how to stop a tree from crying at an engagement party

a little more than a year ago, a tree that overlooks my grandparent’s deck had a limb die so they had to get it cut off. no problems, no issues, everything was good until the day before my uncle dan’s engagement party. it just started weeping (it must love love as much as i do). the afternoon before i arrived to surprise everyone in KCMO, my uncle jon had climbed up an enormous ladder and spray painted it in hopes to stop the sap from dripping all over the deck (i missed this and only heard tall tales of it-pun intended).

then the tree started crying black tears from the spray paint and dripping that all over the deck and if it didn’t stop-it would be dripping all over people’s faces and into their glasses of wine. we cannot have wine ruined. so my very heroic and very brave uncle climbed BACK to the top of a 32 foot ladder to essentially secure a handkerchief to the tree to absorb the tears (sap). here’s the photo story:

secure your tool-belt and have 3 people hold the wobbly ladder still: check

climb up the ladder: don’t look down. stay up there for entirely too long, devise a pulley-system to get different supplies to you and remain calm. your niece will take pictures and then go sweep the garage because it’s too stressful to watch.

he fixed it! it was honestly pretty amazing because i could not have climbed up there to do that and he saved the wine from ending up with a bunch of black sap in it. our hero!

now onto the gorgeous engagement party my grandparents threw for my uncle dan and his fiancee-heidi! oh how i love people in love-yay!

the tables were set beautifully and my nana found little locks to tie around each napkin because heidi started this very cool “love locks” on an old bridge here! read more about when ravery and i “locked our love in” AND they did a video on it here!

it was a lovely evening full of great people and wonderful food! check out just the appetizers table (yes, my favorite hummus is sitting there because my mom went to trader joe’s and got it for me because she’s the best!). people that like smoked salmon would have FREAKED OUT over that fish- people were raving about it and shoving it in their pockets for later (okay, i only saw 1 person). i’m not a fan but i just wanted you salmon lovers to know it was delicious and i’m sorry you weren’t here to eat my portion.

i am also pleased to announce that by no prior planning, my mom, stepdad and i matched almost perfectly. no one got as excited as i did over this for some reason? isn’t my mama pretty (and she’s super smart too!).

i was in charge of cutting 3 pans of brownies that my nana baked.  i embarrassingly mangled the first pan because i didn’t know the trick of wetting your knife in between cutting them. it works wonders and now i get to the eat that butchered pan (some people are saying i did that on purpose-i will neither admit or deny this).

here is a picture of the lovely couple along with my gorgeous cousin jaclyn and myself (i still obviously have a long ways to go until i get that portland pasty skin to turn tan)! congratulations uncle dan and soon-to-be aunt heidi!

unfortunately, my sister had to stay in south carolina and continue with her master’s degree in social work (so proud!) but we did “facetime” with her for about an hour on my nana’s new mini-ipad (my family is so much cooler than me) so that was quite pleasant! it was also extremely amusing to call her dogs’ names and have them look around for the ghost that was doing it. muwahaha. we missed you kendal!

it has been an amazing weekend with lots of laughs, love, tree adventures and food. so thankful for a wonderful family and the ability to travel on a whim (i am still quite proud of myself).

wife lesson: there is truly nothing better than the love of family.

questions:
1) would you climb up a 32 foot wobbly ladder and fix a tree?
2) did you have an engagement party before you got married or are you planning to?
3) do you have siblings and where do they live?