Anybody ever heard of keying the bride?  Totally new thing for me so I'll share.

 

My youngest brother Pat was married this weekend.  Big, big wedding...9 bridesmaids and 9 groomsmen, 300 in attendance, etc.  My other brother Kyle was the best man and I was a bridesmaid.  Everything leading up to the wedding was very smooth.  No drama, everyone showed up, stayed sober through the ceremony and all that good stuff.  After the ceremony (and a 15 minute ceremony at that - let's get the party on!), the bridal party boarded a big old limo bus loaded with coolers and champagne and we toasted the bride and groom all the way to the reception.  We were all feeling pretty good up there at the head table as the maid of honor and best man gave their toasts and then sat down.  Next, one of the groomsmen who has a bit of a reputation for being a goofball got up and gave his own little speech.  He thanked everyone for being there and said how when Pat and Lindsay first bought their house a year ago, Lindsay had an extra key made for him and told him that he was welcome to come by anytime that Pat wasn't home and 'keep her company.'  He said he really appreciated that but now that Pat and Lindsay were married, he didn't feel right about keeping the key and it was time to give it back to her.  He walked over and put the key in front of her and everyone laughed politely.  Well, on that cue, male guests out in the reception hall started standing up and holding up their keys and bringing them to the table and putting them in front of Lindsay.  We were all ROLLING at the expression on her face (she was laughing!) and the reactions of the audience.  There were probably 20-30 keys seeded in the crowd that made their way up to the front.  As the icing on the cake, just as everyone started to sit down and quiet back down, my 85 year old uncle stood up and shuffled to the front of the room to drop his key off.  I don't know if the timing was deliberate or accidental but it was perfect and set everyone off again.  Welcome to the family Lindsay!  Poor thing...

 

And in other news...a very territorial jay has taken over the backyard and is hellbent on terrorizing the dog.  Poor Amadeus goes out to do his thing and the jay sits on the fence and then swoops down to grab his tail and peck at his head every few minutes.  She spends the rest of the time cawing at him from the sidelines until she finds her opportunity.  We found the source of her anxiety in a little nest with babies in a tree in the middle of the yard and this just started happening this week so the babies must be brand new.  Poor dog could care less about her nest and more about his bladder but tough to share that kind of info in the animal kingdom.

 

The kids are getting blonder and bronzer as summer camp wears on.  Jim is channeling his Native American heritage (1/16) into a very dark brown tan.  Too bad it ends where his shirt takes over giving the impression that he's always wearing a white tshirt!  Father's Day was good to him and he's now the proud owner of 16 pairs of new white socks.  Hey...he needed them...