6th Anniversary Weekend

Sept 4th marked 6 years of marriage for Sean and I. We celebrated family style, taking a couple short day trips with Josephine. On Saturday we headed about an hour west to go hiking, but first stopped at Flat Creek Estate. We had lunch in their bistro (the building below), and sampled a few wines in their tasting room (another building, not pictured, but cute). They also had a really lovely covered patio (behind where I'm standing to take the picture) with fans and fireplaces and big tables with chairs. It's a small winery (and apparently most Texan wineries actually make their wines using mainly grapes from somewhere out in the panhandle) but a cute stopover, nonetheless.

The hike was just a little 3 mile loop called Rim Rock Trail. Peaceful, though-- no one was out there, and once we reached the top of the hill, there was a great breeze. A while back I'd gotten Sean a book called 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles (the 2nd edition of San Antonio/Austin, including the Hill Country). It's come in handy several times, because I doubt we'd have found out about these hikes otherwise.
We saw a little snake!

Sunday we tried Salt Lick in Driftwood for the first time, and then went a little further down the road to the Duchman Family Winery for another tasting. That one was more challenging because they don't have stools to sit on, which meant we had to actually hold Josephine the whole time, while standing. It was still pleasant, and we hung out on the benches outside afterwards a bit. But I think we had less energy for it since we'd just been to a tasting the day before, and this one was more of a toddler juggling act.

Below is a picture of the restaurant on the grounds; the winery part was right next to it and looked similar. (Didn't take any pictures at Salt Lick).

A busy little girl...

Josephine understands a lot of what we say to her, and there's at least a good couple dozen words that she'll sort of say when she's in the mood to do so, but the VAST majority of what I hear ALL DAY LONG is "this? this? this?" (while pointing at something and wanting it), and "ooookay!" (whether or not we've actually communicated successfully). I'll take the "okay" over "no" anyday, but I also sort of wish we were at the point of reasoning a little more logically with her. Of course-- as soon as I say that, I feel sad for wishing away any part of the baby still left in her. I must always remember to appreciate every moment, because goodness knows she's growing up way too fast. And this truly IS a cute age.

Here's a link to a clip of Josephine outside the winery. For most of it, she's watching people get into a truck in a parking lot. But around the 34 second mark, you hear a "this!" as she's proud of her rocks, and at the end, an "okay!" They're a little slurred in the video. By now, she pronounces both perfectly-- and with plenty of dramatic intonation to make up for what a single word would otherwise be unable to communicate in every possible situation.

As it turns out, there are endless combinations of "this" and "okay" when you string them together, using various vocal chords for each syllable. "This. this? THIS?! ooookay? oKAY!" is obviously very different from "okay, okay... this. okay." And being Mommy, I usually know exactly what she means. When I try to pretend like I don't, in an effort to encourage her to use her other words, she just gets mad at me. I can see her thinking, "Listen lady, I use my signs, I use two words that manage to suggest and then confirm what I want, you read my mind anyway-- let's not make things difficult here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now, give me This. Ooookay!"

back to August: Seema's wedding

So while Josephine played with my family (see second-to-last post), Sean and I went to my friend's wedding. I've known Seema since third grade; we stayed friends all the way through high school and have remained in touch since then, despite a lot of distance and time. There was a small group of us girls that stuck together growing up in good ol' Bedford, TX, including Andrea, who also came to town for the event. We had a fun, memorable time, and the event itself was beautiful!

A side perk for me: my mom took some photos of Sean and I-- it feels like forever since we've had dressier pictures of just the two of us. The last one that distinctly pops to mind was from a New Year's Eve date before we were even engaged. Anyway, Seema lent Andrea and I outfits for the morning ceremonies; here's mine:

Seema's family is Hindu. She married Harinder, whose family is Sikh. So there were two ceremonies. In the Sikh one, everyone covered their heads, took off their shoes, and sat on the floor. (And don't worry, a lot of folks in the crowd were snapping photos all during the ceremony-- I wasn't being obnoxious!)

Note Harinder's sword above. There was a young Sikh boy on the men's side of the aisle swinging around a styrofoam toy sword-- it was adorable. The two photos I got of the Sikh ceremony are from the four Laava (wedding hymns); each laavan is accompanied by them walking around the stage in a circle. The hymns describe the sacred journey of the soul through this world to the final destination, the merging with the infinite. (That's an excerpt from the very helpful programs they had for everyone.)

And Andrea, you're going to recognize several photos here, because I totally yanked them from your flicker account! Like the three below!


Seema had the most intricate henna I've ever seen on her hands and feet-- so pretty!

The Hindu ceremony was next, dramatically shortened from it's normal length. Because they had both ceremonies to do, they wanted them each to be about an hour long. In this one, head coverings weren't necessary, we sat in chairs, and left our shoes on. Here are Seema's parents leading in Harinder.

