LAPC #183 – Memorable Events
The theme for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week is Memorable Events. Ann-Christine invites us to show some memorable events – new ones or delightful memories!
Our family trip to Hong Kong and Japan in January 2019 was full of memorable events and emotions. My husband Lynton, my daughter Mercy and her husband Will, their daughter Autumn, and I traveled to Hong Kong to attend my nephew’s wedding. We took advantage to stop by Japan on our return trip.
We arrived on January 12. Three days later, I got a message from sister #12 Yolanda, mother-in-law to be. She said sister #8 Canty was in the hospital. Later that day, Canty’s son messaged me that his mom had liver inflammation, hydrocephalus, and congestive heart failure. On the 17th, the third day of being in the hospital, Canty’s condition made a sharp decline at noon. The family was rushing to the hospital by taxi. She died in the evening with the family by her side.
Canty was passionate about Ballroom Dancing. She took part in the Dance Championship Fundraising on November 4, 2018, two and a half months before she passed away. Here is the video – 1:42 minutes. She wore purple and yellow.
My nephew’s wedding was a marathon ceremony. They played Chinese traditional games when the groom picked up the bride in the morning. The bridesmaids made up the games and the groom and best men responded. When the games had favorable responses, they opened the door for the groom to pick up the bride. There was a church wedding in the afternoon. After the wedding, we went to a restaurant for a cake ceremony in the garden. We took a break to wait for a nine-course Chinese banquet in the evening. The bride and mother-in-law (my sister) changed their gowns four times during the banquet.
Here is the wedding photo gallery.
Two days after the wedding, we were in Tokyo for four days visiting Mercy’s and Will’s college friends. Both husband and wife were engineers there on a five-year contract. We took the bus sightseeing.
Tokyo’s Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples are some of the most interesting sites in the city. We stopped by several.
We went to the top of Arashiyama to visit the Monkey Park.
In the Reindeer Park in Nara, Japan, the reindeer are used to the visitors. They were persistent in asking for food.
There were about 1,500 deer living in the park in July 2017. Wild Sika deer freely roam in Nara Park. This deer bowed to us asking for food.
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The Showers of Blessings 
A beautiful post, Miriam. The wedding was lovely and looked like a lot of fun. So sorry for the loss of your sister!
dwight
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Thank you for sharing this, Miriam. It was indeed a memorable trip for you. I enjoyed the ballroom dancing and love the dresses. The bride’s wedding dress was absolutely amazing.
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I love ALL of these memorable photos, but I must admit (romantic that I am) I loved the wedding photos the most. 🙂 What a gorgeous ceremony. What an amazing trip that was for you!
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The wedding was an exciting and beautiful event, Pam. Thank you for your comment. My niece from the same family was married in 2020. We couldn’t go because of the pandemic. My sister had a hard time doing the planning because of the limit of the seating in the church as well as the restaurant. She had some friends willing to “stand by” in case they could go or not go! 🙂
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That must have been the trip of a lifetime! My daughter lived in Japan briefly, and we have a photo of her being accosted by deer in the street looking for food.
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Oh, how lovely, Liz. She must lived in Nara. That’s the only deer town I’m aware of.
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I’m sure she must have told me, but I’ve forgotten. It was a number of years ago now!
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I’m sure she did, Liz. It was a great experience for her!
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the deer were so cute at the ending –
I think I remember you sharing abut Canty’s ballroom dancing a while back – and enjoyed the video – the dresses are so beautiful and they were all so poised
also, the wedding sure sounds memorable with the fun marathon activities- ha – and changing the dress four times? wow – must be tiring (and expensive) but worth it – 🙂
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It was a memorable trip for sure, Yvette. I went on my sister’s Facebook page to download many of her photos and videos. She video taped Tai Chi also. I don’t know how people can remember the Tai Chi sequence.
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wow – that is wonderful to have some Tai Chi memorized – I wonder how they recall it all too
When we lived in San Jose, I used to drive by groups of folks doing tai chi on front lawns and it always looked so wonderful. I tried doing it with a video about 18 years ago and could imagine how – with time – the motions take on a natural ebb and flow –
🙂
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I tried to learn some sets also, but didn’t stick with them long enough to remember them. I think it’s like yoga, the sets are repeated. I think they turn to different directions and repeat the sets. 🙂
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🙂 oh that sounds interesting – and it truly is perhaps the most “graceful” form of exercise I have seen.
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Sorry for your loss, Miriam.
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Thank you, Mark. My sister lived a fun life.
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Lovely memories here, Miriam. And that many reindeer in one place would be special.
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I was glad to find out about that before the trip, Sandy.
