We Get Another Sister

I forgot that I am still catching up on our adventures. When we left Chicago, Yale and I stayed up in the Salt Lake area to be with family before my little brother got married. My brother, Troy and his wife, Beth, from Alaska were in town, so it was really fun to get to spend some time with them. My stepsister, Whitney, was also in town, and I hadn't seen her for almost a year, so it was really fun to get to catch up with her. Yale and I spent so much time with family and we got to see a few of my friends as well. We stayed with my dad for a couple days during the work week, so we got a lot of time with Whitney and her son Cash. Yale loved getting to play with Cash, and Cash learned a lot about sharing. It was good times.

Lish drove up and met us on Thursday and it was so great to be with him again. That same day he got in, my oldest brother and his family flew in. The day before the wedding we had planned a big family lunch with all the siblings and stepsiblings and kids and even the grandparents made it. The only one missing was Whitney's husband, Collin. We missed him. But it was so fun to have that whole group together and catch up and just be together. I don't know when the next time for all of us to be together again will happen.

Then there was a wedding. My little brother married his beautiful wife, my new sister. We're so happy to have her be a part of our family. They are wonderful together and the wedding was beautiful. It was amazing to be in the temple for their ceremony and have all my siblings and their spouses there. What a wonderful experience! They held their reception in the afternoon, which was actually pretty nice. It was fun to have the evening to spend with the family and just get to hang out and relax and play games (nix Kyle and Chelsea, of course).

The day after the wedding we headed down to Karen and Scott's for a late brunch, which would be called a lunch, but we had brunch food, so I'll stick with the brunch title. Our good friend, Brian, and his wife and new baby were in town from Spain. We hadn't met his wife or his baby yet, so they came up for brunch and it was so great to finally meet Noemi and Leo. What a great way to end a wonderful trip!

Family, Family and a Wedding

Life continued to be crazy when we got home from Maine. There is a lot to catch up on, so I'll just go in order.

The day after we got home we had a friend that Lish grew up with (Ryan Arp) come over with his family for dinner. The house was a little crazy, but it was so fun to meet them and have them over.

The day after that, we drove into Vegas, again, to pick up Maggie and Alyse again. It was so fun to have them come back out and to spend some more time with them. Karen and Scott drove down the day after that, so our house was hustlin' and bustlin' with family!

On their way back home, Karen and Scott dropped Yale and I off at my dad's house. We spent the next week traveling back and forth between my dad's and my mom's Lish-less. It was sad. But we still had a good time with everyone! We were busy getting things ready for my little sister's wedding. The reception was held in my mom's backyard, so there was lots of work to do. We got plenty of playing in though, so no worries. I wish I had taken more pictures. Ah, well.

And then there was a wedding! My littler sister was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. And I'm so glad Alex is part of our family now. The ceremony was wonderful. The reception was set up so well. And then as we were taking pictures before the reception was supposed to start, it started getting really windy. Then, right at 7, which was when the reception was scheduled to start, it started raining. Not just raining, but pouring rain. Thankfully it lasted for just about 20 minutes. And we had so many hands to pull everything inside, wipe it off when the rain stopped, and set it back up. I was impressed. Then there was a beautiful rainbow right about our house. And the rest of the evening was perfect.

Jaclyn's Wedding & Jackson Hole

One of my cousins got married this past weekend and we had the opportunity to hitch a ride up with my dad to attend her wedding. We were going to head up to the cabin afterwards, but decided against it when we found out that was where the newlyweds would be honeymooning. So instead we headed over to Jackson Hole. It was beautiful and such a fun weekend! Again, I have lots of pictures, so I'll let them speak for themselves.