A Surprise Wedding

Saturday we attended a surprise wedding. Our friend Jerry wanted to do something romantic for his wife to celebrate their 20th anniversary. He is a self described "unromantic". When he first told us about his plan I was somewhat skeptical about pulling it off and wondered what his wife' reaction would be.

He and his wife, Kellie, had planned a week long cruise to the Mexican Riviera as a celebration. Jerry suggested that they have a backyard BBQ before they left to celebrate with their friends. Kellie took the idea and ran with it. She planned invitations and decorations on a cruise theme. We all ended up getting two invitations - one from Jerry for the wedding ceremony/BBQ and one from Kellie for the anniversary party/BBQ. Kellie is one of my wife's best friends, so she kept Jerry informed on what Kellie had planned. Jerry had lined up our pastor to show up at 1:00. Kellie wanted to have the party at 3:00. After some emails back and forth to Jerry, they somehow convince Kellie to start the party earlier. Still the two invitations were an hour off. Kellie had lined up tables and chairs for the expected 90 guests. She did the lion's share of the planning for the BBQ not realizing what Jerry had going on behind the scenes.

Yesterday, Kellie couldn't figure out why people were showing up early. She also couldn't figure out why Jerry kept putting off firing up the bbq's. Right on cue the pastor showed up. Somehow they got Kellie to the door and at first she couldn't quite figure out what was going on. While Jerry proposed and Kellie got her head around the idea of what going on, some of us rearranged the backyard by moving all the tables and setting up the chairs like a chapel. Their son seated Kellie's mother and then cued up the wedding march. He stood as the best man and their daughters stood as brides maids. A neighbor had made a bouquet of flowers for her to carry. Jerry even surprised her with new matching wedding bands. Kellie was shocked and Jerry was proud for having pulled it off. It was really a personal ceremony. It was all very casual but the memories will live on forever. Twenty years ago they had eloped to Las Vegas under much different circumstances. This day was the wedding they had wanted but didn't have then.

On another cool note, this morning I opened up the newspaper to find Jarod Behee on the front cover. He and his family are also on the cover of USA Weekend magazine that comes in Sunday paper. His daughter's preschool teacher, Jennifer Vogel, had organized car washes to raise money on their behalf as part of Make a Difference Day. Jennifer was chosen as a winner of the contest and received one of ten $10,000 awards. I had written about Jarod a couple of weekends ago.

On the running front, this weekend was a low mileage weekend. While it was nice to have the lower mileage in anticipation of ramping up to the first of three 20+ milers before SEAFAIR, it seemed strange to be done so soon. Saturday I ran Robert's Loop. This route is just out my front door and is named for a friend who is one of the people who convinced me that I could run a marathon. This loop goes by his house as well and is a loop he used often when he trained for the Los Angeles marathon in 2002 and 2005. The 6.5 mile loop includes a quarter mile plus uphill and the horse trail in Via Verde that I frequent. Sunday morning I went to Bonelli again and ran the 5 mile trail loop on the south side of the park with a slight half mile detour to the facilities. When I first jumped on the trail I came upon signs for a mountain bike race. Cars were entering the park with bikes loaded up. I ran between 8 and 9 in the morning and expected at any minute to be overtaken by a pack of bikers, but never was. I'm not sure when the race was actually going to get started but it is going to be a nice day for a ride, overcast and not too hot.

Miles for week: 34