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What wonderful memories of your trip Miriam! I loved the pictures and the beautiful arches of flowers and all of the animals faces. How fun to have a wedding extravaganza! 💖👏👏
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The trip was memorable and the wedding was beautiful, Cindy! The wedding is an occasion to see many family members all at once. I’m glad we got some sightseeing in Tokyo. Thank you for your comment.
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Oh yes it was a great twofer and opportunity! So happy for a joyful occasion you shared with loved ones❤️🥰
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Thank you, Cindy. ❤
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Indeed! ❤️
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I’m sorry for the loss of your sister, Miriam. She looks lovely in her ballgown. Chinese weddings are so much fun! I went to one (my aunt’s) and she changed five times from the start of the ceremony to the dinner- they took over a Chinese restaurant for the evening and had shark fin soup as an appetizer!
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My sister started dancing when she was young. At her age, she got a young dancing partner. Yes, Chinese weddings are fun. You must have had a great time, Jacquie! I think my sister changed five times. I didn’t count the one she wore during the day. I wonder if she wore the same dresses for my niece’s wedding. Shark fin soup is expensive, considering killing the sharks just to have the fins!
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Yeah, I don’t think they do that quite so much anymore- this was years ago. Another strange one for me was fish cheeks. Even the kids wanted that delicacy (I shiver thinking about it, lol)
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I loved shark fin soup in my younger years. Watching the documentary about killing the sharks, cut the fins, and dump them back to the ocean to let them die shocked me. I think the restaurants these days use something resembles the soup.
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Condolences. Beautiful wedding. Autumn is a treasure!
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Thank you so much, John!
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Canty’s dress is beautiful and she looks so happy and fluid. I’m sorry for your loss.
I love seeing your sweet family.
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Thank you, Chelsea. I’m glad my sister enjoyed herself to the end. She was a better dancer than many young people. Her dancing partner was pretty young.
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You have a beautiful family, Miriam! I’m so sorry for the loss of Canty…she sounds like a treasure. I enjoy watching ballroom dancing on TV 🙂
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Balloon dance is so graceful, Zelda! My sister had done videos of dancing on a larger dance floor, but this one has more close up on her. Than you so much for your comment. 😊
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My pleasure ❤
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It sounds like a wonderful time! …love the little deer at the end 😊
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It was a wonderful trip, Lisa. Thank you for watching the videos. 😊
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A wonderful post, Miriam! A reminder to me of how life evolves with times of happiness and times of grieving. A memorable tribute to the power of families to love, to forge deeper ties and connections with weddings as well as drawing strength when the time comes to be present when a loved one moves on to their next journey. Sending hugs!
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You’re right, Rebecca. We are together for better or for worse. We share our joy and sorrow and be there for each other even though the events were back to back. I was grateful for God’s mercy and timing to take my sister home and gave us one day of rest before the wedding. Her heart was beating artificially and the doctor had to wait for it to stop close to midnight before pronounced her dead.
Thank you for your kind comment, Rebecca!
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What wonderful memories, Miriam. The ballroom dancing really took me back. Your sister Canty was beautiful. I’ve attended many events like that–as teacher–so I know exactly what she put into preparing. She did a wonderful performance.
WP dropped my follow of you so I’ve refollowed! Why does it do that??
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Sorry about WordPress dropping you. I just had a lengthy talk with Pete as you see in the comments. Liz follows me every three days!!!! It’s troubling when I don’t know where to begin. I had emailed WP multiple times. The happy engineers just scratched their heads. I also got dropped from following myself. After I made a post, I went to the Reader to see how it showed, but it didn’t show. I went to “Manage” followers, I wasn’t following myself so I had to refollow.
I’m glad my sister Canty enjoyed life and danced to the end. It makes me think of what life is all about.
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My default movement now is to check the lower left corner of my screen when I’m on someone’s blog, see if ‘following’ still shows! Yours does.
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I do the same. I bookmarked many blogs. When I don’t see some for a while, I use them to check. WordPress dropped me from following myself yesterday. It’s annoying. Thank you for checking.
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A beautiful post with both tears and joy – just like life is. The wedding traditions are really interesting, and the garden beautiful – all the flowers! Little Autumn has already experienced a lot in her life. Thank you for sharing this with us! And inviting the whole village once was a tradition in the countryside in Sweden as well.
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It’s interesting that inviting the whole village was a tradition in Sweden. Back in those days, the village is an extended family. People in the village took care of each other. It was a wonderful tradition. It’s so strange that when the new people moved into our neighborhood, they keep their doors closed and don’t say hi.
Thank you for your comment, Ann-Christine!
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Yes, it was a good thing to take care of each other. This is still working in small villages up north, but not much here. And as you say – it’s difficult to get to know new people. In the cities it is even worse – people don’t even know who their neighbours are, when or if they move or not.
