Vacation!

The last week of April we spent in Utah enjoying ourselves with family. The occasion was my brother Jordan’s wedding to Kara Jenkins but we were also able to get there a week early to make it a nice long vacation.

We arrived the day before Easter and spent it with Merrick’s family in Bountiful. It was a beautiful day and the girls had an absolute blast hunting for eggs. They wore their dresses for Jordan’s wedding (but had to promptly take them off so we didn’t ruin them before the big day!).

After they opened all their eggs they hid them again and found them again over and over. Perfect tradition for little kids! We enjoyed a delicious dinner and had a nice holiday.

The next day we took the kids to Discovery Gateway downtown. They LOVED it. (Well, after Camryn got over her grumpiness from having fallen asleep in the car on the way.) What a fun place for kids.

Tuesday we were lucky to be in town for my cousin Jace’s wedding too! So Merrick and I went to the sealing at the new Draper Temple and luncheon in the morning. They were such an adorable couple. I loved their wedding colors too – so fun and whimsical.

Too bad it was freeeezing!! Snowing and bitterly cold wind. Definitely not what you’d expect for a late April day! But that’s Utah for you. That night we went to their reception and enjoying socializing with a lot of my family. They had the cutest treat buffet – cake pops (yum!!), cupcakes, cookies, etc. all in their bright wedding colors. Then they had a soft serve ice cream machine with all the toppings. So fun!

Wednesday Merrick’s mom came with us to the Hogle Zoo. It was a beautiful day (I think every other day was snowy or sunny on this trip – so crazy!). We had fun with the kids checking out all the animals. Here are a few pictures:

After the zoo, we headed up to the house my family rented in Midway. We stayed there at Christmastime too so now all the kids think it’s Grandma and Grandpa’s house, haha. All of my family was able to be there and so we had fun hanging out together, getting to know Ashley’s new husband, and getting ready for all the wedding festivities!

Thursday we went to Kara’s (Jordan’s fiancée's) bridal shower. It was fun to see her again. We met Kara in December when we went out for Ashley’s wedding but they weren’t engaged at the time so this was fun to get to know her a little better. On Friday we were all able to be there for Kara’s endowment in the Bountiful Temple. The kids had been having so much fun with their cousins they fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car.

Aunt Katie was the lucky one they rested their heads on!

Saturday was the big wedding day! It was, of course, cold and there was probably an inch of snow on the ground at the Bountiful Temple. Once again, definitely not what you’d hope for in planning an April 30th wedding! But the sealing was great and they both said yes! Kara is our first sister-in-law to marry into the family so we’re excited to have her! The happy couple:

Here are a few pictures her photographer (Nickell Jensen Blair) posted on Facebook already:

The luncheon was at The Wight House in Bountiful. Such a pretty place. Their colors were navy blue and lime green. We had so much fun visiting with family. They decided to do a big luncheon instead of a reception so it was a nice gathering.

The newlyweds, who were just glowing with happiness:

My older sister Britney and her husband Jeremy:

The ever-photogenic Avery:

The bouquet toss (we told our youngest sister Katie that she should not catch the bouquet! Not ready for another wedding, haha!):

That’s about all I got from the luncheon. I’ll post more when we get back the professional photos from the photographer. (Notice there isn’t any pictures of me in here! Let’s just say I wasn’t too keen on being photographed at 6 months pregnant!)

The afternoon turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. We drove back up to Midway for the night (but not without stopping for custard at Nielsen’s- sooo good!). We had a joint birthday party for my parents that night and I made this cake from ourbestbites.com. Yum!

The next morning we got to watch Jordan and Kara open all their wedding gifts, and then we said goodbye to my parents. I went back to Merrick’s parents house in Bountiful for a couple days with the girls, while Merrick flew back to Wisconsin without us so he could be back for work on Monday.

We had a nice time just relaxing and recovering from the busy week! It was good trip flying home by myself with the girls. They got a little stir crazy but no major mishaps, so that was good.

And now we’re back to real life. Picking all the hundreds of dandelions there are in our yard, waiting for all the trees to bloom, and watching the gas station across the street in unbelief at these crazy gas prices! ($4.09 today but $4.15 yesterday… um… seriously?!)