Cousin Wedding #4

We made the drive to Utah for another wedding--our 4th one for Daddy-o's nieces and nephews in 16 months, 3rd one in Utah.

The roads were clear, but there was still a lot of snow from the last storms, which was beautiful through the Sierras.

It's a long drive, and we've done it a lot lately. We filled a chunk of the time playing a game with all of Bug's Spotify lists (just because he couldn't be with us didn't mean we didn't get to include him, haha.) I played songs from his different lists and Bean had to guess what the playlist was called. She's the only one familiar enough with his lists to have an idea of what he named them all, but she was pretty good at it. And she and Daddy-o are both excellent at knowing the song name and artist within the first few seconds. It helped the long drive across Nevada go by a little quicker.

And the next day, we got to celebrate the happy couple. They got married in the Provo City Center Temple in the morning, and it was COLD. We're not used to winter like this, but luckily the sun felt good and we didn't have to wait too long for them to come out.

And then we got to move indoors.

They had a family luncheon, and then the reception that night, in the ballroom in the Provo Library, which is a gorgeous building and such a great spot for a celebrations.

So happy for these two!

These two cousins have loved all these weddings. Peanut didn't remember ever going to a wedding until the first one last September, but he's a pro now! 

They get up to all sorts of shenanigans, playing hide and seek in the venues, dancing, eating way too many sweets. It's fun.

We love getting to interact with all of these kids.

They all have so much fun.

And this time, we had a new great-niece to meet! 

The first couple to get married last September now has a sweet little girl in their new family. She's precious and it's really fun to see our extended family expanding with new spouses and kids.

And she has a lot of dotting aunts!

First Cousin Wedding

The first of the kids' cousins got married this week! We're so excited for Connor and his new wife, Tiana!

I only have pics with the grandparents from the groom's side, but they make a beautiful couple!

The wedding and reception were at Soldier Hollow, in Midway UT, which is the resort where the Olympic biathlon took place in 2002. No snow this time of year--just beautiful green hills and pine trees outside, and a fun, new venue for the reception (so new that there was still construction going on in the lower part of the building, but the room upstairs had a fantastic view and was perfect.

It's always fun seeing the kids with cousins. These are three of the oldest in the younger half of the cousins--there's kind of split with no kids for a few years, and the older ones are just about all graduated from high school, so these guys are kind of who's left at home.

Cousin line-up! It's hilarious how these have gone from being a stairstep down from oldest to youngest to a bunch of kids around the same height, with Bug and C towering over everyone else--she's the only one who comes close to his height! We'll see what happens when the younger boys hit their growth spurts.

Brothers--we're glad we were able to be there for this big occasion.

And these kids partied hard!

It was so fun seeing them all out there--and made me feel a little old. For the first few songs, there weren't any people older than maybe 25 out there dancing--new generation has taken over the dance floor and it feels weird to stand on the sideline. (We did get out there for a few songs later on.)

Love watching our kids with their cousins, and love how much fun they have, even if they don't get to see each other often enough.

 

Two-fer

We came to Oregon for a wedding, and ended up getting a bonus one!

Most beautiful event of the weekend:

Aunt C.'s marriage and combining of two families.  The two families did a Unity Sand Ceremony as part of the wedding and it was a beautiful symbolic combination of the families that have now been joined.

 We're so glad we got to come out to celebrate with Aunt C and the kids' cousin, E.  The kids had a blast--Bean especially loves the dancing.


Most bizarre:

The voodoo wedding we witnessed at Voodoo Donuts while we (well, some of  "we") got a sugar rush.  The wedding package includes bride and groom shaped donuts after the witch doctor has pronounced you husband and wife.

Fun donut shop, but pretty blasphemous wedding--it would have been really funny, except it just seemed to be making such a mockery of such a special occasion.

I think that will be a hard sight to top.

Wedding Weekend

 The weekend before Halloween, Daddy-o, Peanut, and I flew out to NM to see this great couple get married.  This is one of Daddy-o's brothers, J (except that doesn't clarify much since he has three brothers with the initial J) and his new wife, K.  And with her in the family, Daddy-o and I both share names with his siblings spouses.  Guess that can happen when you have 9 kids in the family (and really common names).

 The weekend was also a great chance for Peanut to meet a lot of his family--he had a great time with his Aunt E.

 And his Aunt C.

 And these two newest cousins got to spend some time hanging out.  The tongue twins.  They were so cute when we put them down together.

 Peanut spent the entire time trying to eat M's hand which was waving in front of his face.  He just wasn't quite fast enough.  I think these two boys will have a lot of fun at family things as they grow up.

And hopefully not get in as much trouble as these three did growing up.   (They all clean up pretty nice!)

The last of Daddy-o's brothers is married and now we just have one sister left, who just got engaged this week!  Fun family times.

Wedding Day!

Daddy-o's youngest brother got married!

 Some of the cousins.

 The whole family!

 Daddy-o and his siblings,

 The kids were getting a little goofy by this point.

 Uncle J and his family (the kids actually have 3 Uncle J's--this is Daddy-o's brother just older than him.

 Another Uncle J, and his girlfriend.

 Uncle I and his wife--they're having their first baby a couple weeks after we have ours.  Yay for cousins!

It was a great day with lots of family time and celebrating (and lots and lots of sugar--the kids were in heaven.)

The Wedding

Finally, the reason we actually went to San Diego. Terrie's wedding was beautiful and she and Andrew looked so incredibly happy all evening.

Terrie and I had been roommates, worked together in the church, traveled together (and hitchhiked and skinny-dipped together, and I'm so thankful that she was there to catch me when I passed out on the bus in Mexico), and just helped each other through some pretty rough times.

We're so glad that we were able to be there and to share that moment with them. And it was great seeing old friends. We didn't take near as many pictures as I would have liked, but we did get one of the Las Palmas roommates. These were the girls I lived with right before I got married and who helped me plan my wedding. Torey and Christie have also both moved away from San Diego, so it was a fun reunion for all of us.

Weekend Away

This weekend I took a total of 5 flights, 21 or so hours in airports or on planes, to spend a couple days at home. But it was so worth it. Largely because those flights were kid-free (there weren't even any kids I could hear on the planes!). It makes a big difference when you can walk on carrying only a small backpack(and that was all my luggage), instead of my normal 6 bags full of toys, snacks, diapers, blankets, and emergency clothing, and I was able to read two books in the course of those flights. It makes the travel part almost fun.



One of my friends from high school got married this last week (and the pictures I took of the happy couple didn't turn out very well, but they are the ones in the top right corner) and since everyone else was making the trip back, I couldn't be the only one to not show up. And I am so glad I went. It was such a great day spent with old friends. It started with a wedding party,


and ended with an impromptu post-dinner gathering so we could all see our very pregnant friend who should have two new babies in the family any day now.


These girls were my friends in high school. And junior high. Actually, a couple of them go back a lot farther than that. I love that we can get together, 15 years later, and still have a great time. It's like things never changed. Except there are husbands now. And a few babies. And we live all over the country.



I also got to go back to my old church. Every time I walk into that chapel, I look around and feel like I don't know anyone anymore. But then, I keep finding more and more people I want to say hi to and end up chatting in the hallways for much of the last 2 hours of church. Most of my mom's friends are still there and I look around at these women who probably don't even realize what an influence they have had on my life and am just so grateful to know them (and I'm so glad that my mom has such an awesome group of friends as well.) There is just something special about people you have known your whole life.



I was able to stay with my brother and his wife (no pictures, but they still look a lot like this)and we had a very lazy Sunday afternoon and a delicious tri-tip dinner.