Wedding!

The wedding was held on a blustery, chilly day, which felt very Irish. Xandra and Emily got married at an old home (castle?) that has been converted into a hotel, called Ballymaloe. (I just checked. It was indeed a castle, dating from the 1400s.) I officiated, and Pete served as ring bearer, a duty he took very seriously. Lee lasted for five minutes (or less) of the ceremony, which was family only; then Courtlyn escorted her out. Right after the ceremony we had cocktails in the atrium, where we all toasted Xandra and Emily. My toast involved a weighing of who would be better in the apocalypse, the Simonins or the DiSclafani-Smiths; the former won by a mile. We ate dinner in Ballymaloe's famous restaurant after the wedding, and took a mid-meal break to stroll around the famous gardens. The kids departed with Courtlyn before the dinner (they would not have made it through that, or it would have been a very different kind of dinner).

With Olive, Emily's mom

Pete and Hank called Emily's brothers (Nick on the right, Alex on the left) "The Tall Boys" and then they started calling them "The Small Boys."

With Coco

Emily's hairpiece was very old and very delicate; removing it at the end of the night was a team effort.