Happy Quinceañera!

I thought the mountains looked like watercolors this day.

At the end of the school year, Zeke was asked by his good friend, Natalie if he would be her Chambelan for her upcoming Quinceanera in August. I wasn't totally sure what this entailed, but Zeke said it was kind of a big deal and he needed to commit to a summer of dance practices. He was able to make most of them, which were hours at a time and increased towards the end of the summer. Then came a list of specific clothing and shoe items. Okay...

One of the final rehearsal's was when we were up at Miner's with the family. The dance instructor and Natalie's mom almost drove all the way up to our campsite to get Zeke and then bring him all the way back up afterwards, but decided to cover everything at another, extended practice. Zeke said this was no joke! There were two different dances he had to learn, plus escorting her around and specific places to sit, etiquette and bowing etc.

The day of, he got up early and got all of his stuff together. I ended up only having to buy one dress shirt. It is the exact green of Natalie's dress. Her family approved his dress pants that we already had and he luckily was able to track down some (normal) pant size black jeans that I was real curious to see him in. They wanted him to wear square-toed brown and black cowboy boots (!) and with his size 12 feet, I wasn't sure if we'd find those. (They sent links to purchase, but no way is Zeke a cowboy boot wearing boy, so no way am I buying those.) But when Jon did a neighborhood shout-out, a nice guy in our ward happened to have a pair! He was sooo nice to lend them, and they were approved, thankfully!

Zeke looked so handsome heading out!

Of course Jon and I had to go and check out the dance portion. We were texting Zeke and he was letting us know when the dancing was about to begin so we could duck in and watch. It was all very fancy. They had a red carpet out front with guys standing guard. We had to explain who we were and why we were there and they let us in.

 

Zeke did a real nice job and he said it was really fun! It was so neat for Jon and I to see him dancing away, bowing, leading Natalie around the dance floor, bowing again and helping hold her dress. Everyone was speaking Spanish during the emotional toasting, but Zeke could follow along with his Portuguese and raised his glass and nodded at all the right parts including when they mentioned him. He let us know he probably wouldn't be home until 1 or 2 am because that is how these things go. Natalie's parents were so nice and generous. People kept coming up to us and bringing us chairs, plates of food and drinks. Everyone was so warm and welcoming. I've never felt so white.