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I know, Ann-Christine. When I moved to our current home, we used to have neighborhood watch with everyone’s address and phone number. We talked to each other across the street. A couple families hosted Christmas parties, sending out invitations to everyone, at least on our street. We now only know two families.
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A bit sad, but it’s the same here.
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Hi Miriam. For some reason, I continually have to sign up for your blog. Last time I also signed up for notifications by email, but I don’t think I got more than one before I got dropped. I know it’s just some weird Word Press deal, but it’s curious that it only happens on your blog. Anyway, I didn’t want you to think I’ve been ignoring your blog.
Thank goodness for photos to help us remember our significant events. Last week, I looked through a box of pictures, and the images sparked many memories. The scary part is sometimes I don’t even remember being somewhere even though I’m in the photo. I rarely drink alcohol, so it’s not something like that.
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I appreciate your ongoing support, Pete. Probably Liz follows me every other day. I get dropped from following myself also.
At this point, I don’t know what to do. Do you follow Dan Antion? He did a survey among his followers, or he monitored. He got even more got 40 or 50 dropped. When he checked again, different 15 or 20 got dropped. He asked WordPress. They pretty much said, WP is so big, they have no way to solve problem like that. Not the same word, but that’s them idea. I’ll think about what to do. I noticed that I haven’t seen a few bloggers for a while. They used to comment on my posts all the time. I’m shy to ask. What if they decided not to follow me?
Let me ask Dan what he’s going to do. Some engineer said it’s the developer’s problem. That would be the theme I use. I don’t know if it would help if I change the theme.
I know what you meant about not remembering being at certain places. My husband has better memories of those.
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It had occurred to me that it might be the theme, but it seems like a lot of trouble to switch over unless WordPress can tell you that might be the problem. I’ve seen Dan’s name on some of the same blogs I follow, but I’ve never visited his blog before. Do you know if he uses the same theme as you? I also wonder if it could be that WordPress drops followers when others join after you gain so many followers. I have no idea, so don’t change anything just because of me. I follow quite a few blogs, and occasionally it will occur to me that I haven’t seen one post for some time. Then I go back and check, but otherwise, I just look for notifications in my email.
I understand it’s awkward to ask other bloggers if they stopped following you. I would feel the same way you do. I think it’s far more likely they have either stepped away from blogging for a bit or have gotten busy with other things. Anyway, your blog is great, and you are always so supportive, Miriam. It takes one click to sign up again, so it’s not like a big thing. I hope 2022 is an excellent year for you and your family. I always enjoy the pictures of your grandkids. Our son got engaged over Thanksgiving, and I’m excited about the prospect of having one or two grandchildren down the road.
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Jacqui just said that she got dropped from following me. When I comment on some blogs, I don’t see their replies. I went over again, they actually replied. It’s so strange. Changing to another theme is the last thing I want to do because it takes a lot of work to customize it to the way I want it. But this theme is not perfectly what I wanted from the beginning. My original theme retired and didn’t support some of the features so I had to find another theme.
I just canceled my February trip to see the grandkids. The cases on the west coast are still surging. We’re healthy and safe at home. The kids are doing okay. I don’t want to catch anything floating in the air during our travel. We’ll go to Autumn’s birthday in March!
I know you’re excited about your son’s engagement. Do you know if they’ll get married this year? You may have grandkids very soon. During the restricted travel, the most question asked was “when can I go to see my grandkids?” There’s a special joy about being grandparents!
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They’re not getting married until June of 2023, and they’ve chosen an outdoor venue that won’t be available until then.
I wouldn’t change themes, Miriam. I’ll just do a better job of paying attention.
Our Covid cases are at an all-time high right now. It just keeps going on and on. Besides the obvious physical concerns, I feel the endless mental and emotional challenge hard.
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I think it’s wise to choose an outdoor venue. My husband’s niece got married in DC back in 2020. His sister had such a hard time deciding whom to invite because of all the seating restrictions.
I spent half a day searching for themes. It’s a daunting task. WordPress is not friendly another more and has about 20% of the themes available as it did five or seven years ago. Even though I have a premium plan and it seems I could download the themes from somewhere, I would know if that’s what I want until I customize it. They have web design services charging from $2,000 and up. Most bloggers don’t change themes because it’s not fun doing it.
Our neighbor girl got Covid from her class, all 20 kids got it. 😦 She has to stay home for 12 days. When we go shopping, we just dart in and out quickly.
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Endless Covid. Our cases are at an all-time high this week. I wouldn’t worry about changing your theme. You don’t even know that’s the reason. I’ll just check back each week.
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What a trip, Miriam. I can see that you have a lot of meaningful memories. I love the photos and the video of the dance, wow. A marathon wedding made me laugh, and Autumn is just adorable. The family photo is the best. Thanks for sharing your trip!
