utah

We took two more days to drive to Utah, and I have to say that even though the kids were more difficult along this drive (poor Lady-LE got chigger bites all along her diaper line, so she was itching like crazy the whole time), it was beautiful and I loved it. Okay, to be honest, the second day was beautiful. Not so much for the first. But once we got into CO, parts of WY, and northern UT by Bear Lake it was all so gorgeous and I loved the peacefulness you feel when you're driving through beautiful country. And it didn't hurt that I got to ride in the same car as my dad and he loves to talk about everything, so we had many conversations about the beauty we saw. Loved it. So why would the kids and I want to drive across country? Because ...

My little brother was getting married!
(ha! Love you little bro!!)

I don't have a lot of pictures of our week in UT - in fact I took all of these from my sweet sisters' cameras and blog - but we mostly worked on wedding preparations. We did squeeze in some walks along the canal to the park, swinging on the rope swing across the canal, kid/grandma trip to the pool, lots of grocery store runs, lots of craft store runs, lots of clothing store runs, watching the wedding slideshow come together, sewing bow ties, a couple early morning runs, and lots of laughing while we listened to the cousins play together. It was definitely a good week. 

 My sister and I were in charge of flowers ...

 Sister T also made an awesome wedding video for the bride and groom, and we had those four songs in our head all week long! Sister A totally took care of the grandkids attire for the wedding - ordering suspenders, sewing bowties, coordinating clothes and shoes. Very cute!

 The kids were in charge of keeping themselves entertained ...

My awesome brother-in-law E was in charge of the luncheon. He is a crazy talented chef!

This is the first wedding that I have been behind the scenes with since my own, and it was constantly a wonder to me how everything gets pulled off. Countless schedules to coordinate, agendas to meet, logistics of family coming in from out of town, feeding all those mouths, entertaining the little ones while adults can keep working, flowers, luncheon, reception, decorations, clothing needs, etc. Seriously! It's a good thing I was in such a blissful state of love at my wedding (and that our families are amazing), because these things can sure as heck be stressful!

My mom (and the bride's mom) did a fabulous job of pulling all the loose ends together, and seriously every single person in the family was irreplaceable in their own sphere of service and love. It was beautiful and humbling to see it all come together, and edifying to be around people so willing to help. All of us working to help make this a beautiful, sacred, special day for our younger brother and his beautiful bride.