So we've finally returned from our adventure out west. Since it was such a long trip I'll post pictures and stories in segments.

The first leg of our trip was to Boulder, Colorado for the wedding of John Cranmer and Lisa Nutting.
John, of course, is one of our best friends from college, and was the best man in our own wedding. Boulder was an amazing city. Julie and I have decided that we'd love to live there someday. It was a very "granola" kind of town, i.e. very progressive, artsy, and welcoming to people of many different styles and philosophies. In fact, in a lot of ways it reminded us of Julie's hometown of Austin, Texas. Plus it is nestled right up against the foot of the Rockies, and has just a spectacular view of the mountains from anywhere in town. We had the good fortune of being there on the weekend of their annual Boulder marathon and city festival, so inbetween wedding events we enjoyed wandering around downtown, seeing the quirky booths and visiting the Pearl Street pedestrian mall.

We had left the Chicago area on Thursday and stayed the night outside of Omaha, Nebraska so that we could get to Boulder in time for John's bachelor party on Friday night. The four other groomsmen besides myself - Clive Hsu, Dan Inouye, Andy Culbertson, and Sheldon Rosenberger - also made it, as well as a few other old friends, including Matt Hyder and Cam McRoberts. We got some food at the Cheesecake Factory and then sent John on a hilarious scavenger hunt around downtown Boulder at midnight.

The next day John and Lisa hosted a picnic at Chataqua Park in Boulder for all of their friends. It was a great reunion with many of our old Wheaton friends, some of whom we hadn't seen since graduation five years ago. We spent most of the afternoon eating, talking and sharing stories.

The wedding the next day was a beautiful ceremony and reflected well John and Lisa's personalities and passions. The most unique element was a foot-washing ceremony in which John and Lisa both expressed their commitment to serve one another in love. Their vows and the message from Pastor Todd Kelly both spoke of their desire for their relationship to serve the Kingdom of God. The only flaw in the event was that they forgot to kiss at the end! But they more than made up for it on their way out of the church before they got in the getaway car, and many more times after that during the reception. ;)

The reception was a blast. There was more time to spend with friends and lots of dancing. Even Emma got in there with us for "Sweet Home Alabama", one of her favorite songs. We all also had a lot of fun decorating the car. Apparently John had earned a lot of retribution from his decorating jobs at past weddings. :D The fact that it was raining when they finally left to get in the car didn't make things any easier for them, as we had completely wrapped the care in saran-wrap!

We didn't see much of Emma during the reception. We handed her off friends to take care of at one point, and they just kept passing her around for the rest of the night. But, as you can see, both she and mommy still seemed to enjoy themselves.

After the reception a bunch of us from Wheaton all went back to the Boulder Mountain Lodge to enjoy the hot tub, and spend some more time together before saying our final goodbyes. All of us were reluctant to leave and everyone had to hold Emma one more time before we went. But of course, we eventually did have to get going, as we were leaving for a 20-hour drive to Yosemite the next morning. More on that in my next post.