Utah Day 5: Children's museum, Grandma Thomas' house and dirtbike races

On Friday Everett and I woke up, ate breakfast, packed up the car and drove to Auntie Kristi's house to pick up the girls.  Kristi was already at school but Haini was home making breakfast for the kids.  Thanks Haini for hanging out with them this morning.

Anyway, we packed up all our belongs and headed to Salt Lake to go to the Children's museum with cousins.  I only wish I had room in my car to have taken Katara.

Laura had a membership thanks to Luke and Jenn so she got us all in with her extra guess passes.  Thank you Laura.

Jace, Gwenevere, Everett, Anabelle, Brooklyn, Grace and Benjamin

Half way through playing we realized we where hungry so we went across the street to the mall food court and had lunch.  Then we headed back to the museum for more playing.

around 2:30 it was time for us to leave.  I took the kids to Daniel and Dalynn's house where we were meeting up with my Mom and Dad.  Grandma Thomas had agreed to take Everett and Grace with her to Idaho Falls so I would attend General Conference with Gwenevere on Sunday.  

Everett kept saying he didn't want to go to Grandma's house.  So i was very happy that fell asleep and I was able to move him and his car seat into Grandma's car without waking him up.  

Thankfully when he woke up and realized he was on an adventure with Grace he was super happy and LOVED every minute at Grandma's house.  

After Gwenevere and I said goodbye to Grace and Everett we met back up with Laura and Mark and went to watch Jace race.  It was his first time racing this year and he was awesome.  

By the time the races were over it about getting dark.  So we headed back to Laura and Marks house for the night.

Since it was just Gwenevere and I we stayed in bed reading stories out loud for over an hour.  Finally Gwenevere confessed she was getting tired, so we closed the book and both fell asleep within minutes.

Grace and Andrew get Married

Good morning wedding day!

Auntie Grace woke up bright and cheery.  We had a slow morning filled with breakfast, dancing and bathtime.

At 9 am Grace's friend came over to do her hair and at 11am a girl from instagram came to do Grace's makeup.  

Grace had wanted to clean out her car before her wedding day but it never happened.  So I took her car and my crazy kids for a drive.  We went to Deseret book store to pick up a gift and then we vacuumed out Grace's car.  

Gwenevere begged to stay with Auntie Grace while I ran errands.  I think she was loving the wedding day prep.  

Wedding day dresses:  Grace, Gwenevere, Auntie Grace, Elizabeth and Alisha

to wear the veil or not,  that is the question.  and a little dance party while we decide

Hair and Makeup complete

Andrew stopped by around 11:00 to get ready.  Even with the last minute chaos that comes with wedding day prep.  (broken down cars and all) the morning ended up working out perfectly in every way.

I enjoyed being at the heart of the wedding day prep and being able to capture a few on the behind the scenes moments before the wedding.

heading out the do ready to go get married

 After Grace and Andrew left we had 30 minutes to finish getting ready.  The kids where good sports and Auntie Alisha made sandwiches for everyone.  As I was heading out the door, one of Andrew's groomsman came needing an ironing board asap.  Then he accidentally locked himself out of the house.  Yikes.  I tried to help but when I realized I was useless I took off so I could make it to the temple on time.

We arrived at the temple following Uncle Mark.  Yippee!  I dropped the kids off with Cousins and hurried inside so I wouldn't be late.  It was the most perfect September day.

When I arrived in the great hall, the room was filled with family and friends.  I was so happy to be there.  Hugs where shared freely while we waited to be escorted into the Sealing room.

When we got to the sealing room, The sealer brought Andrew and Grace into the room.  The room was filled and everyone was excited for the couple.

The Sealer took us through the process that Grace and Andrew had followed in order to be sitting her in the sealing room today.  It's amazing how much the hand of Christ is in our lives leading us back to an eternal family.

After the sealing was over, I quickly went back outside to help with all the kids.

It took Grace and Andrew about  an hour to come out.  The cousins where very excited to see them.   except for Annie, she was not going to watch them kiss,  she was very vocal about that.  hehehee

LOL  I love this picture of Haini

 We stayed around the temple for a while to get some fun family photos.  But my kids where tired and done so we said goodbye to the wedding party and took a timeout to get some food and enjoy some quiet car time.  Everett took a nap, yippee!

Then we made our way back to Kristi and Haini's home to see if we could be of any help.

Kristi was short on flowers so I took her to Safeway and we picked up a few more flowers for the wedding cake and table toppers.  ( that was my contribution to the wedding)

last minute reception prep is always so fun

Kristi is amazing!

 We followed Auntie Kristi to the reception and helped set everything up minutes before the reception started.

Laura was in charge of the cake and she did a fantastic job

 

I loved the cake toppers Kristi made

Auntie Alaisa and Ben

Kristi had made a super cute photo booth that everyone enjoyed posing by.   I took it upon myself to capture as many poses as possible.   

Seth was the official Reception photographer

the food was my favorite

I took so many more pictures but I posted them all on facebook so I wouldn't overload my blog with them.  

Grace and Andrew cut the cake and then started the dancing portions of the evening.  Everything went by so fast and before we knew it we where being kicking out of the reception.  hehehehe  It was a perfect wedding day.

Since my dad was too tired and was worried about losing his balance during the Daddy Daughter dance, all four brothers took turns dancing with Grace.   My face was covered in tears by the time it was over.  

Luke, William, Daniel, Seth

  

Grandpa Thomas with Auntie Grace earlier in the evening

 Andrew and Grace rolled out of the wedding reception on Long boards.  It was too dark to take any pictures but the event was epic.  The party waved goodbye to them as they left and then we did some clean up.

I  helped Andrew's parent's take presents back to Grace and Andrew's home.

Gwenevere and Grace wanted to spend the night at Aunt Kristi's house.  With Haini's permission I drop the girls off and took Everett back to Auntie Grace's house for the night.  Spending the entire day with family made me miss James even more.  So around 11pm we had a chance to facetime.

We stayed up giggling until the wee hours of the morning.