Another Great Utah Trip

It kind of feels like we've been in Utah more this summer than in Portland! We just got back from a very hectic (but VERY fun!) Utah trip. This trip was even more fun because we went with (almost) our whole family to go to Jade's cousin Sydney's wedding. Jade drove down to Utah early last Wednesday morning, so he could work along the way and left Peyton, Tinky and me home all alone until Saturday, when we flew out to Utah to meet him. The first red flag of the trip was the 2 hour ride to the airport. 2 hours! That drive usually takes 35 minutes, one hour tops if you're in rush hour traffic. But we were blessed with our flight being delayed 2 1/2 hours (how often do you consider that a blessing?) so we were able to make our flight. Peyton was actually pretty amazing on the flight. My secret weapon: strapping her in her car seat. It was one of my best ideas ever. We spent the night with Steph and Rawlin, and then in the morning, we went to Sacrament meeting with Jerai and Phil in our old ward. It was so fun to see lots of our old friends. It made me miss Utah a little. We spent the afternoon with Jerai, Phil and Boyd at Phil's family's house, taking the kids on 4-wheeler rides, jumping on the tramp, and letting them pet the bulls. Peyton loved the bulls. We had a delicious dinner with the Moultons, played an intense game of Boccie Ball, then went up to South Jordan to see Jade's favorite old mission companion, Jessie Clark, and his wife and little girls. Peyton had a great time playing with Abby, and the adults all had a great time visiting, catching up and playing a raucous game of Scattergories. The boys tried to cheat, but we still managed to beat them. Monday we had breakfast with the Clark's, then headed to Steph's salon to get our hair done and to put Peyton down for a nap. We had a Schindler/Thelin family luncheon at Pizza Factory, and we were all happy to have the private room in the back, because there were 4 toddlers running around and it was crazy. We seriously love those Schindlers; and we all gave a concerted effort to get them to relocate to Portland. Monday night Peyton was super grouchy from her barely-nap, so we decided not to inflict her wrath on anyone, and we just got a hotel room in Orem, put her to bed early, got Cold Stone, and watched The Bachelorette (well, I watched it, and Jade slept). Tuesday we all woke up well-rested and happy, and we dropped Peyton off at the Moulton's, where our angels Jill and Beth volunteered to babysit Peyton (along with Boyd) while we were at the wedding in Salt Lake. The sealing was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, the weather was beautiful; the day was basically perfect. We had a family luncheon after the sealing and pictures (lots of pictures) at the Joseph Smith building; which I had never been to, but has an absolutely stunning view of the temple grounds. After the luncheon we went to fetch our little one, then headed back up to Sandy for the reception. It was at this place called La Jardin, which is a beautiful greenhouse that you can rent out for receptions. It turned out so great! Everything was so cute, and so Sydney. It really was awesome. We left the reception early so we could get on the road at a decent time, because we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove the 5 hours to Boise, then stayed the night at a little hotel, then got up (way too) early with our bad sleeper, then made the drive home. It should have only taken about 7 hours, but Jade worked along the way, making stops every few towns, so the drive ended up taking about 13 hours. It was brutal. Peyton was an all-star though, which is more than a mom could ask for. Like always, it was a great trip, but I'm happy to be home and back to our normal routine.

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Jade took Peyton for a ride on the 4-wheeler (Peyton calls anything with a motor a "ride")

Cutie little cousins

Sisters (minus Kris)and with Mom Siblings (minus Jer)a tribute picture, to Jeremy

Don't know quite what this face is, but I sure do love it.She kept pulling up the tulle on her dress and looking through it- it was actually pretty funny.I put this picture on to show some of the details of the reception (plus the greenhouse), but also because I thought Peyton's face was pretty classic (see below)

She was pretty happy to be sitting with the big girls

Last, but not least: the Beautiful Bride