the rest of the wedding trip

so after 18 hours of driving, alternating between michelle and i every few hours, we made it home and i feel somewhat revived. what you will find below is just a collection of photos from the 2-5th days of the great wedding trip of 2008. we had a great time with tammy...and it was fun to share her big day with her and her family and friends. even with a couple of setbacks along the way (please see 'dented bumper' below....), we survived and had a riotous time doing it! we ate some amazing food...we met some incredible people (thanks for the fun, pat & ann!) and we spent a lot of times laughing and catching up! best of luck, tammy and mitch! and thanks, michelle, for being the best road trip partner EVER! you rule.

our stop on thursday night in saint louis took us to amy and chad larson's house. amy and i are friends from way back in the days of high school speech and debate. this is their son, jack. he is awesome.

jack loves to smile.

i'm trying to imitate jack's smile skill. he's not impressed. it was awesome to catch up with amy!

michelle and jack hit it off well.

our drive from saint louis to kansas city took us through columbia, mo - where we stopped for lunch at buckingham's bbq. how was it?

does THAT answer your quetsion?

OR that? seriously....so gooooooooood.

for jill: i saw this and thought you needed to know and see that they have new wrappers. but same great taste.

i took the picture because of the sign that says MATT! luckily, or unluckily, i also got a picture of michelle's foot.

we made it to kansas city and met tammy and her good friend, tina, at the hotel to head over to the church for rehearsal.

here is michelle, at the dinner, reacting to the gift that tammy gave her.

the joke is revealed...and michelle and tammy share a moment. (evidently, when tammy and michelle lived together, a guy showed up to take michelle on a date once...said he had something for her...and pulled that little stuffed bunny out of his pocket. and since then, the bunny has been traded back and forth between the two.)

tammy and michelle pose with ann, the wife of the best man, pat. and one of the coolest people we met all weekend. this lady is incredible...and we got to spend friday night at the rehearsal and saturday night at the wedding with them.

pat, matt and ann...saying good bye at the rehearsal dinner.

patti showed up saturday morning...and evidently, she brought her own candy.

patti enjoys a krabby patty.

THE WEDDING! michelle, patti and rachel morrissey strike a pose.

i'm not sure what is going on here...but i love this picture. their expressions are hysterical.

michelle, tina and myself, at the end of the ceremony.

rachel, patti and michelle group hug with the new bride...tammy!

and then i decide to get in on the lovin'.

hahaha. another unclear shot...but i love patti's expression.

so what do you do at a wedding reception while you're waiting for the bride and groom to show up? MOTORBOAT, of course!

michelle gives it a shot.

rachel brings home the MOTORBOAT gold medal! genius!

still waiting? move on to the loose-jaw head-shake. patti did.

a couple of times, actually.

rachel has a mean entry here, too.

not the way you want to start 'the morning after'. the morning after the wedding, before we were to head home, we came out to get in michelle's car to head to a brunch, and THIS is what we saw. evidently, our friend, tina, had a bit of trouble with her car, a pole and michelle's bumper. not a fun morning.

we got everything taken care of and then headed to meet tammy's family for a nice brunch. post-brunch, tammy's sister peggy and her family and i do a motorboat attempt.

then her nephew and 2 nieces try their hand at loose-jaw head-shake. pretty impressive.

mitch and tammy...the happy bride and groom...get in on the action.

tammy's newphew, andrew, and his girlfriend, jaqueline and i say good-bye at tammy's apartment.

mitch and the girls share one final good-bye before everyone heads off.....