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It was the ups and downs of the emotions that made that trip memorable, Diana! My sister posted several of her dancing and Tai Chi performances on Facebook. I downloaded them for keepsake. I have gone back to see my family since that trip. Just have to wait.
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I hope you get there again soon, Miriam. If covid ever ends. We flew yesterday and wore masks and face shields. But the flight was full… so we’ll see. 🙂
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Good to hear you flew yesterday, Diana. Life goes on. The Olympics will start in a week. It has so little news about it.
I booked the March trip. The flights are full also. The direct flights are $500 a piece in the main cabin. I got some seats for one-stop flights. 😊
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that looks like quite a trip. Love the ballroom dancing. sad to think she passed away shortly afterward. I also like the description of the Chinese wedding traditions…
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Yes, Jim, it’s literally “life is short.” So sad that she died young. She worked so hard all her life, just started to enjoy life when the sons are grown and married. In Chinese culture, the groom’s side pays for the major expenses for the wedding. The guys save a lot for the wedding and hopefully, parents could help.
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how nice that she got to see her sons grown up and married. it’s funny that the paying for a wedding is the opposite in the U.S….
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It’s fun to learn about different traditions. When my daughter got married, I gave her a reasonable budget for the wedding. She now has two daughters. Haha, she’ll pay for two weddings!
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I hope your daughter has started saving!
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Well, college first! 😄
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seems like a good priority 🙂
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I think so. 😊
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Beautiful photos with memories and video. I remember you going on this trip. Sorry for your loss.
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Thank you so much for your comment, Denise! Yes, we’ve followed each other for quite a few years. This is a great supporting community!
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These are lovely pictures, Miriam, and beautiful memories.
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I can’t believe it has been three years, Robbie. Thank you for your comment.
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I was thinking the same thing, Miriam.
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Time flies, Robbie. Her Facebook page is still there and I downloaded many of her photos and videos to remember her.
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I am glad you have done that, Miriam. I had a photographic session with my father recently. You just never know what the future holds.
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My professor who was my dessertation chair had pancreatic cancer. He lasted for five months. He did the family portraits when he still has the energy. I still have his family photos.
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Hi Miriam, I have heard that pancreatic cancer is very bad. I am so sorry to read this but I’m glad you have his photos.
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Lovely memories and beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing Miriam.
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Thank you for reading, Balroop. I appreciate your comment.
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Wonderful, Miram! Thanks for sharing…
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Thank you very much for reading and commenting, Bette!
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So beautiful photos. Beautiful weeding picture & video. I like. What a lovely trip. Nice share weeding celebration. Iam sorry for the loos your sister.🙏
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The wedding was beautiful, Rajkkhoja! We had a lovely trip. Thank you for your comment! 🙂
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Lots of tears on this day. The wedding was beautiful, and I live the traditions, so different. The colors of the wedding were so elegant. The photo I loved the most was the most all to the cake garden.
A memorable event indeed. Donna
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Parting is never easy. We were only comforted that her two sons were grown and married, one has a young child. The wedding tradition is beautiful and colorful. In the old days, people invited the whole village to come. My younger brother’s mother-in-law wanted to do that. He said he didn’t have to money to pay for the banquet for the whole village. He postponed the marriage for years until she compromised. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you for your lovely comment, Donna! ❤
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That would have been fun to have the whole village. Can’t imagine the cost. Beautiful
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I can’t imagine inviting people we hardly know to the wedding.
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What a mix of memories and emotions. So sorry to hear you lost a sister though. Autumn is so cute!!
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We were shocked at how fast my sister fell ill and was gone. We were thankful it didn’t happen the day before the wedding because we stayed until midnight when the doctor pronounced her dead. Thank you for your comment, Darlene! ❤
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I’m sorry about your loss, but what lovely photos of the happy events. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you so much, Staci! I haven’t gone back to visit my family since my nephew’s wedding. We couldn’t go to my niece’s wedding in 2020 because of the pandemic.
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wow!
awesome photos! What a lovely trip!
sorry for the loss of your dear sis though! Xx
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Thank you so much for reading, Carol. I appreciate your comment! ❤
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Miriam, a whirlwind of a trip for you all filled with amazing sights, an array of emotions. The bride and groom look incredibly happy and I’m smiling at the marathon wedding and its customs! Autumn looks as if she is having a wonderful time. The nodding deer is very cute and wow, that is a lot of deer very close by! A lovely challenge and lots of opportunities to revisit the past! Hugs xx ❤️
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Thank you very much for your lovely comment, Annika. The bride and groom must have been so tired by the end of the day, but they were so excited and happy. ❤ Autumn is a wonderful traveler. She had flown ten times before two years old. I was glad to see one blogger's post about Nara before our trip. I haven't heard of such a monitoring effort of wild animals in the US. The photo challenge helps me visit my travel archives. 🙂
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