All the Good People

After going to Fallingwater, I headed to the hotel where I'd be staying for the weekend. I checked in and got settled and then had the pleasure of having dinner with Murf. It was great to catch up and we were joined by Ania and Ken and some of Mark's family for drinks. It was a great way to start the wedding weekend. I hadn't seen Ania and Ken in quite a while and we shared a room at the hotel, so we had some time to catch up there, too.

On Friday morning Ania, Ken and I headed into the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh to have an amazing brunch at Pamela's. It was so rich. I had chocolate chip pancakes stuffed with bananas and whipped cream. It was so delicious. After brunch Ania and Ken headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal, etc... and I had a chance to hang out in Squirrel Hill before heading to the airport to pick up Jerri, Mark and Zoe.

Jerri and Mark hadn't really eaten much, so we headed to Mad Mex for a delicious Mexican meal. And the timing was perfect, it was about 2:30 or so, so we were between lunch and dinner crowds and had the restaurant basically to ourselves. It was nice because Zoe could walk around and we could have a lively conversation and not feel like we were bothering anyone.

Once we got back to the hotel and Jerri and Mark checked in, we got to spend some time playing in the hotel room and hanging out in the lobby waiting for Jerri's mom and brother to arrive. It was such a relaxed and fun afternoon. It felt like old times hanging out in Chicago or Syracuse. Here's a fun photo of me and Zoe.

On Friday night Jerri, Mark and I headed to the Church Brewery to catch up with folks at the rehearsal dinner. It is an awesome brewery in an old church with great food and excellent beer. Needless to say, we had a good time. Ania and I were photo majors together at Syracuse and at points seemed pretty much inseperable. It was great to get to hang out with her again this weekend:

On Saturday morning I left the hotel early to head to the airport and pick up Christa and Kyle. After I scooped them up, we headed back to Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh for a delicious bagel breakfast at the Bagel Factory (voted Pittsburgh's best bagels!). I really enjoyed having some quality time with just Christa and Kyle before everyone got together and things got a little crazy. In fact, driving up to the hotel we had to stop in the parking lot to let Christa out to give Ken and Mark big hugs since they were walking back from getting Starbucks:

A bunch of people were already in the lobby when we got there. Here is a priceless photo of Mark and Ken, the groom and best man:

Later that afternoon a bunch of us headed to Panera for lunch and Ania was determined to figure out how to use the audio recorder on her iPhone for the sole purpose of recording my laugh so that she could use it as her ring tone.

After a few failed attempts they finally succeeded and this is the reaction to playing it back:

I stopped by Christa and Kyle's room at one point and they showed me what they'd been up to. Eating M&Ms and jumping on the bed:

Saturday before the wedding was a great mix of hanging out with old friends both individually and as a group. But we were all there for a reason: to celebrate Mark and Christi's wedding! So we all had to get changed into our party clothes and get to the wedding!