Wedding Time for Noah and Katie!!

Saturday 28th November: the wedding! Katie look gorgeous, as you can see. Here she is with Jennifer, one of the College Church's wedding coordinators, on the morning of the wedding. The service was at Noon, and all the photos were taken beforehand. It turned out to be a somewhat mild day (for late November) and the sun was out, so they even took some photos outside.

Hmm... what is everyone thinking here? A brief pause before another round of photos. A Gieser family shot (sorry, it was taken from the side so Mom is not quite in view) - we've grown from 7 to 10 this year! A moment of rest after the ceremony and before the reception. Noah thoughtfully gazes at his goofy new bride. The father of cousin Ruth has this 1920s vehicle (sorry don't remember the specifics) which he kindly offered to the newlyweds as the getaway car (and then served as their chauffeur). Can you see them in the rumble seat at the back? So classy.

*thanks to cousin Melanie for these photos*

More Wedding Prep

Four Elam family siblings (center) and two in-laws (outside) were able to be together for this wedding - this is Mom Mary's siblings. She is pictured here with her three older brothers. In fact the 5th sibling (sister) was also in town for the wedding but not around for this photo.

On Friday, the day of the rehearsal and set-up work day, the bride and bridesmaids took a break to have coffee and get manicures. What fun! There were 8 bridesmaids, 4 family (3 cousins and 1 sister in-law, that's me) and 4 long-time friends. Here is Katie with 6 of her bridesmaids: me, Rebecca, Jess, Katie, Sarah, Melanie and Kathy.

After the Rehearsal Dinner, the women of the bridal party went out to a 'chocolate cafe' for hot chocolate. To help calm the nerves? It was a lovely time. Melanie (matron of honour) made sure Katie looked particularly cute, which amused us (that's Jess next to Katie).

The following morning, the day of the wedding, Tiffany did Katie's make-up.

Meanwhile downstairs in the kitchen the two brothers took care of the twins. Avery, what are you trying to tell your Dad?

Pre-Wedding and Thanksgiving family time

Yes, Noah and Katie's Wedding finally happened!!! We spent a GREAT 6 days up in Wheaton for Thanksgiving and the wedding. What a special time to all be in the same house for those days and to get to meet the new twin nieces (only 2 months old) - even with so much happening we did get quality time together.

Doesn't the soon-to-be-married couple look excited?! This was taken the day before Thanksgiving and three days before the wedding, which was also Noah's Birthday!

Aunt Katie holding Bella (Isabella). This was taken right after our Gieser Family and Friends Holiday Run (Thanksgiving Day at 8 AM). Sorry no photos of that cold morning run/walk. Got to be prepared for the Thanksgiving meal.

The new dad with Avery (you can see that she has a bit more hair than Bella, but is a bit smaller). What sweeties! They were so cooperative and happy every day, their first big trip away from home. The new mom and and dad were pretty amazing, too.

The son in-law (almost) teaching his father in-law how to tie a bow tie, which is what all the men in the bridal party wore at the wedding, and which Noah is quite 'famous' for wearing (preferring over ties). Patience, Dad. It takes years to perfect!

And here are some shots from the Friday work day at the church (sanctuary and reception hall), setting up for the wedding. Auntie Pat and her daughter Susie (on the left) created beautiful and amazing decorations using grapevines, tulle, ribbon, fresh flowers and greenery.

Uncle John and Uncle Chuck (yes there is an Uncle Chuck on both sides of the family, and both have cool eyebrows) worked tirelessly! Here they are about to drape some muslin in the reception hall.

And cousin Ellen did a superb, meticulous job setting out the place cards (escort cards), which were attached to the favor, a Cookie Cookbook with 60+ family cookie recipes.

Go, Mom! The decorations are done. Now for a final vacuum job. Then quick off to change before the rehearsal dinner.

No job is complete without duct tape (I guess). Although I'm not sure where he used it. Doesn't that doorway look nice! One day to go, Katie!

