Babble

See photos on Flickr

We have another Olsen family trip to Cancun under our belt and, as always, it provided some much needed R&R, fun times with family and a good dose of Vitamin D. This year everyone was able to make it except Jack’s girlfriend Anna, who was in the midst of rotations while seeking her PA degree, but we added a few to our count — Mr. Charlie Beach Olsen, a source of non-stop entertainment and fun, and Poco and Baby Duter, both traveling in utero. As you can imagine, this changed the dynamic of things quite a bit, at least for Jen and I, given preggos are not supposed to a) drink b) be in the sun or c) do anything too adventurous (like sailing in high wind or body surfing in 10′ waves). We failed a bit at keeping out of the sun but were able to forgo the margaritas (and Coronas and rum & cokes, etc…) and kept sailing and ocean-swimming to calm, quiet days. Turns out a Banana Monkey drink without the alcohol is really a chocolate banana shake and always half-price, so that definitely helped me cope with the newfound sobriety and obesity challenges.

We mixed the annual trip up a bit this year by spending time at the Royal Haciendas, a sister resort located just a couple miles north of Playa del Carmen and about 40 miles south of Cancun. It seemed much less crowded than the Royal Caribbean, which was nice — we had the baby pool all to ourselves — but it was a little pricer and the food suffered by comparison. Jeff, Charlie and my parents spent a full week there with the rest of us joining mid-week, and then we all headed up to Cancun to the Royal Caribbean for the following week. Aside from figuring out the bill, in pesos, divvied up by ten people at two resorts after two weeks (huge thanks to JeffO), the extra time was great, and provided Matt and I a chance to stay with each of the siblings for a few days, which was nice.

The only big news to report this year is that all the “ugly” from last year’s post is gone! The beach has been restored (at a cost of a mere $76 million) and I didn’t notice any bugs at all. Then again, I didn’t even make it on to a public bus, much less downtown, so my perspective was rather narrow this year.

Photos of ‘Cun ‘10 are available on both my Flickr account and Jack’s.

A sentimental nod to Dex, who passed away one year ago today.

Once again, I’m stuck on a big post which prevents me from writing any other little posts in the meantime. The big post in question this time is our wedding, which I could easily write pages about, or so I thought. Capturing everything that went on — the atmosphere, the people, the joy and the hundreds of side stories and amusing details — has turned out to be a greater literary feat than I’m capable of documenting, at least with any eloquence. I set an ‘end of 2009′ deadline for myself, so as midnight draws near, it seems a slightly condensed version may be in order. Pronto.

Starting at the beginning, and to give perspective to just how crazy the summer was, we signed the contract for a venue May 18th, giving us about 10 weeks to make most of the arrangements for our July 25 wedding. Note: this is not enough time to plan a wedding. Unaware, we forged ahead. We had been tipped off to our venue, Hilltop, located in Spring Green, WI, by my friend and photography colleague Jeff Miller, whose cousin had been married there the year before. Jeff was really helpful in connecting us with his cousin’s wife (also a designer, as it turns out), who showed us photos, gave us a tour of the grounds in March and put in a good word for us since the venue is private and usually only available to “friends”. Hilltop was originally owned by Herb Fritz, a colleague of Frank Lloyd Wright who designed several buildings on the site and used the area as a farm and later a girls’ camp until he passed the land on to his son. Even with snow everywhere and minimal greenery, we loved the place, and specifically the huge catalpa tree on top of the hill. Getting the contract signed was another matter… suffice it to say Janelle (Fritz’s daughter-in-law) is a fun, free-thinking, very energetic person but doesn’t think much of things like standard business practices, computers, or paperwork, preferring to do business “the old fashioned way”. Thus the late contract date.

The rest began to fall into place, quickly and not-so-surely. One of the most difficult aspects of the entire wedding was the guest list… by the time you’re our age it turns out you know a lot of people, and a lot of those people have kids. It was with much regret that we eliminated our cousins (at a count of 75 without guests!), most children, and dozens of friends and colleagues. I’m sure everyone struggles with this, but it’s one of those things you don’t think about until you have to do it. It’s awkward and it sucks. The upside of being old and knowing so many people is that even with short notice we ended up with fantastic food, photography, cake, music and flowers, thanks mainly to our friends in or attached to these businesses. In particular I’d like to thank our caterer and next-door neighbor, Marigold Kitchens; our awesome DJ Nick Nice, a friend of Matt’s family; Bob Klebba at Morningwood Farm, who grew our centerpieces and most of our herbs; Laura Burns with Quartessence, our amazing string quartet; Mandie Haberman our photographer from Red Gecko Studio (thanks Jenny K. for the recommendation!), and Felly’s flowers and Molly and David Walsh for the beautiful wedding bouquets and boutonnieres. We also have three more huge thank yous to Mike Mikkelson (aka Big Mike), our friend who moonlights as a professional photographer and surprised us with additional photos, Deb Lease, our friend and professional chef who made our wedding cake as her gift to us, and our great friend Hugh Sugar, who served as our reverend. They made our wedding unique, and more importantly, uniquely ‘us’.

The week before the wedding we were treated to the arrival of numerous friends and family, all of whom came early to help out. It is not an exaggeration to say that the wedding wouldn’t have been nearly as nice (and quite possibly wouldn’t have happened at all) without their contributions. Friday afternoon we all headed to Spring Green, through major traffic delays and foul weather, to arrive at Hilltop for the rehearsal. With most of the wedding party in rain gear, we did a quick run-through outdoors and a more detailed run-through indoors, in preparation for the worst. No one voiced the concern but I think it quickly became clear to everyone that the next day might be a major disaster if similar weather conditions prevailed.

From there we drove just a few miles to the Riverview Terrace Cafe, another Frank Lloyd Wright creation, for an intimate dinner courtesy of Matt’s parents, Mary and Bob. We had great food and wine, wonderful toasts and were treated to brilliant sunshine which emerged after the storm. [Photos from the rehearsal and dinner]

Our wedding day dawned with beautiful blue skies and last-minute preparations began soon after. Stace, Jen, Anil and I spent the morning at the Usonian Inn being beautified (well, not Anil, although he did get a pedicure with Jen and me a few days beforehand!) We all arrived early for photos, and then I snuck away to a secret room where I could watch the guests arrive and mingle as they sipped mojitos. From there on, the day was somewhat of a blur, but most importantly we said our vows (with only a few drops of good-luck rain), then ate well, had more fun and funny toasts, laughed hard and danced until well after the stars came out. It was a fantastic, amazing and even magical day for us.

For the play-by-play, you can check out our photo slideshow on Flickr.

Having just flown in from Naples, Florida, yesterday, we’ve been treated to a constant flurry of snow for the last 24 hours. So far… 18″ and counting. A few fun links of life on campus for those of you missing the winter wonderland:

• From the New York Times: Blizzard Paralyzes Much of Midwest, with quotes by my coworker John Lucas.
• Students build giant snowball – the best part of this story is that they’re in the middle of University Avenue – normally a very high-traffic area.
• Traying down the hill off Observatory Drive
• Snowmen on Gilman – Madison city plowers face a conundrum.
• Snowball fight on Bascom Hill with 3,000+ students participating.