Life 'n Legos: Road Trip to SC for Brittany's Wedding

About 8 months ago my friend, Brittany, called me and asked me to be the Matron of Honor in her wedding. I cried and, of course, said yes. A few months ago when I started looking at flights South Carolina I realized that I was either going to have to go alone or that we were going to have to drive. Since I have been to enough weddings by myself and my mom wanted to see Mikey we decided to make the 17 hour drive.

We left Wednesday when Brian got off work and decided that we were going to try to drive through the night so that Mikey would be asleep and not tortured. When he got home I already had the car loaded and fueled, so we picked up and quick dinner and hit the road. We ended up getting out of town around 7:30pm. Brian did about 3.5 hours, I did about 3.5 hours, then we switched every 2 for there rest of the trip since we were both so tired. Brian was able to catch some shut eye, but for some reason, every time I closed my eyes Mikey either screamed or was just super loud. I think I ended up with 3.5-4 hours of sleep the whole trek. We took 2 major play stops, one around midnight at Walmart and one around 8 am at a Burger King that had a play place. Mikey loved being able to run off some energy and stretch his legs.

We arrived in Greenville at 1 pm and saw Brittany and her family standing right there in the lobby, as they had just gotten there too. We got checked in, caught up with them a little bit, then I showered and started a nap in Brittany's room since ours wasn't ready yet. When Brian called me to tell me that our room was ready I headed in there for a nap. We all laid down and slept for about 4 hours. None of us wanted to get up, but we needed dinner, so we walked right across the street to a Burger and Shake bar. Downtown Greenville has so much to do and is such a cute town. There was more to do in a 3 block radius from our hotel than there is to do in the entire state of Oklahoma. After dinner we heard some music playing about 2 blocks away, so we walked down and there was this awesome amphitheater set up with a live band. Its right in the river and there are several really pretty fountains leading down to it. Mikey played in the fountains for a bit before we took him down to dance. He made friends with several older women and danced with them for a bit before asking them to pick him up. The boy knows no strangers. He also made friends with the saxaphone player who played directly to him and high fived him. We danced and listened to music before taking a leisurely walk back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

The next morning I had to be at the bridal luncheon at 11. It was at Furman which has a beautiful little campus. Brian dropped me off and then took Mikey to play in the fountains on campus. We enjoyed mimosas, quiche, and chicken salad before receiving a massive piece of cake. Everything was delicious. When I got back to the hotel my mom and sister were just arriving, so I was able to meet them in the lobby. They took Mikey for a walk (and he took them to the toy store) while Brian napped and I worked on my speech.

The rehearsal was at 6 and lasted about 2 hours. When that was done we went straight down to the rehearsal dinner which was in that same area where the concert had been the night before. We enjoyed an open bar and some classic southern food before they opened the floor for speeches. I didn't know which night I was supposed to give my speech, so when I asked Brittany and her mom they both told me to give it at the rehearsal dinner. I was the first to get up and speak and I think it went pretty well. People seemed quiet and attentive and they laughed when they were supposed to. I HATE public speaking, so I was glad to have about 40 people listening instead of a room of about 150. When that was over we took advantage of the free babysitting and headed out to bar that has a bunch of beers on tap. Most of the groomsmen and other wedding guests met us there and we not only closed the bar...but actually got kicked out because the bar tender wanted to go home and we obviously didn't.

The next morning was kind of rough. Brittany had asked that we all be at the local bridesmaid's house at 10 to start getting hair done. I think we arrived around 10:30, so not too shabby. We just hung out there all day while everyone got their hair done and one of the girls did make-up for everyone. We headed over to the church around 3:30 (I ended up taking the scenic route because my GPS is retarded) to get dressed and to take pictures.

There ceremony started at 6 and ran about an hour. One of the poor groomsmen forgot to bend his knees and was about 2 seconds away from passing out. Thankfully, he realized he was headed for the floor and told his brother that he was gonna faint. Ash, Brittany's brother was so smooth, he just walked up to him, steadied him by the shoulders, and quietly walked backwards to some chairs where he was able to sit him down. Poor kid was only 16 and man did he look bad. His face was all ashen and his lips were a purple grey, he wasn't kidding when he said he was going to faint. We took a few pictures after the ceremony then headed over to the reception. Brian and I were able to dance to a few songs (which is always fun since all military balls usually only play booty shaking music, which we do not dance to). Every time we requested a song the DJ played it immediately.

We did a sparkler send off to send the night and Brittany and Adam rode away in a horse drawn carriage. It was very sweet! Though we were very tempted to go out, Brian and I returned to the room to get showered and packed up so that we could head out bright and early. I think we got out of Greenville around 10 am, Brian drove for 12 hours so that I could nap (but I didn't since my child doesn't think that I need sleep). We took 3 play/eat stops. The first was at Bojangles for breakfast and Mikey was able to run around a little bit in there. The next time we stopped for gas we went into another Walmart and let Mikey play with some toys and run around for about 30 minutes. The last one was at some random KFC/Taco Bell and Mikey pushed his trains around the disgusting floor for about 20 minutes. I wanted to die, but I knew he needed the playtime. I took over around 10 pm and drove until we got home at 3:30. I wanted Brian to be able to sleep since he had to get up at 5, but I think most of his sleep was interrupted because Mikey kept randomly waking up, screaming, then going right back to sleep. Poor kid wanted out of the car.

I'm not sure that we will do another road trip like that again. We have plans to go to Orlando for Christmas and we plan to make the 20 hour drive, but I think we will probably break it up into 2 or 3 days. Its so hard to strap a toddler in a carseat for that long when we doesn't understand. Mikey and I spent yesterday recovering and we've spent most of today cleaning and running errands. Tomorrow is preparing for the holiday! Congrats to Brittany and Adam! We wish you lots of happiness and a happy honeymoon!