Friday Night: Rehearsal + Dinner

Friday evening began with the wedding rehearsal. All of the key players were there...

even Emily, the flower girl.
She mostly practiced walking back and forth on the kneelers though - instead of up and down the aisle.
Once the rehearsed "I dos" were complete we were off to a dinner, hosted by Mimi and Papa, with a western flair!
Almost Aunt Jackie (hey, this is Friday we are talking about... she was still "almost") got into the western spirit and bought some boots, that you saw above, but our family went with blacks, greys, and purples.
Everett only "kinda" matched his Great Great Aunt Dorothy since they were both in hats!
Emily had the most fun just running around to see everyone,
and looking out the window...

while Everett just sat around.
It was a special night for us too because it was our first time to meet Adam Jr!!

Emily also thought it was a pretty cool night because she received gifts. She was a little overwhelmed at first...
but couldn't resist looking...
at her new princess lunchbox! Hooray!
The tiara was an added bonus...
but the lunchbox REALLY stole her heart.
Eventually, Emily had to explain to everyone that she needed to get home for some beauty rest
(Thursday night had definitely NOT been a night filled with rest) and we were off.
But, we made sure to snag 5 souvenir mugs.
Now, if only I had taken pictures of the centerpieces, you could see some other goodies coming Emily's way! Oh! And, that pink cowgirl hat that Great Great Aunt Dorothy was wearing? Emily's. She gave it to Emily. Emily made out like a BANDIT! I guess her being a "bandit" was our "western" contribution to the night. ;)

A post about Friday night would not be complete without mentioning that Emily, again, was not uber-excited about her dinner but WAS extra excited about dessert. You see, Mimi had told her that there would be chocolate cake for little girls who ate their dinner and NO JOKE while we were sitting at dinner Emily was singing about it. She was singing to the tune of Chuggington - a new Disney show she recently picked up. The intro. song goes... "Chuggington. Chugga, Chugga, Chugga, Chugga, Chuggington!" Well, Emily was sitting there singing, "Chocolate cake. Choco, choco, choco, choco, Chocolate Cake!" Dessert is always on her mind, and sure enough, she inhaled her chocolate cake while watching the *videos at the end of the night.

*It has become a tradition that the NorCal McV families make a video for the marrying couple. The first one was shown at our rehearsal dinner - Paul, after seeing their Christmas videos, mentioned that he would like them to make one for us. Ask and ye shall receive, I guess! Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the latest video, just click on this link. The other video on Friday was a great slideshow that Mimi put together.