The Wedding "South Dakota" style

It has taken me most the day to begin feeling "normal". Traci and I attended Jamie and Mitch's wedding in Baltic and then reception in Brandon at the Holiday Inn express. The wedding ceremony was perfect! It was held in the Lutheran church in Baltic and about a 100 people were in attendance. The only thing that could have made it better was warmer temps outside. It was about 10 degrees out and all the roads in Baltic had a sheet of ice/snow on them. Jamie is Traci's sister's husband's sister and Mitch is.. Mitch. :-)

Jamie and Mitch

Traci, Hunter and Saige braving the cold for a picture

The reception was about held about 20 miles away in the city of Brandon. http://www.brandonsd.com/ The food was great and there was about 2 hours of open bar and two kegs when that was gone. This was the first reception I have attended where I stayed until the last dance and had the lights come on after... That is always a scary event! Bright lights combined with sweaty people, running make up and the effects of alcohol on every one's smiling faces. EEEEKK!!

Bill and Traci at the reception

Bill and Hunter on the dance floor

Did I mention that it was an open bar?

Alex VanHangover and Jimi HenDrinks showed up later that night

Dave, Saige and Zoe cutting a rug

We spent a short amount of time in Mitch's parent's room drinking beverages and getting to know each other (this was the first time I met them). After that, it was off to the gas station in about 0 degree weather to pick up a bag or Doritos for Dave (my new BFF and Nikki's Husband) and a Rice Crispy treat for Traci. By the time we walked back Traci was ready for bed and Nikki (Traci's sister) was already 1/2 asleep. Dave and I spent the next hour munching on the bag of chips and surfing all 75+ channels on the T.V... I believe that is something that only men would find enjoyable. I finally crawled into bed about 3:30 and got up around 9am to a knock on the door. It was my two nieces Saige and Hunter with a plate of food. The food hit the spot and I was back in bed within 10 minutes. I called down to the front desk around 10:30 and requested a late check out of noon as we were a bit behind in getting packed up. You can request a late check out at most hotels without an extra cost to you.

4 hours later we ended up at Debbie and Richard's house where I mosied off to our room for another 2 hour siesta. :-) I woke up to the smell of Prime Rib and other foods being cooked up in the kitchen. As I mentioned yesterday, we are celebrating Christmas early and part of the Dybvig tradition is a family dinner. Unfortunately, Grandma Dybvig was unable to make it do the extreme cold weather and the fact that she fell a few days ago. she didn't get hurt in the fall only a bit bruised.

Dinner was excellent, as Debbie is a fantastic cook, and the company couldn't have been any better. After dinner, we sat around, opened gifts and enjoyed watching the kids tinker with their new toys.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. A big ice storm rolled through Kansas City and most of the cities that we will be driving through received snow tonight and will continue to accumulate snow until about 4am. We roll out of here about 8am and will take our time. I will report on the drive and post some pictures from the wedding and our early Christmas when we get home.

Bill