Nikki & Teck Wedding!!

The last weekend in March was a wonderful trip to Utah for Nikki's wedding! We started out the weekend with our first cramming-into-the-car experience in our van :). Dan was working part of the way to Utah, so the entire rest of Amber's clan squeezed into our back seat for the 2 hour drive to Twin Falls to meet him. I'm always game for an adventure, but I felt pretty bad having all of them squish into the back. Eventually we will have less car seats and that combination of people could fit more comfortably, I hope! The drive went totally fine though, we love our car DVD player!

We spent the first night at Ali and Jon's beautiful house before joining up with the rest of the family. The kids enjoyed some dress up before settling in for the night (you can see that Carter is ready to hit the sack at this point...tired eyes!) and the grownups just sat around and talked. In all honesty, Ali had a list a mile long of wedding things to decide and prep for (including the day of Emergency Kit), which I loved to help with and the men mocked us for the entire night. Yes, super glue, safety pins, deodorant, and duct tape are all necessary items to have for the wedding day!

The next morning we had donuts for breakfast! Olivia kept calling hers a bagel, which made me laugh because she honestly doesn't know the difference, which tells me that I don't share my treats enough. You would think that we just eat very healthy as a family, but I assure you that's not true. I am too lazy to drive for donuts in the morning, but my kids eat PLENTY of treats!

We met up with Amber's family for some shopping before we went to the house that my mom had rented for all 20 of us for the weekend. Amber and I took Teagan with us to DownEast and IKEA, and the boys took the older kids to a fun sportsman-type store before meeting us at IKEA for lunch. After that we met up with Mom, Dad, Emily, and Jenaye for grocery shopping before we checked out the HUGE 6000+ sf house. Every family had a room, there was lots of playing and chatting space, and so many fun corners for playing sardines!

We had an hour or so to get settled before we left for the start of wedding fun! The traditional This Is Your Life was accompanied by some wonderful grilled cheese and other fun food! I don't have any pictures of the barn or reception prep, but it was a beautiful reception location, full of little personalized touches from both Nikki and Teck. 

After a long night of wedding prep and catching up with all my aunts and cousins, we caught a few hours of sleep before starting the wedding day! I love the craziness of family weekends, whether they are in celebration of a holiday, a wedding, or other special occasion. We just go and go with as little sleep as possible until we have to go home. I was so glad to be able to rely on Alex for a lot of the kid duties so I could spend more time with my family. Here are some pictures from family waiting at the Temple

Maggie is so great about posing at every available opportunity, she is such a beautiful girl!

The happy couple!

I can't say how much I love this family. They are all like sisters (and brothers, and parents ;)) to me. I was thrilled to be able to share in their joy!

This was a sweet moment with Nikki helping Maggie feel comfortable and involved on this day. She is a wonderful sister to take time apart to help whoever is needing some attention.

Our family really pulls together at any event...here is a few of the many family members who helped with the food prep and serving throughout the evening.

My little stud. He was so into these flowers, and I love how this outfit made him look like a little man. Olivia was much harder to photograph, as she didn't stand still for a single minute the entire evening. There was a fun area for kids to play, plenty of family members to play with, and she was in heaven.

Nikki with all of her girl cousins.

And when there are six 3-6 year olds all anxious to carry your train, it ends up being a parachute game...thank goodness for full length slips!

Yup. These are our attempts at a family picture. Maybe someday we will figure this art out, but until then we will just keep trying. Every family event gets a few failures...and someday we will have a successful, beautiful family picture. Maybe.

I realized as I was typing this last part that I know where my family's inability to take a picture came from. This is the entire clan before leaving our amazing house the next day. At least we come by our goofy pictures honestly!

It was a great weekend, one I am anxious to repeat at the next available opportunity. I love my family so much, and love every opportunity we have to play together. I'm also so glad that my kids will have the same experience that I had, growing up with my cousins as siblings, always having someone to play with and/or talk to. That cousin for me was Nikki, so I'm also thrilled that she had such a great wedding weekend, a total success!