An Indy Outing and the NCAA Hall of Champions

More explorations of the area... this time up to Indianapolis (downtown is approx 1 1/2 hr drive from Bloomington), the capitol of Indiana. The capital building is very impressive, and the surrounding downtown area has some nice public parks, museums, monuments and fountains. We had a nice time walking around - even the weather was agreeable. (We've been pleasantly surprised at how mild the weather has been so far.) Here's the front entrance to the capital building, built 1888. Next time we'll try to make it in time to get an interior tour.


And here's the south entrance, with a nice statue of George Washington.

And a close-up on the south facade - can you tell that these statues are pioneers and native Americans? Cool, huh? (Katie, what's the architectural term for this 'platform' or shelf?)

After walking around the capital area, we walked over to the canal, where the NCAA Hall of Champions is located! They have exhibits and information on all 23 college sport teams (men's and women's). Plus we read up on the history of the NCAA (partly initiated thanks to Teddy Roosevelt) and learned how long the various sports have had national tournaments. Surprisingly, most women's teams have only had tournaments since the early 80's (and some even within the last 10 years). Naturally we paid particularly attention to the exhibit on women's soccer.

The 2nd floor of the museum is dedicated to letting visitors get more "involved" with the sports equipment - now that we liked! There was a small basketball court where we could shoot some shots from various spots on the floor where last-second shots were made to win the national tournament (like Michael Jordan's in '82 and Christian Laettner's in '92). There was a TV with video replay of important calls made by referees, which we could vote on and then see if we had made the correct call. And there was lots of equipment that we could touch and try out, as you can see...


Of course, since we were the ONLY visitors in the museum at the time, we felt particularly bold and had fun trying out all the equipment. So, family, if you want to visit and see this museum, we'll go again on a Sunday afternoon when it's quiet and you can do all the re-enactments you like.

A Hoosier Football Game

"What are you doing on Saturday? Do you want free tickets to the football game?" asked Teresa. "YES!!" I replied, somewhat disbelieving. Free tickets? When does that happen? We have gotten to know Bill and Teresa Welch through a friend of Katie and Kyle's, and they have been very welcoming to us these first months. As it turned out, they had some friends attending the game who had 2 extra tickets (which happened to be "one adult" and "one student")! Jim had been hoping to get to a game this fall but our schedule has been busy and the tickets are expensive, so we hadn't attempted it yet. But thanks to these friends we got to go!!

On Saturday 7th November we had breakfast with the Welchs and their friends, and then headed over to the stadium. The game was set for noon and we arrived at 10 AM, and already lots of community people and students were set up for tailgates in the parking lots, cooking their breakfast/brunch and just enjoying the atmosphere. Kids were running around wearing jerseys and playing catch, radio stations were blasting music at their stands, and the sun was bright and warm. We were so early that we got to watch the Marching Hundred (college band) practice and then we wandered around the stadium. Since this was the first "big college" football game that either of us had attended, we were amazed at all the festivities.


As you can see, LOTS of fans wore red. Jim followed suit but oops, I forgot.

Just before the game began, the band marched out onto the field and performed some pep songs and formations - SO AMAZING!!! (I think this pre-game and their halftime performance was probably the highlight of the event.) Can you tell what letters they have formed here??

Then some fireworks were set off and the team ran on to the field, through the band's formation.

Actually by the time the game started, the stadium (which is huge) was more full than what you see in these photos. I guess at this point people were still getting to their seats and buying popcorn and hotdogs at the concession stands.

We had great seats, towards the top of the stadium and close to midfield. We tried our best to follow along with the pep songs and shout out "Go IU!" at appropriate moments. And hey, we wore our IU hats! (which we got free at a men's soccer game earlier this semester) Unfortunately the Hoosiers lost the game by 3 points to Wisconsin, 31-28. (They are currently 4-7.) They had a chance at the end of the game to convert on a 3rd down and score but didn't complete it. Oh well. (That's IU football for you.) It was a fun day though!! We are feeling more like official Bloomington residents.