Pensacola Beach Vacation - Day 5 (The wedding)

Now for the entire reason for the trip...the wedding.  First I want to start with the history of our family and the wedding family because I think it's pretty cool.  I don't technically know how we're related to Dani, or Denise, but we're some kind of distant cousins.  Her grandparents passed away when her mom was very young, so her mom was raised with my grandfather basically as his sister.  I vaguely remember Dani and her boys visiting our family in Paris when we were children, but we lost touch.  Her oldest son is named Ross, which if you know my family you know that everyone in my family is named Ross - my grandfather is Carl Ross, my uncle is Stanford Ross, my cousins are Brian Ross, Steve Ross, Vincent Ross, I was supposed to be Richard Ross if I were going to be a boy - you get the point.  Our families are so connected, yet we went so many years being disconnected.  So two summers ago when my mom's entire family visited Gulf Shores, AL, we realized that Dani and Nelson lived in Gulf Breeze, FL only about an hour away and we called them up.  They came over and spent the day with us and that's all it took.  Throughout the rest of that year, they visited Paris twice and last summer my mom and two aunts and then Emily and Luke all visited them.  So here we are two years later at their son's wedding and they're coming back to Paris in a few months for Emily and Luke's wedding.

Dani and Nelson live in paradise.  I truly mean it.  They live on Pensacola Bay, a place they have termed Palm Point.  From their deck, they can watch dolphins jump.  You can imagine our excitement just getting to visit this paradise, so we took lots and lots of pictures and I'm going to spare you for the most part, but I'm still posting lots and lots of pictures, so bare with me.  This one just shows their sense of humor. 

Here we are waiting for the ceremony to begin.  Don't my boys look handsome?

The groom, Carter, and his groomsmen and brothers, Ross and Brett, arrived by boat.

As did the bride and her father.

Even the Blues Brothers made the party.

More wedding.

More family.

This was Jack's favorite spot - the point at Palm Point in the sand at the edge of the water where he could watch the ducks and boats go by and wave at them.

The liquor tree - how cool is that?  It was a tree stuffed with small liquor bottles tied with ribbon for favors.

Jack spotted the shells and Dani helped him pick out the perfect one.

Here's Jack loving on little brother.  Marshall was such a trooper.  This was a couple of hours past his bedtime and he was still smiling.

This little guy, however, stole the show at the reception.  The band was giving shoutouts to Jack and actually gave him the marracas and called him their percussion section.  I can't wait to see him all dressed up and dancing in his tux at MiMi's wedding!

I guess we could call this the grand finale.  Luke and Dani both love to dance, so they had somewhat of a dance off to Tina Turner's "Rolling on the River".  It was quite a show and they've already promised a rematch in Paris in July.

And here's Dani and Nelson.  Thanks guys for a great time and we promise to return for more fun at Palm Point!