Tampa: Carlos and Christine’s Wedding June 7-10th

On June 9th one of Ben’s best friends, Carlos, got married to his long-time girlfriend, Christine. We absolutely love the Laverdes, and I’ve gotten to know them pretty well, since Carlos came to our wedding and they both flew out to visit us in Utah in 2012.

We got to spend Friday and Saturday in Tampa staying with Ben’s other best friend, Mike. He was awesome and gave us his bed while he slept on the floor. Ben’s group of friends participated in an athletic competition on Saturday, and I got the privilege of judging/officiating it all in the lightning storm. They called it the nineathon (their group of friends calls themselves P9 for some reason). They did pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, swimming, running, biking, benching, tire-flipping, and chain-pulling. They came up with the idea in January, so they would all stay in shape. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, most of them did not do much if any training until the week before.

The groomsmen - Christian, Ben, Carlos, Christine, Mike, Derek, and Ricky who all participated in the Nineathon (in addition to Cox (groomsmen) and Jordan (non-groomsmen) (Jordan would love being labeled as such)

They all seemed to have a really fun time in the pouring rain, and I found myself embarrassed by how proud I was of Ben for getting third. Am I that wife now? The one that cares about her husband's success and actually roots for him? Embarrassing. Don't worry, I later compensated by reminding Ben that he didn't do thatttt well in some of the events. I'm still me.

The groom got first, and in case you’re wondering, no one let him win. He just destroyed. They ended up announcing the standings at the wedding as they introduced the groomsmen and wedding party. Pretty funny that it was 1. Carlos - groom 2. Mike - best man 3. Ben - my man.

Saturday night we drove down to Orlando and stayed in a hotel with all of the wedding party and friends. We shared rooms and split costs and had loads of fun. I got to know many more of Ben’s friends and we made tentative plans for an unrealistic number of them to visit us in Utah.

The wedding was beautiful and so fun. Ben was not the only person choking up during the vows. In fact, I felt like the only person not crying. But there you are. We all love Carlos and Christine.

For their wedding present, Ben and I decided to take pictures of wedding decor that looked liked the letters L-A-V-E-R-D-E. I told a few of our friends our plan, and they randomly came over with suggestions for letters they found. It was really fun, and we all got kind of into it. We are in the process of having these pictures framed and sending them out to Tampa.

On our last day we went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The ambiance was pretty sweet, but it was so crowded! Of course we tried butterbeer and wizarding candy, and enjoyed it overall. I’m glad they’re expanding it, and it gives us an excuse to go back again later.

The only picture of me from the entire trip - admiring Hogwarts.

On the way to the airport, we had some horrible car trouble. The outer layer of the tire ripped off on the highway an hour from Tampa and wires were hanging out of the bottom, we had a flight to catch, and AAA was taking forever. Long story short, Ben ended up taking his grandma’s machete (why she had a machete is another question), cutting the wires, and setting off up to Tampa.

It was a scene out of Home Alone as we sprinted through the airport when we got there. Lucky for us, we still have a perfect record and haven’t missed a flight yet.