Time with H family

Porter and Chloe

Do you think these girls love their Auntie Jenn?

Time with M

SCHOOL CARNIVAL

John gets ready to dunk Emma in the dunking tank!

More Carnival games

Gabe with Captain Jack Sparrow.

FLOWERS FOR MAC

EMMA'S SOCCER GAME

I LOVE MY SISTERS!

(I think John may too.)

The Reception

Taylor and Amanda had a beautiful, outdoor wedding reception at the American Fork Amphitheater. My kids ran around like feral children while I had a ball catching up with family and friends I haven't seen forever. In fact at one point John and I both got a little worried because we hadn't seen Gabe in a while. Come to find out Gabe was in the parking lot. That's where one of my cousins found him. Wandering around, alone, in the dark parking lot. Turns out he was tired and decided to go find our car to go to sleep in. Wow! I am so thankful he had a guardian angel looking out for him. And then something even worse happened to Porter a few days later, but I'm too embarrassed to tell you what happened him. Those two incidents seriously made me feel like the world's worst mom ever. Anyway, back to happier subjects.

Everything about the reception was lovely and as it was drawing to a close I started to panic that I wouldn't have a chance to tell Taylor goodbye. He would leave the reception for his honeymoon and we would leave for Ohio without ever getting a chance to say our goodbyes. I jumped at the chance to tell Taylor goodbye as Amanda was dancing with her dad. Then Taylor went to dance with Amanda and that was it. Except it wasn't. It got so much better. You know the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding"? At the very end when Jules realizes that Michael is about to leave on his honeymoon and she hasn't said goodbye. So she rushes through the crowd and just as she gives up hope, Michael turns around and finds her. My goodbye was just like that only so much better. Because next thing I knew my brother was asking me to dance. Three sweet minutes I had with my brother all to myself. It was so sweet and completely made me cry. Then in a whirlwind they were off on their honeymoon. And just like Jules did in the movie, I stayed and danced with my new best friend. Only my best friend is my husband, not a gay guy named George. Truly, wonderful memories.

Cute kids! Carly and Gabe

Emma with Porter and Boston

Look at Gabe with all those cute girls!

Porter helps set up

My Mom with all her girls

The Wedding

The heart. The focal point. The main event. The reason we drove 2,000 miles. All to see my brother, one of my best friends and favorite people in the whole world get married. I wouldn't have missed this day for the world!

Porter and Gabe wait to see Uncle Taylor and their new Aunt, Amanda.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Clyde

Gabe gets some one on one time with the bride.

and puts the moves on her!

Family Pictures with my Mom

Family pictures with my Dad

Tay is seriously out numbered by sisters . . .

M attempt at a picture of my kids in front of the temple tanked.

I think they were tired of pictures by this point . . . what do you think?

One Last Family Dinner

(with Taylor as a bachelor that is) We got sitters for the kids and had a great meal out. I really miss my family and LOVE the time we get to spend together like this! I sure do love you guys! Thanks for all the good times!

Not many people get to be the groom and the birthday boy!

Philip, Jenny, and my newest nephew Ryder.

Remind us how you got Amanda to say yes?

We LOVE our little brother!!!

Surprise Visitors

Saturday morning we got an unexpected phone call from my Grandpa and Grandma asking if they could come visit us THAT afternoon! My Grandpa is a trucker and the route he was on came close enough to Dayton that they wanted to stop and visit. They were only here for about 24 hours (which is actually a long visit when he's working) and we enjoyed every minute of it! Saturday evening the kids had a ball rough housing with Grandpa Ed. Then Sunday it was nice to enjoy General Conference together.
While we were watching Conference I told Gabe that when it was President Monson's turn to speak he needed to sit still and listen. Well, he ended up being asleep for President Monson's talk on gratitude, but he was awake and listened to the closing remarks (you know the remarks that are only a couple minutes long where he tells everyone to drive home safely, etc). Anyway, Gabe's sitting on John's lap listening to the prophet when he says, "Man, the prophet has a lot to talk about!" It was pretty funny! I wonder what he would have thought if I'd made him listen to the long talk on gratitude?
Anyway, we had a great time with my grandparents. It was nice to have just one on one time with them. When we go home to Utah there's always so many people to see that we rarely get to spend any time with just them. So it was great that they were able to come see us, on our turf, and get to know our kids a little better.

My kids LOVED playing with Grandpa!I remember Grandpa flipping me over his head like this when I was little.
It's pretty cool he's still doing this to his great grand kids!
Checking out the BIG truck!

Grandpa showing John and Gabe what all the button do.

Look out, Porter's behind the wheel!