Large Family

Luckily, the title of this post is in response to the number of people in our family, not the size of the individuals in our family.

We got back last night after spending a wonderful weekend with ALL of the Murray’s up in NJ. Joe’s youngest sister, Trish, tied the knot. If you have never been to a Murray wedding, you only need to know that they are legendary! If you attended our wedding, then you were able to experience just a small piece of how legendary these weddings are. The Murray’s know how to dance and they are not afraid to spend much of the reception on the dance floor showing everyone else how it’s done. I won’t mention which sister (but it’s the oldest of the Murray’s) who attended the wedding of a friend and a stranger pulled her aside and told her that she was the best dancer he had ever seen. Yeah, that’s how the Murray’s roll!

Trish’s wedding was beautiful! They got married in a pavilion on the beach, and the reception was just down the boardwalk. Trish looked AMAZING and Phil was very handsome! The biggest news of the ceremony…Joe gave the homily. Trish and Phil wanted a very personal wedding so they asked Joe to speak at their ceremony. Of course he’s not legally allowed to actually marry them, but he did share a few words and welcome them into married life. I was so proud of him and how well he did. The best part was at the end when he gave Trish a basketball signed by the entire Murray clan. Trish, being the awesome basketball player she is, took the ball and spun it on her finger.

Ella, along with all of her other cousins, was a flower girl (if I am counting right there were 8 flower girls and 4 ring bearers...the oldest niece was a jr. bridesmaid). Ella was a bit sad that the dress was an “up” dress (showed her legs) and not a “down” dress (goes all the way to her feet) like princesses wear, but as soon as she saw that she matched all of her cousins she was completely fine. She danced her little behind off during the entire reception. She couldn’t wiggle her bottom or stomp her feet fast enough. At one point Joe picked her up and she got mad and told him, “Put me down!” She wanted to dance on her own. Ella was right in the middle of all the dancing. She sure has learned a lot from Dancing with the Stars.

I can’t write this post without mentioning the cake…actually, cupcakes. All of the food was incredible, and I was more than happy to partake in the leftovers that made their way back to the house. But the cupcakes…oh, the cupcakes. I’m a cake girl, and most people know that strawberry is my absolute favorite cake. As a child my mom made me a “Strawberry Shortcake cake” for nearly every birthday (and no, it wasn’t strawberry shortcake…it was a strawberry cake but I called it strawberry shortcake cake because it reminded me of THE Strawberry Shortcake…as in the doll). In fact, our wedding cake was strawberry. So you can imagine my excitement when there were strawberry cupcakes. I ate two…don’t judge. I also brought 3 home…don’t judge.

By the time evening rolled around, we were completely and utterly exhausted. We went back to the house where a majority of the family was staying, and we sat around. This was our main time to catch up with everyone, so we wanted to socialize. Ella, who had just downed 3 pieces of pizza and 2 York peppermint patties, fell asleep in the middle of the living room floor.

The next morning we joined everyone again for breakfast, then headed home. The whole time we were there Ella kept talking about how much she loved her “large family” and how she wanted to go see them again. When we were away at the house where we were staying, Ella would ask when we were going to see her large family. And when we left she was very sad to say goodbye to her large family. We assured her we would see them all again as soon as we could.