Wedding Pictures!!!!

Here are the pictures of my dad's wedding!

It was a beautiful day and everything went perfectly.

Me pinning the flower on my Grandma (dad's mom)

Karen's niece played the flute as they walked down the aisle. It was really pretty. 

Here is my dad and his best man, Uncle Scott.

Wedding ceremony:

The Happy Newlyweds!

Our Little Family

My grandma, Dad and Karen

Karen's daughter, Lorraine, was her Maid of Honor

Here are our new brothers and sisters! And cousins!

Karen has 4 children. Lorraine is the youngest (left in the coral dress), Kirk is just to the left of Karen, Ryan is just to the right of my dad and Adam is just to the right of Ryan (in the front holding the little boy, who is actually on 3 weeks younger than Trevor).

They are one fun group!

Hailey and her new cousin, Sage.

At the reception:

You may or may not be looking at our Christmas picture this year so don't be surprised if this shows up again.

All of Karen's girls:

A Quick Little Camping Trip

Last weekend was the only "by" weekend in the kids soccer schedule so we made plans to get out of town. Since the kids had school and refused to miss it (yes, they didn't want to miss school - can you believe it?), we left Friday after school (they have mini days on Friday so it works out good). I just have to say that Friday to Sunday camping trips are just too fast. I prefer one more day but this was probably just perfect for what we could do right now.

We, of course, headed to our favorite spot, Dillon Beach. Pretty much all we did all weekend was eat, walk on the beach, eat, walk on the beach and sleep. It was AWESOME! Plus the weather was unbelievable! Usually down there it is cold but this weekend it was 77 on Saturday! More awesomeness!

The morning wake up crew was there:

Ok, is there anything cuter than a baby in a beanie?

Saturday morning walk and playing in the waves

Afternoon walk

Trevor loved exploring

I don't know what in the world these things are called but Evan was obsessed with dragging them back to camp during every walk on this trip. This one was HUGE! Evan is holding one end, Hailey the middle and Kayla the other end. Plus, those things are heavy. And guess who got to take over when Evan got tired of dragging it all the way back to camp? Me. Because I'm an awesome mom like that! (And Kurt was already caring the baby, so . . .)

The only star fish we could get a really good picture of

This is one of the funniest stories (and by that I mean that I am probably the only one who thinks it's funny). On the way home we stopped for lunch and noticed in a parking lot a monster truck. Now anyone who knows Evan knows the boy loves monster trucks. His birthday party that he just had was monster truck themed (and by that I mean I bought some plates with monster trucks on them. Probably no one knew it was monster truck themed). Well, we HAD to go check it out and guess what? They were selling rides in the monster truck!!!! 

The guy "selling" the rides had to be the dirtiest guy I have ever seen. Looked like he had spent his entire life outside, under a vehicle maybe and never showered. He was pretty scuzzy looking plus his "sales" pitches were pretty pathetic (one of the pitches was that it was a fund raiser for the boy scouts. Ok, so I don't know about you but anytime I have ever seen a boy scout fund raiser, I have seen boy scouts around. There were NO boy scouts anywhere to be found. Just saying.)

So we said we would have lunch and think about it. Well, there was no thinking needed for me - we had to do it. When is Evan EVER going to get another chance to ride in a monster truck? I mean COME ON! But Kurt said he didn't like the guy. I said "you are not doing it for the guy, you are doing it for Evan." Kurt said he didn't want to. I said "you are not doing it for you. You are doing it for Evan." I believe he had another excuse but I can't remember it. I told him to get his booty in the stinkin' monster truck! Ha ha ha! (See, isn't that funny?)

So we went back and paid the scuzzy guy the money and Hailey, Evan and Kurt rode in the monster truck. Kayla was scared out of her mind and didn't even want to stand next to it. You know, monster trucks have rather loud engines.

Here they are climbing aboard

All buckled up.

(Doesn't Kurt look thrilled?)

And they survived!

The guy drove it in 3 figure 8's, revved the engine a few times and swerved the steering wheel so they "bounced" on those big, huge tires. They had a good time and Evan can now say he rode in a monster truck.

It was a great weekend!

I can't be sick! I can't be sick!

But it's official - I'm sick.

I have a fever and everything. Oh joy.

And it came so suddenly. My allergies have been bothering me the last few days but nothing bad. This morning I took an allergy pill because I was going with Evan's class on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and I was going to be outside with hay all over and thought an allergy pill would help. All day I have felt it get worse and worse and felt my energy just drain. I think it quickly morphed into a sinus infection because my head is now killing me.

