Wedding Bells

 Justin and I made our way across the country to see my little brother get married a few weeks ago.  Kasey joined our family in kind-of a funny time--we are spread out across the world and I personally met her the morning of the wedding in the hotel lobby.  And I may have thought she was her sister when I ran into them.

I'm so happy to have her in our family.  I imagine there's a lot of pressure to marry a boy with four older sisters!  During the ceremony, the officiator said something about them becoming a family today and Kasey looked over at Collin with the sweetest, kindest, happy smile.  My heart totally melted and I was so glad he found someone who adores him. 

We dropped the kids off in Salt Lake (literally...we flew in, J grabbed the kids and ran towards baggage claim, then pushed a stroller through security to Justin's mom and hauled back to the gate to catch our flight to Portland.  And by 'pushed' I mean Justin handed it off to a nice stranger and told them to take Bennett to the lady waving down the hall so he wouldn't have to go through security again,) so we had these folks all to ourselves.  Those kids tend to steal the show.  After the ceremony and lunch, we headed out to find a batting cage.  Apparently this is tradition for Noah and Justin???  Allison and I were unaware.  But it was very important, so we took off.  It was closed for the winter so the backup plan was to take a trip to Voo Doo Doughnuts.  Two major highlights: my sisters struggling to order anything because they were embarrassed to say the names to my mom and Justin purposefully picking things that my mom would have to order by name.  Then my cousin, Aaron, being kicked by a homeless lady as we walked under an enormous painted wall that said, "Keep Portland Weird."  Mission accomplished.

 They had their reception at an awesome barn that night.  I loved the setting and wished I had better camera equipment to capture it.  Lucky for us, they had my cousin's wife, Shonda, clicking away.  I've admired her blog and photography for years so it was fun to meet her and see her work.  I loved getting to know Kasey's family as well.  I was trying to pull info out of her dad about what she was like as a kid, but he wasn't spilling too much. :)  I'm excited to get to know her more over the years.

Then it was off to Utah for the holidays and another party for Collin's family and friends there.

My mom decided to hold it in the Eccles Mansion, an awesome old house in Ogden with a lot of history for our family.  Koryn had piano recitals there, I took ballet and art classes there as a kid, and we all performed the violin there for different events and receptions.  I forgot how beautiful it was, though.  We had a great night seeing old friends.

(Kasey's parents, Scott and Heather, meeting my Aunt Marilyn)

Sometimes this girl just can't take a normal picture...

(My mom and nephew, Spencer.  Either Spencer or his brother, Parker, were by my mom's side most of the night.  My dad was unable to leave his mission to come for the celebration and these sweet boys must have sensed a need to stick by Grandma :) )

Kasey wore right through her awesome red pumps!

(Parker, Spencer, Collin, Abbey, Whitney, Hayden, & Kasey)