John and Sarah's (and Maka's) Wedding

On June 6th we had a fun opportunity to go to a wedding dinner/reception for McKay's younger brother, John and his new wife Sarah.  They would not be getting married until the 7th, but were having their dinner on the 6th.

John and Sarah met online and then after dating long distance for awhile Sarah moved to Colorado so that she could be closer to where John was. So while we didn't get to see them very often while they were dating since they lived so far away, the few times that we did get to meet Sarah we all loved her immediately.  She is a great addition to the family and we are excited to get to know her even more.  Sarah also has a son named Maka who is 2 and he is absolutely adorable.  He is the most laid back, fun loving 2 year old I have ever met.  Such a sweetheart!

John and Sarah's wedding dinner was outside in the garden area at the Lion House.  It was a PERFECT night to have an outdoor dinner and the setting was beautiful.  Mostly just the adults went to the dinner which was SO nice to just talk with McKay's siblings and parents and enjoy a nice dinner without the distractions of all our cute kiddos.  Thanks to my parents who watched our kids, while trying to get the last minute prep for Corinne's wedding.  The night off was greatly appreciated!

John and Sarah did the traditional speeches, cutting the cake, and dancing at their dinner.  So it was almost like a wedding luncheon and reception in one.  We were enjoying ourselves so much that I only got a few pictures at the dinner.

 Couple's first dance

 In this next picture you can sort of see Maka dancing behind his mom and John with his cousin.  So cute that he wanted in on the dancing action.  

Here we are enjoying the nice evening.  Their wedding colors were light pink and dark gray, hence the pink tie.  

And can I just say YUM! to the lion house rolls!  So happy to have them since I pretty much crave them every time I walk into a Desert book.

Here is a close up of Candace and Chad.  We can thank McKay for this picture.  We had fun laughing and talking with them and Diana and Dax all through dinner.  

Now we interupt this blog post with some other exciting news.... 

This is Diana and Dax.  McKay's younger sister and her new husband.  They got married a week before John and Sarah and this was their first night back from their honeymoon.  They decided to get married in the Anchorage, Alaska temple so none of the family was there to witness it, but we are very happy for them!  Congrats to the new couple.  :)

We stayed for a long time at the wedding dinner (just too much fun to leave)  So it was a late night getting back to get ready for the next day.  

June 7th dawned bright and early and we were up and at it from the start since we had a very full day ahead of us.  Corinne and Stu were getting married first so we started the day off at the Draper Temple.  After their sealing and pictures we headed to Wendy's for a quick lunch stop.  Luckily the kids crashed in the car at this point so we were happy that they got a little bit of a nap since the fun was just beginning for the day.  

We arrived at the Salt Lake Temple early so the kids enjoyed their lunch while strolling around temple square.  

I loved their little matching outfits!  

Once it was time for the sealing we handed over all of the kids to some very great cousins and siblings (it was a ton of kids, thanks Julie and Lindsey for babysitting).  The sealing, as always, was a very spiritual experience.  After John and Sarah were sealed as husband and wife, Maka was sealed to them as well.  Not a dry eye in the room as they became an eternal family of 3.  What a blessing and beautiful experience to witness.  Congrats to the very happy family!

Handsome Maka! 

Everyone else who came to celebrate their special day...  

John with McKay's dad and step mom  

McKay and his uncle Eric that he works with here in Idaho.  McKay really looks up to him a lot.  

And a couple more pictures of the bride and groom.  What a special day!

  

 

Grandma's Birthday in the Canyon

My mom's birthday was on June 5th which landed on a Thursday this year.  Because of the weddings that friday and saturday we were able to be in Utah with her to celebrate her birthday.  In fact ALL 4 of her daughters were able to be there with her since Larissa and Rusty had flown in from Connecticut too.  So thursday would have been a special family day anyways it was just icing on the cake that it was my moms birthday.

Unfortunately my mom had to work in the morning on her birthday, but in the end it turned out ok because it gave the rest of us a chance to plan and prep for her birthday celebration that evening.

While she was at work all the girls stopped by to visit her and deliver her a jamba juice.

After she got off work we all headed up American Fork Canyon for a dutch oven dinner.  My dad was the cook master and the rest of us just followed orders.  We even tried to make a potato salad like my mom does, but it definitely did not turn out as well as hers do.