Mom's just shouldn't be able to get sick. It's just not fair!

Or if we do get sick, there should be substitute moms. You know, someone to come in and keep the house running - to keep all the balls that I have just suddenly dropped, going. Wouldn't that be awesome!

Yes, that would definitely be awesome!

What if your spouse was just suddenly gone?

Sorry for the sad topic today but it has been on my mind a lot lately as in the past month we have known of 3 families where this has happened. One of the spouses just suddenly past away.

The first was a friend of a friend and the couple was out on a date night and were driving home. The husband looked over at his wife and she was just sitting there with her tongue slightly hanging out of her mouth. He thought she was joking around but unfortunately she wasn't. She was gone. Aneurysm. They have 3 small children.

The second was a family member of a guy that works with Kurt at church. His nephew-in-law was a motorcycle cop that was killed while on duty. They have 2 small girls.

The third we found out about yesterday morning. A teacher at the kids school lost her husband, who had also been very active in the school. He just went to bed Friday and didn't wake up Saturday. They have 3 small kids.

All heartbreaking stories. All young couples with young families. All there and fine one minute and then gone the next. I just can't imagine.

But it could happen to any of us. Could happen to any of our family members. Nothing is certain. There are no guarantees. And while that makes me want to freak out and to group my family together and never leave the house again, I have to remember to have faith. I don't know the plan for me and my family but Heavenly Father does. He knows exactly what he is doing and I just have to have faith that if someone I know is called home way earlier than anyone on Earth thinks is right, He has a plan. He knows what He is doing. I have to trust Him, no matter what. And that makes me feel safe and secure.

I used to have a really hard time with death. I really, really struggled with it. But for some reason, my mom's passing helped me drastically with it. I don't get it but some how my mom made death ok. She made it beautiful. Those last few days with her where my dad, my brother and I grouped together and took care of her and loved her were precious. They were hard but they were precious. And everyone told me it was ok to be angry and to feel mad but I never did. I didn't feel like that once. My trust in Heavenly Father grew. I had to know that there was something bigger, that I would see her again, that this was just a temporary separation and that it was ok. And it is. It may bite because I want her here but I know that this is just a small part of life and that we will be together again. So yes, I still get sad. Yes, I still tear up when I miss her. Yes, I am battling tears right now BUT I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is just a blimp on my journey to return home to Heavenly Father.

Kurt and I have discussed many times which is harder, to lose a loved one suddenly (like he lost his mom) or to watch them suffer (like I did). We have both bounced back and forth. The conclusion we have come to: they both bite. It is no fun to lose anyone, EVER. However I think the sudden loss would be harder. Yes, I had to watch my mom lie in bed and cry because she felt so horrible and there was nothing I could do, but at least I got to be with her. I got to love her and take care of her to the best of my ability. At least I had that time to spend with her knowing her time was limited. To have them suddenly just gone seems so much harder to me now.

All of this also makes me very aware of the fact that I need to let things go and not get wrapped up in petty "life" stuff. There is something so much bigger than any of us can imagine where none of this crazy, Earthly stuff matters. I need to be a happier woman. I need to be a sillier mom. I need to just relax and enjoy the people around me. So that is my vow ~ ENJOY LIFE ~ especially my kids when they are driving me crazy =~)

So that is my thought today - enjoy your life. Enjoy those around you.

Hope some of that made sense. It was just all bottling up inside and I had to share. Other people are so good at expressing themselves so eloquently. I don't feel like I have been able to do that but this is what I was feeling.

Now, I will go enjoy my crazy, messy house as we have just returned from camping and I have up-teen million loads of laundry to do and I will enjoy them and my 1 year old "helper." And I promise, much happier posts coming like: our camping trip, Evan's bday party and the much anticipated wedding pictures from my dad's wedding!

Hello?? Fellow Bloggers?? Anyone out there??

So I have noticed that quite a few (ok, mostly all) my fellow bloggers have stopped blogging and I just want to say . . .

I TOTALLY MISS YOU!!!

I know, life is busy and blogging takes precious time but just know that I truly miss every single one of you. I miss reading about your family. I miss watching you kids grow. I miss feeling like we are apart of each other's lives, even though we may live far apart. I just miss you!

Posts don't have to be perfect. They don't have to have pictures each time (although, I do love pictures). They don't have to be funny, intelligent, deep thought provoking or whatever else you may think they need to be. They just need to be about you and your family and life.

So just know that YOU are missed. Dearly.

And I am going to try to be a better blogger too. My goal is to blog at least once a week, if not more. So here is to more blogging =~)