Shinneyboo Creek Part II

The wedding wasn't until 2pm, so we had plenty of time to dither around beforehand. Part of that dithering consisted of taking a different trail to another part of the river. It was really fun hiking around with the entire wedding party. Zorah was barefoot again, and I wanted to take pictures, so for us it was more of a game of catch up for a while.

We all stopped here for a while. Zorah, Brian, and Ian climbed onto the rocks in the river, and we cooled or feet off in the icy waters.

On the way back to the cabins, Zorah somehow managed to get some pretty good scratches on her feet. Together, they looked like a claw mark. She refused to be picked up or carried, no matter who asked (and there were plenty of offers). Only when we got to the end of the trail did she let me piggyback her to the cabin to get cleaned up. A little water and a little lavender oil, and she was ready to go. I am hoping that she has figured out that she should wear shoes on a hike, but fear that she will rather believe that she needs to toughen her feet up more.

We got dressed and headed to the main house before making our way to the venue for the ceremony, a grassy clearing at the top of a hill. I managed to take this picture of Zorah with her flower basket, arranged by her and her grandmother, before the battery died in my camera.

My spares didn't work either, though I could have sworn that I charged them the night before. So no more wedding photos. Sorry.

The ceremony started off really well. I can't really say how it went after the first few minutes though, because shortly after it started the little flower girl got a bloody nose (epistaxis). In dramatic fashion it dripped down her dress in large splotches, but she calmly came over to me and quietly told me so as not to interrupt the proceedings. Luckily Joan had a napkin.

It took a while to stop the bleeding because Zorah was so anxious to stand up by the bride and groom. She wouldn't hold still long enough for it to clot. She was upset for a long whlie after, and even refused to be in the wedding photos. I let her have what seemed like 15 minutes of sulk time then made her go back to the cabin so I could wash out the stains.

Thank heavens for polyester! It washed out right along with her sorrows, and we were able to rejoin the festivities.

That's not really true. Her sorrows were not washed away. Zorah was embarrassed and wished she had never been asked to be a flower girl; she missed most of the ceremony and interrupted it to boot (in her mind). Every time someone told her she did an awesome job, it really upset her because she missed most of the ceremony and interrupted it. I wish I colud have thought of something to say to make her feel better about it, but I couldn't. So I just told her I loved her. I think I may have said I was proud of her for being so calm.