Once we got the camp all set up (which, by the way, is way easier to set up these days with 3 brother-in-laws in the picture then when it was just us girls) we had my mom open her presents.  Then it was picture time with each of the daughters and their respective "families"

Larissa and Rusty

 Corinne and Stu aka the newly weds

Us and our offsprings 

 Mykelti, the lone single sister, and her pal Addie

The things that they are holding up in the pictures were the gifts that they gave to my mom and dad.  We gave my mom a new lunch container and some reusable ice packs.  Addie helped pick them out and she was very excited for grandma to open them.  Addie is ALL about birthdays right now.  

After presents we ate dinner.  Food always tastes better in the mountains right?  It was delicious.

Ofcourse I didn't take any pictures while we ate, since I was um.. eating

After dinner we walked around with the kids and carefully let them throw rocks in the river.  I get so nervous around open water with my kids so pretty much every 5 seconds I was counting heads.  

The adults all played some games and roasted smores.  McKay kept an excellent eye on the fire and was continually out looking for more sticks to put in the fire. 

Happy Birthday Mom!  I am sure this was one of the best ones you have had in a while.  It was a wonderful night with family.  

   

McKay's 29th Birthday 06-03-14

Happy Birthday (last week) to McKay!  aka Daddy around these parts.  We enjoyed celebrating with you and thanks for asking for raspberry cupcakes for your dessert because they were divine if I do say so myself. 

McKay's Birthday landed on a Tuesday this year so the first 1/2 of his day was planned out for him... go to work.  I was nice and woke up early with him and made a French toast breakfast. 

That evening we went out to dinner.  McKay has the hardest time figuring out where to go for dinner, so most of the time I choose where we go.  But this time I forced him to decide.  After weeks of reminding him to decide, he chose Sonic. (What?!)  I said no way, try again (he only chose that place to save money) The second time he chose a pizza place that we had never eaten at so I agreed.  It was pretty good pizza, but the kids were kind of naughty so it wasn't the most relaxing evening.  Next year we will have to get a babysitter.  After dinner we headed home for gifts and dessert.  The dessert he chose was Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes.  I found a easy/yummy recipe and they turned out really good.  Here is the recipe I used.

For his present we got him a wheel barrow so we can move lots of rocks this summer.  It is a sturdy one and he really liked it. 

 

After we sang Happy Birthday to McKay, Adalyn decided that it was her turn to get sung to.  We figured it was good practice for her birthday in a few months so we agreed. 

 

 

Happy Birthday McKay!  Enjoy your last year in your 20's  We love you lots!

 

 

 

 

Camping at Palisades Creek

On May 30th we went camping at Palisades creek for one night.  Camping is something we talk about doing a lot, but then hardly ever make it happen so when we saw that we had a free weekend we just went for it.  We left Friday afternoon and came home on Saturday afternoon.  The kids enjoyed exploring in the outdoors and McKay of course was totally in his element building the fire and just being in the mountains.

Friday we set up camp (the kids loved the tent), made dinner of chili, chips, and cheese, and roasted smores.  We also went for a little walk to check out the trail that we were going to hike on the next day. 


  Playing in the tent...
 

 

 

Building a fire

 

The rest of us watching Daddy build the fire

 

Cooking smores.  We found a way to melt the chocolate over the fire and so our smores got pretty messy.  Jensen liked dipping his graham cracker into the melted chocolate.

Going for a walk

 

The kids did great sleeping in the tent and heavenly father heard this pregnant lady's prayers about blessing me that I would not have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.  :) 

 

Saturday morning we made a very yummy breakfast of sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches over the fire.  Here is a picture of one (it was one of our more "well" done ones)  So tasty!  We followed this recipe, but changed some of the ingredients to fit our tastes. 

 

 

The last item on our camping agenda was a hike.  The trail was beautiful!  The plan for the hike was to have McKay carry Jensen and then Adalyn would walk by me.  We knew we wouldn't be hiking for too long since 2 year olds are not known for their endurance levels.  Well about 200 yards onto the trail we ran into some horse droppings.  Knowing we would be seeing a lot of it and not wanting Adalyn to step in it I tried to explain to her what it was and that we should try and not step on it.  Being the cautious child that she is she pretty much freaked out and decided that not only was horse poop gross, BUT it was also dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.  She would not hike on her own for the rest of the hike no matter how much I tried to explain to her that it was not dangerous. The damage was done and there was no changing her mind.  So McKay carried BOTH children for the rest of the way, only stopping a few times to throw rocks in the river.  Can you guess who pointed out EVERY piece of horse poop that we saw?!  lol  Silly girl

 

 

Thanks McKay for being so strong so that we could still have a fun time!