Melbourne and the Stobie Wedding

From Adelaide we shot over to Melbourne for a few days to attend a wedding between my cousin Amy and her fiancé Andrew.  We bunked in with the McCabes again – as we did during our stay in Melbourne during our travels last year – but this time both we and the McCabes had a new addition to the family.  Charlie McCabe was born a few weeks after Lilia and we quickly discovered that he is quite a bit more boisterous than Lilia’s used to!  It took her a little while to get comfortable with Charlie’s gleeful squeals of happiness when they were playing together, but before long they were good mates.  I will say that Charlie’s sleep patterns do make us jealous: the little fella sleeps from 7:00PM to 7:00AM most nights without a peep!

It was also fun to catch up with Matt and Anna over dinner at the McCabes’ one evening.  We all demolished quite a few Boags and three beer-can chickens, a fun night…  Jarrod took Friday off work and we went to the local pool with him and Charlie for a swim, topping it off with a Bogan Burger at the Napier Hotel in Fitzroy with Matt during his lunch break from the hospital.  The Bogan Burger is a little bit of a ridiculous meal, although it was definitely very tasty: damper roll encasing a porterhouse steak, chicken breast schnitzel, fried egg, beetroot, bacon, cheese, tomato rocket, aioli and a potato cake.  Really gives a new meaning to “a burger with the lot!”  Jarrod and I put ours to shame, Matty definitely battled with his.  All we could do after all that food was spend the afternoon on the couch watching the test match between New Zealand and Australia.

We spent Thursday touring around eastern Melbourne, visiting Bronte and Will Kennare and also my cousins in Ashburton as they were preparing for the wedding on Saturday.  Will Kennare is a couple of months younger than Lilia, he was quite enamored with a new baby to play with and happy to just sit on his mat and watch Lilia take control of all his toys.  My cousins, aunt and uncle were all pedal to the metal getting ready for the wedding on Saturday, but it was fun to quickly say hello to them all and introduce Lilia to everyone (except Margot who already met Lilia on a visit to San Francisco earlier this year).

The wedding was held on Saturday at Saint John’s Anglican Church in Toorak, Amy and Andy couldn’t have ordered better weather for the ceremony.  Mum and Steve flew in from Adelaide a few hours before the ceremony and we all rendezvoused out the front of the church.  It was a beautiful ceremony, Amy looked lovely as did her sisters accompanying her as bridesmaids.  After the ceremony we quickly rushed back to Clifton Hill to give Lilia some dinner and left her sleeping with the McCabes (thanks again guys!), then returned to the reception at the Royal Botanic Gardens.  A fantastic location but unfortunately we got rained out of the gardens and had to seek refuge inside right in the middle of Cathy’s speech!  Regardless, it was a very fun evening and Andy’s speech was especially memorable, so glad we could be there to partake in the event.  Looking over the photos now though, I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of Cathy in her lovely dress.