Wedding and Wheeling

My cousin had good luck for her wedding: it was an outdoor ceremony, and the weather cooperated perfectly. A hot day had mellowed into a cooler evening, and the rains held off until the next day. Even the butterfly release went well!

My uncle (not the father of the bride) was quite distressed that the Chicken Dance was banned by the bride. Is a marriage even legal if there's no Chicken Dance? (As it turned out, the Chicken Dance did happen, late in the evening, and the bride even cheerfully participated. Alas, my uncle had already left by that point. The next day, he requested that the wedding reception be repeated so that he could participate, but this suggestion did not meet with general approval.)

One of my cousins was just returning from trapeze camp. It looked like a lot of fun!

It was great to see the Ohio relatives, even if only for a brief visit. We enjoyed a delicious post-wedding brunch with them (thanks, Dave! thanks, Emily!), and then headed out to West Virginia to see relatives on my mom's side of the family.
We had dinner with them, and then hung out at my uncle's place (my grandmother's house when we were growing up). Dad and Mike took a quick trip down to the casino, but only succeeded in contributing some money to the WV economy.

My aunt is a breast cancer survivor, and last time we saw her, she had finished chemo fairly recently -- and was doing well, but was still feeling the effects of the treatment. This time, she seemed much more back to her regular self, which was great to see.

The next morning, we headed back down south. We arrived in Richmond in time to spring the dogs from the doggie resort. Stanley seemed none the worse for the wear, except he must have been doing some serious barking, because he's now hoarse!