Well, the kids and I headed down to Utah with Rob and Cammie on board. One of my old roomies was getting married and I REALLY wanted to go, but Justin couldn't. I was bummed, but it turned out that Cammie's sister was getting home from her mission that same week so we all just carpooled down! THANK YOU CAMMIE AND ROBBIE! It was a fun week of family and friends. The kids had A BLAST with their cousins and I loved just hanging with the family we had down there. Our host was Kalvin...who had just been married 2 months prior. How we love them. :) It was a LONG drive, but a GREAT trip. I love Utah.
Adaleigh trying out Cannon's bike. It is so cool how it has the push handle! She loved it.
And don't get grossed out, but this was a first for my kids and I am in shock over it...They had NEVER seen a snail! We had them all over in California! Guess they aren't here much. LUCKILY they had quite the crop near Katie's condos! ;) Go for it kiddos!
This might disgust you, but it made me so happy! Like a rite of passage for my children. You haven't seen a snail in real life?! I'll show you a real snail if it's the last thing I do!
Adaleigh trying out Cannon's bike. It is so cool how it has the push handle! She loved it.
And don't get grossed out, but this was a first for my kids and I am in shock over it...They had NEVER seen a snail! We had them all over in California! Guess they aren't here much. LUCKILY they had quite the crop near Katie's condos! ;) Go for it kiddos!
This might disgust you, but it made me so happy! Like a rite of passage for my children. You haven't seen a snail in real life?! I'll show you a real snail if it's the last thing I do!
Needless to say, they all loved them.
And before any of you throw up...HOW CAN YOU? This tiny thing is ADORABLE! Such a tiny creation, yet everything is perfectly formed and there. It's long eye stems even curled in if you touched them. I've never seen such a small snail!
Cannon and Addie. Biker dude and chick.
Kea and Cannon. What a good big sister!
The REASON I came to Utah! The wedding! Isn't this temple gorgeous??! Oquirhh Mountain Temple. Our family was actually in Utah during the Open House, so I had been there before. It was fun to come back and see it fully functioning. :) Turns out I left my temple recommend in Cardston...SHOOT! I even thought, "I won't need my temple bag, I probably won't have time for a session without Justin's help, so I will leave it." Didn't think to grab the recommend. DUH?! Anyway, I had to go early to the temple because it was Heritage Days in Cardston and my Bishop was helping out at the Rodeo at 1:00 (side note: I love that I live in a cowboy/girl, farmer, rancher, one with the Earth place like Southern Alberta! I always wanted to be a country girl. Sure got my wish...now I need some boots!) So I went very early. And I was all alone. And it was quiet. And so WEIRD! And refreshing, and renewing. THANK YOU SO MUCH KAREN AND ALVIN for taking the kids all day! They even left with them before I left to go have their fun. I was amazed and so grateful at their willingness to help and it looked like they even enjoyed themselves while doing it! So, so grateful. I went to the sealing, stayed for the pictures and went to the reception. My friends wanted to see my kids so I had them meet me at the reception with the kids.
Here we are after the sealing waiting for Jamie to come out. One of my Foxwood #9 roomies Jesseca and her adorable new baby Autry.
And the lovely Mariah. I love this girl. :) Roomies and team mates in Hawaii, both came to Provo, and now where Ri? How about Cardston? I wish. She lives in Tampa now and loves it. Lucky!! We will come visit you!!!
Such a great couple. Gorgeousness!
And another great couple! Don't know Rhett that well yet, BUT...I love his name and I love the smile he puts on my Jamie-girl's face. :) I am so happy she is so happy. I love marriage. :)
All the roomies (missing Petie). It was such a special sealing to be in...Jamie was finally getting married to a wonderful man and has a great relationship, Mariah was THERE---baptized and in the temple?!! Who knew that would happen! Jes just had her first baby, and Camille was pregnant with her second...and me...with 4...Yeah, I got a little head start. I was the first to leave the pack.
I LOVE YOU JAMERS!!! Congrats!
And another...just because I didn't want to say goodbye! Somehow Mariah is making amazing things happen and getting her best friends to move to Florida with her! I need to figure out how she is doing that! Get some people up here! I guess Justin and I will just have to mosey our way down to FL on a vacation or something. Yes.
Zach with the SNAKE they found at the wedding. No fear. I don't like snakes. The kids didn't care at all. They just played with it. It was tiny, and almost approachable, but still gave me the chills. I had to force Zach to get rid of it at the park; leave it by the bushes...but lo and behold 20 mins home I find he had it IN THE CAR! He brought it with him! Lied to me! Snuck it! He just really wanted to show Karen and Alvin. They weren't supposed to be home until later and so I made him go to another park and let it go by the pond! Poor guy. I felt bad he didn't get to show it to Karen and Alvin, especially when they got home early and he could have. AND Alvin said they could have kept it in the aquarium downstairs. I didn't know they wanted it! Oh well...it's happier in the wild. Ughhh...
I was kinda mad at the photographer. She left. Rhett was SO ready to go, Jamie was too, but lingering and talking more. He finally just whisked her away! It was adorable. No one was around, they were far away, but I RAN to capture this, because it was so sweet! Riding off into the sunset. Love. Aww!
Yes, I stalked them. And zoomed a lot. ;)
Sunday, the day before we left, we had a sibling dinner at my big brother's house. He has 8 kids!! 6 boys...then 2 girls at the end! His girls are exactly my girls ages! Anyway, I loved Cannon's (lack of) expression here. I will not enjoy this. Or at least I will not let them think I am enjoying it. He doesn't really like attention. :)
Cousin tire swing time!
Purdy cute.
Addie had a blast!
Get it girl!
Kate and her preferred cousin...Nani!! She LOVES Nani!
And Kara and David. She says she is going to marry him. :) Maybe if they lived in So Alberta? Ha ha. Just kidding...
And this picture is great because we were celebrating Gramma Jo's birthday. We made her signature chocolate cherry cake (SO RICH) and sang happy birthday to her! And yes, she is in heaven, where Tyler is pointing. :) We love and miss you Gramma Jo! Happy birthday to YOU!
Zach and Ty.
These 3 studs were awesome. I want this at my house. They have done so good teaching their kids to love music!! They were a little shy, but sounded awesome! Sang a bunch of Veggie Tale songs for the kids.
3/6 of the siblings kids! 14 kids and 1 on the way...that's pretty good!
Me, Chris and Katie.
I LOVE MY FAMILY!
Saying goodbye, the morning we left!
He is such a good Uncle. You did good Karen. We will keep Alvin. The kids had so much fun.
Alvin did too. :) He and Zach played Nerf gun wars a lot. The life size cardboard cut out of Elder Dallin was an easy target!! Ha ha!
THANK YOU KALVIN!!! Such a fun trip!!
And here we go again! 12 hours of bliss...LONG DRIVE! Kids did relatively well! Thanks to Robbie and Cammie! And luckily the DVD machine didn't break for 3 hours of the trip this time!!! That was scary! That's when our trip theme song "We Are, We Are" from Ice Age saved our lives. :)
