My goodness! Slacking off over the Christmas/Birthdays/New Years/Wedding break has thrown me off! I should have posted this hours ago! I promise I'll start doing better!
Anyways, on to my brother's wedding. We've been preping for his wedding for weeks now. It's quite an ordeal for my Mom to go anywhere, even just to a doctors appointment or church, so driving 6 hours, and then being away from home for a couple of nights made us a little nervous. But she did great! Hardly any problems at all. We were really blessed!
The four of us took off Friday morning. Derek and I drove behind my parents' van in their pickup. 4-wheel drive in case of snow. There wasn't any thank goodness. Again, we were blessed! We took a few breaks throughout the trip which was nice. And Derek even found a memory foam seat cushion to sit on!
We arrived in Alpine around 3-4pm. I immediately called Sam Hawk (our favorite Korean restaurant) in Provo to order take-out. My Dad is in love with their bulgogi and talked about getting some while we were in Utah. I ordered it giving Derek and I enough time to drop our stuff off at the Cheney's house and visit for a few minutes. Didn't want to drop and run! :)
It was nice to see Derek's parents again. We had a quick visit with them and finalized our plans for the next day. They were able to spend a lot of time with us through out all the wedding madnes, which was great! We were afraid that we would only see them in passing!
After that visit we ran over to Sam Hawks and picked up our HUGE box of food. As I was ordering it, I didn't realize how much I had really ordered! But it was all so good, and we had left overs to share later!
Then Derek and I went over to my great aunt and uncle's house to see them and my grandparents. I was hoping that I could show them my progress on my family history storybook, but (as I later found out) the editing program wasn't working because I wasn't connected to the internet. We had a fun visit anyway! I was especially glad we visited because my great aunt and uncle weren't able to attend the wedding, luncheon, or reception. She had just had toe surgery! Ouch!
After that visit, we went back to the Cheney's house to get some sleep. Saturday was going to be a big day, and we needed to be up early. We needed to be at the temple at 9:30. Well, early for us. Plus, we were afraid there was going to be a lot of snow--which there was--and that it would be dangerous to drive--which it wasn't.
So we got to the temple super early, but it was nice to sit and wait and get into the spirit of the day. Plus, I was able to greet a lot of our family friends who we hadn't seen in years! Derek was outside helping my parents get into the temple.
The wedding ceremony was wonderful! So beautiful! I think that we all (our side and her side of the family) had been feeling a little stress about them getting married. We love them and want them to be happy and make their own choices, but were afraid they were too young and not ready. But as I sat there in the temple listening to the sealer (the man who performs the ceremony), I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, calm and happiness. It felt amazing! I hoped that everyone else in the room felt the same way too!
And speaking of everyone else in the room! Some rows of people had to do the tabernacle squeeze. I don't think that PJ and Rachel were expecting that many people to come to the ceremony. I think they reserved a smaller sized room. It was so neat to see how many people were there to show their love and support for my brother and my family!
Before and after the ceremony, everyone kept asking Derek and I where and when the luncheon would be. I really felt pretty uninformed (Which is really uncomfortable for me. I like to know what's going on! But I've learned to go with the flow. A little). I kept telling everyone the same thing, "I seem like someone who should know these things, but I'm not! Just think of me as another guest!"
We eventually figured out the luncheon would be at the same place as the reception. Which was nice because then we all only had to figure out where one place was instead of two! So after pictures SO FREEZING COLD, and a slight directional delay, Derek and I arrived at the luncheon. The food was amazing and simple, bread bowl soup! So perfect for a cold, windy day!
Daryn and Becca, Derek's brother and sister-in-law who live in the area, had hinted that they wanted to see us while we were in Utah, but our schedules conflicted a bit, and as I said earlier, I had no idea about any plans for Saturday. But thankfully, we had a few hours inbetween the luncheon and the reception so we headed over to their house.
So much fun! They're always fun to visit with and they have a Wii and a Wii Fit! Their kids showed us how the Wii Fit worked--so cool--and Daryn and Derek even showed us their hula-hoop skills! :) I'm seeing a Wii Fit in our future!
At 5:30 we headed over to the reception for more pictures. The photographer was really nice and even took pictures with my camera for me when we did the family shots! And she was very kind to ask us who we would like her to photograph because she didn't know our family. I also ran around taking pictures of friends and family (Sorry Uncle Paul, Mom's orders!). So many of our friends from our time (meaning my childhood) in Utah, and so many of our Utah relatives came!
The reception was a lot of fun! Since my parents were in the reception line, Derek and I kind of felt responsible for visiting the guests who came to see my family. We both came away from the reception feeling really popular! :)
And I can't forget to mention that they had a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! Chocolate fountains gives any reception an A++ in my book! I think I would consider crashing weddings if they were all guaranteed to have a chocolate fountain! I piled a plate high with chocolate covered strawberries, cinnamon bears, rice crispy treats, Oreos, and marshmallows that I was going to "share" with Derek. Really I only wanted the strawberries. I have a weakness for chocolate and berries.
After the reception, Derek and I went back to the Cheney's house. We visited and ate delicious Korean food as I tried to get my book editing program to work. Grr, it was so frustrating! Thank you Mom and Dad for trying to help me! It really was just the internet, but I wasn't able to get the PC to hook up to their internet for some reason. After a couple of hours, we all decided that it was time for sleep and went to bed. Another early morning and a full day of traveling.
The trip home was just as smooth as the trip up. No snow! My dad did a lot of preparing, but thankfully we didn't need all the snow gear! My mom was and is worn out from the trip. I think it will take her a couple of days to get rested up again but she'll be fine!
It was a great trip and I'm so glad that PJ and Rachel--yes, there will be two Rachels--got married! I'm so excited to have a sister-in-law on my side of the family!
PS: More pictures to come later
Wow! How lucky are you guys with the no snow thing. I hope we are just as lucky when my dad and I head to Sacramento Thursday and then back again with my mom soon. The way you described things is the same way that I felt at my brothers wedding. Totally busy, totally go go go, totally uninformed about things when strangers to us thought we might know something because we were the siblings of the groom. We also enjoyed a chocolate fountain. Yum! Sounds like a lot of fun and I would love to see pictures. We are excited to have your entire family in our ward. How crazy is that. You probably imagined in a million years your married brother would be living next door and you all went to church in the same ward. Makes me laugh! Oh ya, and you have the same name as your sister in law.
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