Wedding Day in Vegas

I'm in Las Vegas. I got here on Saturday. I'm exhausted, exhausted, exhausted but I'm SO excited because my little brother is getting married today.

He didn't think I would be here. Neither did I. You see, although my brother has been engaged for about a year, he and his fiance settled on their wedding date only a couple of months ago. They settled on their wedding date after we'd already planned and paid for a 3wk trip to the states for Devon's wedding- a trip that had us leaving the states on April 9th. When Jason told me his wedding would be scheduled for May 25th, I didn't know how we could make it work. Marcus wouldn't be able to take time off from work again, because of that space-A (free military) flights wouldn't be an option, and putting Charlie and Sierra on a plane to go to the other side of the world again would be h-e-l-l for them. I just didn't see how we could do it.

Now I know people who aren't close to their siblings and being at big events is no big deal. But my family is beyond close. In fact I don't know anyone whose family is closer than mine. My brothers and I have a permanent bond and a closeness that people notice immediately and it killed me that I wouldn't be here. In one conversation my brother and I had, I found myself saying, Maybe you could skype me in!!! Lame I know, but that was the only way I felt I could be there and see it happen in real time. Anyway the whole thing sucked! Everyone knew that it wasn't right that I would miss this... I couldn't NOT be there... we had to make it work somehow!

So, at 11:50am on Saturday I got on a plane in Okinawa and after a connection in Tokyo and another in San Fransisco, I arrived in Las Vegas. It took 16hrs and 40mins but I made it. I gave my family an awesome surprise and, more importantly, I was able to give my little brother the best wedding present I could give him, me... those are his words btw :).

I'll post pictures soon!



ps- this is slightly off topic but I have to add that I have the best husband ever!!! Not only did he squeeze out an extra 3days to take off from work so I could be here, but he is doing a great job being a single dad while I'm away. If you know him, send him a message on facebook and tell him what a good job he's doing!