Midnight Wedding Party

So 12+ years ago when Corey was a missionary here in Chile, he taught and baptized Jansi. Jansi was a "golden" investigator, as they say in the Mormon communities. She came to church, she read the Book of Mormon, she believed it was true (...and it is!) She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Now here were are, many years later... what a tender mercy that we just happened to be here in Chile and were able to go to her temple sealing yesterday. It was great. A happy time for Corey to see fruit of his missionary labor.
So now, the story with all the juicy details.... the sealing was in the Santiago Temple at 7:00. Or so we thought. We got there at 6:45 - I was worried we were really late, but the temple workers didn't know who Jansi and Rodrigo were - the schedule on their papers said the sealing was at 7 a.m.! Did we miss it? No, I have the invitation here, it says 19:00. Hmm. Where are they? They went off to investigate. Corey and I waited. Finally they told us that Jansi wasn't there yet. Oh my! She told Corey that they told her to be at the temple at 5:00! Traffic couldn't be that bad, would it? Hmm. Hope everything is okay, but glad we didn't miss it!

So we waited. It was 7:00. We found other people in the temple lobby who were also there for Jansi's sealing. 7:30. We tried to quietly visit while we waited for Jansi to arrive. At 8:00 we saw her come in the door and they whisked her away. 8:30. They take us to the chapel, Corey and I decided if the sealing is running behind, the receptions will be too, and we shouldn't keep the babysitter until 1 a.m. so I'll head home after the reception. Corey leaves with a temple worker because he is going to be one of the witnesses. 9:00. La de dah. 9:12 - they come to bring us into the sealing room. It was lovely. After the sealing, we all give hugs and best wishes to the new couple and then we go outside to wait for them to come.

We said goodbye, Corey got a ride to the reception, took along with his saxophone, and I headed home. I go pick up Joe and Mel and Jane's house (Jane's daughter Jenny was our babysitter, and Joe and Ethan opted to play over there with Josh and Nathan instead of stay home) so I get them so they can watch the little kids while I take Jenny home - I leave them all watching Toy Story 3, I bring Lily and Abi with me, after I drop off Jenny, Corey calls from the reception and says they'd really gone all out and that it was important for us to be there with the kids. He's on his way with a friend so we can follow them back to the reception. It was 11:00 p.m. So I got home, got the kids mad by telling them they gotta turn off the movie and get on their Sunday clothes. We can't find Mel's other shoe. Found it. We're all ready, Corey and his friend arrived and we followed them and thought how this would never be happening in the US - me and all my kids dressed up in the car headed to a reception. But a reason we came was to have the kids experience a different culture, so it was perfect! We got there at midnight.

In the video above they are going around to all the tables and letting people wish their well wishes upon the new couple, and you can hear a cute little kid talking. Jansi and Rodrigo are up on the stage at a banquet table, the rest of us all dining. They had a very nice meal and appetizers, there was music, performers like a ballet dancer and Corey played his saxophone, lots of laughing and of course people staring at all our little blondies. Party-party! The dancing really got going around 1:30 - we told the kids "Well, I think they're about ready to begin now!" But then we caught ear of the rumors going around of the automatic lock down and power outage on the church security system that was set for 2 a.m. So we decided, just to be safe, we would leave the party "early" since we wanted to be out of the building before anything like that accidentally happened. We'll have to ask them later how it went/what we missed. The kids were begging to go to bed, so they didn't complain that we were leaving before they cut the cake.

We were in the car and on our way at 1:52, got home around 2:15. The kids all collapsed on the floor of the elevator, we made them walk a little further over to our apartment room. So we left "early" but still, I hope, long enough to not offend and that Jansi and Rodrigo and their families know we love them. It was fun and crazy and we loved it and it will definitely be a great memory for the kids.
Wesley collapsed on the couch, but was on the floor in the morning. 10 a.m. still sleeping.
10 a.m. - the other kids watching Toy Story 3, except Hyrum who is still dead there. They were so tired at the party, but as we were getting out of the car at 2 a.m. they were asking if they could finish watching Toy Story. No. But feel free to wake up as early as you want and watch it in the morning. Good luck!
Lily still wiped out. Sleep little baby - sleep and don't be in a bad mood when you wake up!

Now it's 12:00 noon and they are all eating breakfast. Except Corey's still in bed. You don't know what a party is till you party with Latinos! They know how to do it. We gringo Americans gotta work ourselves up to try and get at their level. Latinos are pros - Gringos are wimpy wimpy!