The Big Fat Catholic Wedding

We Whomptons were honored to attend John Kindschuh and Cindy Traub's wedding in Indianapolis, IN, last weekend. John and Cindy's social networks are far greater than ours, which meant the wedding was well populated with people Eric and I hadn't seen in years. This was Raina's first wedding and Eric's first Catholic wedding, and both were in for a surprise.

The wedding was in Indy, and we made the drive Saturday morning. We armed ourselves with plenty of books on CD, and we continuously exchanged out Cat in the Hat for Harold's Purple Crayon for Knuffle Bunny, etc., to keep Raina occupied. She's very good at following along with the story and, in many cases, knew when to turn the page before being prompted. Raina also told us numerous stories and read some out loud to us. We captured I Want to Eat a Child, as read by Raina Compton, on video to share.

We intended to arrive an hour or so before the wedding, with plenty of time to check into the hotel, change clothes, freshen up, etc. The timing didn't exactly pan out, and we got rather worried that we weren't going to make the wedding at all. Thankfully we arrived 15 minutes before showtime, changed our clothes in the church parking lot, and dashed inside with Nicholas. Nicholas is a 3.5 feet tall stuffed cat and is now in the honored family of cows. Nicholas did a good job of staying still and being quiet during the ceremony. Raina and Eric didn't fare so well. Raina continuously fidgeted (which was totally expected) and asked to get a drink of water numerous times. Eric and Raina even played hide and seek out in the foyer! But we all were there to witness the union of John and Cindy and to celebrate their future together.

Since we arrived barely on time, we didn't get a chance to do the pre-show schmooze. Suddenly we were swamped with all these friends in the post-wedding time, when our first desire was to ESCAPE and RUN and let Raina be FREE! Raina did not respond well when told she had to sit still and smile for the camera; we bribed her with a promise of swimming to get one picture taken. Finally we were off.

The Whompton clan had a great time swimming. Eric hadn't seen Raina's considerable comfort level in the pool and he was amazed by how happy she was to splash around and swim and jump. We convinced her to try the hot tub -- totally a present for the adults -- and then also convinced her it would be too cold to get back into the pool. Yes, we all did it when we were kids, but I'm a big wimp now and I know better! Later, Raina sat entranced with SpongeBob while the parents quickly suited up and prepared for the reception.

The reception was a great party. We knew lots of folks, many of whom we hadn't seen in a long time, and Raina claimed the dance floor. In fact, Raina started dancing during the official 1st dance, and then during the parent/child dances, and all the dances thereafter. We finally realized she wanted to dance near the spinning globe lights, and she spent a significant part of the evening trying to jump on all the colored lights on the floor. She chased them for a good hour. Then the poor kid tuckered out. Traveling, sitting still, swimming, dancing, staying up late, and no nap: it was time to go.

We crashed hard and sorta slept in the next morning. (The previous occupants of our hotel room left the alarm clock set; that was an unwelcome surprise!) We hung out with Mr. Kearney at breakfast, acquired some new trains, and then we were off for home.

The wedding was a wonderful experience and Raina got to wear a new party dress. A success all around!