I'll interject here that there were dozens of cultural and religious traditions that happened over the span of days before and after the actual ceremonies. Everything we heard about and saw seemed impressively intense. With the ceremonies being in different languages, and this being the first time Andrea, Sean, or I had been to any sort of Indian wedding, we missed out on understanding a lot of it. Thankfully there were programs that explained a lot, and over lunch, some other guests enlightened us further. I certainly don't have photos from all the different parts, but I'm posting what I do have, because it'll give an idea of the complexity behind all the symbolism. With each picture, I'll summarize bits of what was in the program.

Here, for instance, are two more photos of Andrea's highlighting various parts of the ceremony. The first shows a veil of cloth, or antarpat, signifying their separate identities prior to union. (Harinder is sitting on the other side of the antarpat.)

In the following, the bride's mother and father offer their daughter's hand in marriage through the symbolic gesture of allowing holy water to flow from their hands, through the groom's hands, and into the bride's hands. This is the Kanya Daan (the gift of the bride's hand in marriage) and is considered the greatest gift that can be given by Hindu parents.

Towards the end there is the Mangal Phera (Circling the Sacred Fire)-- they walk around the fire four times, each round symbolizing different essential goals and duties of life. There was a lot of meaning packed into various parts of this process.

For example, during each round, the bride's male cousin placed parched rice into her hands. (Andrea got a great shot of this below). This rice is then offered to the holy fire as the bride and groom pray for a long life together filled with health, happiness, and prosperity.

I'm pretty sure the picture below is from the start of the Saptapadi (Seven Steps and Vows). The bride and groom take seven steps together symbolizing the beginning of their journey into married life. These steps represent seven promises to one another. The priest kept up an impressive chanting rhythm throughout most of the ceremony, and seemed to be expounding upon each promise before they were allowed to take another step.

Andrea also took the next few pictures.

They exchange rings (part of the Mangal Sutra, which ends with them officially being husband and wife):

Before they could leave, Harinder had to literally buy back his shoes, which Seema's sisters and female relatives had stolen (in a tradition that indicates that they don't want him taking their sister away). :-)

This is after they had proceeded out into the foyer. To Harinder's right are Seema's parents, and on Seema's left are Harinder's parents.

The aftermath. How about those aisle decorations?

Andrea and I:

We proceeded to eat a fabulous lunch, (traditional Gujarati food, since Seema's family is from Gujarat), headed home for some rest (see photo of Sean passed out on couch from earlier post). Then we got dressed again (took more dressy-couple photos)...


...picked up Andrea, and went back for cocktail hour and a very well programmed reception, replete with more fabulous food (this time Punjabi, according to Harinder's heritage), an open bar, speeches, dances, a slide show, a very cute bride-groom game, cake cutting, etc. Here's a picture I snagged from Seema's facebook:

My reception photos all turned out too dark-- the following are all Andrea's, whose camera managed to give a good idea of what was going on. The first dance:

The morning's staging area had been transformed...

Pretty sure this is a niece of Seema's who performed a lovely dance...

And I love Punjabi dancing. Once the formalities were over and dinner was eaten, these guys from Harinder's side of the crowd burned up the floor. You can kind of see the little guy in the center of the circle of men (I think he was the same one that had the toy sword)... and he had as many moves as the rest of them! It was really fun to watch.

And perhaps best of all was getting to have a little face time with the newlyweds the next day at lunch. Other than a brief hello the day before, it was the first I'd gotten to spend any time with Harinder, who seems wonderfully genuine and kind. I'm delighted for the new couple, and we really loved participating in their big day!

Hooray for Seema and Harinder!

Intermission: June Updated

Before getting to a couple pictures from the actual wedding we attended, I decided I need to finish out a few missing posts from June (still ignoring Seattle)...

These, unlike the one I just mindlessly posted about August in the September folder, were retro-dated. So you can visit: June 2, June 17, and June 26, either by clicking on each of the dates I just typed, or by clicking on June in the left column and scrolling through the entire month to find the three new posts.


I also just found a video from February, which I guess I didn't post because it seemed too long and boring. But now that I have an entirely different child from the one in the video, I find it really interesting and cute. So I'm uploading it. Click here to go to the post, which has a link for the video.

Mid-August

Sean and I headed back to Bedford in the middle of August for my friend's wedding, and since there were a couple different ceremonies, meals, a cocktail hour and reception all spread throughout the day, we left Josephine (much to her delight) with her grandparents. Some snapshots that my Mom took...
She even got a visit from my mom's brother and sister-in-law and one of their dogs:
Aunt Janell wanted part of the action too...
Hiding in Aunt Janell's room...
I got to catch up with Darla and hang out with my mom and Janell some, which was great!
Although the guys seemed less interested (that's Darla's boyfriend Brad on the left, and my classy husband on the right)...

Another napshot (ha-- get it??) This is on the ride home the next day. It's so fun to have her forward-facing and getting to see such sweetness...