outdoors brought indoors. This hotel has 6-8 restaurants, dozens of shops, and a river with actual boat rides. You can only imagine how much there is to look at. Although it is costly, we hear it is pretty phenomenal at Christmas time.



In any case, when we saw these two horses, we knew we had found the perfect spot for a group photo. Although we don't have any photos from the experience, we also had a blast on the City Tour Trolley, where we learned all about Nashville and got to visit all of the hot spots, including the full scale replica of the Parthenon located at Centennial Park. And for you history buffs, the Bicentennial Park has a detailed chronology of important Tennessee history carved into the granite walls surrounding the park area. It is both beautiful and educational.

Of course we also had our share of fun back at the hotel, where we not only took advantage of the indoor pool, but also enjoyed just goofing around. Callie and Reese clearly had fun wearing their towels just like their Mommy. It's funny the little things that kids pick up from observing their parents.




Callie always enjoys playing with our cell phones, but this reaches a new level when Grammy's around. She knows that Grammy has downloaded a special game for her to play and she's also figured out a couple of the other functions, i.e. the camera. Here we see a self-photo of all the girls. We must admit it's a pretty good shot.



The trip was a quick one overall, and we headed back to Lexington on Sunday afternoon. Fortunately for us, Grammy came back with us so that she could spend a couple of days hanging out with just the girls. They all had a great time.

One of our last meals together took place at the PF Chang's in Lexington. Callie was excited to get a special pair of chop sticks and could not wait to try them out. She was pretty good and actually outlasted everyone at the table in the traditional transition from chopsticks to forks because I'm just too darn hungry and impatient to rely on anything other than a fork.

All in all, it was another successful trip. Now we just need to decide what city we will visit next. It could be Atlanta...it could be St. Louis...you just never know.