My Sister's Wedding!

So my closest sister and best friend Erika got married to a great guy, Tyler Pickens, on Saturday August 7, 2010 in the Twin Falls Idaho Temple! I was soo happy for her and that she was finally able to find someone that made her so happy! It was a beautiful day to see them sealed together- Erika looked gorgeous and I'm also excited to have Tyler a part of our family.

Here is them walking outside of the temple, their first pictures as husband and wife! The sealing itself was also very nice, I was teared up the entire time :)

They were both so happy :)

Erika with her bridesmaid sisters, and I also got to be her matron of honor :)

Can you tell we're sisters?!

We tried to get a shot with Jacob in his cute tux but he wasn't going for it. But in his defense he woke up sick that morning with cold symptoms and a fever, and was teething, and he was all sweaty since it was pretty warm outside and he'd been waiting for a long time! Poor baby never seems to feel well when we travel :(

They were a beautiful couple!

That night they had a beautiful garden reception in a friend's backyard in Gooding, Idaho. For the small town that it is we actually had a pretty good turn out!

They did all the traditional stuff too, like cut the cake, had their first dance, and a parents dance and Erika tossed a bouquet.

Watching them cut the cake was actually pretty amusing though since they didn't really have a clue what they were doing. They would have each fed themselves a piece if we didn't remind them they needed to feed each other! And the slices were so huge! It would've been perfect for smashing, but they played nice :)

pretty set-up for their first dance

Erika dancing with my dad for the parents dance

At this reception no one else really danced afterwards since the music was a little quiet, but everyone wanted to see me and my brother James salsa...so we did. I was a little rusty but James was really into it since he just took a ballroom class at school and wanted to show off.

siblings- Julia, Andrea, James and I- love this picture!

I also love this picture of Jacob playing at the fountain during the reception. Notice we let him stay in his casual shorts for the night so he wouldn't get so hot again, haha.

our little family :)

One week later we were able to do a second reception in Maryland at my parents new church building. It was a smaller reception but it was nice to see more friends that we knew and my dad's family was able to make it out to this reception so it was fun spending time with them for a few days too.

with the Meiners side of the family

They got to do a few things a second time, such as cut the cake, and the first dances. It was probably good they got a re-do though since now they knew how to cut the cake (but still no smashing!) and the music was a lot better to hear at this reception so they were actually able to dance longer and enjoy it, so that was nice.

And since us girls put together a playlist we were able to keep dancing afterwords and have a little fun!

cute picture of Jacob begging for some cake :)

I guess for Jacob the party doesn't begin until his pants come off! And he did this all on his own as soon as the guests left, haha

So it was over a week of wedding celebrations, I hope Tyler and Erika were able to enjoy it and all the attention! It was so fun spending so much time with my family, because of course we did more than just the wedding festivities, so I'll add my separate posts soon of our trips to both Idaho and Maryland!

Congrats again to Tyler and Erika! :)

Hiring Help

So my brother James was able to come stay and hang out with me for a week and a half before we needed to head out to Idaho for our sister's wedding. James was actually at BYU-Idaho but he had no where to go since it was too expensive and silly to fly all the way home to Maryland since he'd have to go back to Idaho for the wedding. And at last minute Luke went out of town to Albequerque for work for a few weeks and so I would be all alone anyway and so it worked out that James could fly to Denver and hang out with me and then help me make the drive out to Idaho too.
Anyway, we figured since he'd be here for a little while, we might as well put him to work so that he wouldn't get bored. We've struggled with our yard this year- we never got our sprinklers going so all our grass died fast, and it's been difficult for me to find time to work in the garden expecially when it's soo hot outside and Jacob gets bored outside quickly. And the sides of our house, including our boat storage area has been covered in weeds knee-high or higher!
This picture was after we pulled most the weeds, but it still just looked awful! So we decided that we'd lay down a weed tarp and then put rocks over the top.

After measuring everything the lady at the store told us we needed about 7 tons of rocks! When we got it, we were almost worried it wouldn't be enough, but we ended up with plenty extra!

So several days later, after plenty of shoveling, wheelbarrowing, raking and smoothing out rocks, we finally finished! I was much more pleased with the way it looked, it was at least a lot better than before, but definetly more work than you would expect!

So with all of our extra rock it was actually nice to be able to smooth out more rock in the backyard where we already had some rocks, and along and behind our shed.

We had also had a cactus here in the entrance of this walkway along our shed. And why someone had put in a cactus in a backyard I will never understand. So James helped me destroy it but in the process we got pricked several times- and let me warn you- getting pricked by a cactus reaaally hurts! Especially since there are all these tiny little splinters too and those all kept getting through our gloves, so it was a very annoying process! But I was very grateful for James' help, and I'm sure getting paid for his work was hopefully somewhat worth it, even though he swears he will never touch rocks again. And Luke is happy that it's all done and taken care of, and he didn't have to do anything! So it has made our yard a smidge better, but we will definetly have to take better care of our grass and gardens next year! A little at a time I guess- who knew having a yard would be so much work?

Jacob's First Baseball Game

So Luke scored some sweet tickets from work for the Rockies game last night. It was 4 tickets for the 14th row, which ended up being only 10 rows back from the Rockies dugout- they were amazing seats! So we brought our good friends Andrew and Jannie with us for a little double date- except we brought Jacob too since he's still free and it was his first experience with a baseball game! So not only did we have great company and amazing seats, it was a really fun game too! The Rockies beat the Padres 10-8 ending with a grand slam! It's been years since I've gone to a baseball game but it was way fun!

here was our view- and I didn't even have to zoom in!

It was also great for Jacob to be so close so he had a great view of the game! He was in a trance for about the first 45 minutes- he loved to watch what was going on! And it was a late night but he was amazingly good the whole game- he had plenty to look at to keep him entertained! I'm so glad he had a good time too!

Here's Luke and Andrew up on their feet after the Rockies made their first 5 points in one inning! We were so glad to have Andrew and Jannie there with us to enjoy the game and with the big Rockies fans that they are we're glad they had a great time too! :)

Firework Fail

So the 4th isn't all about fireworks- it's also about the bbq and food too! On Sunday for dinner Luke smoked up some ribs that he was really excited about, and we also had corn on the cob, watermelon, strawberries & blueberries, muffins, and rice krispie treats for dessert.

The weather was really nice all weekend but unfortunately Sunday night it started getting stormy and windy. Our plans were just to walk down to the edge of our neighborhood where the fireworks were but we were hesitant since it was starting to rain before we left, and they were actually calling a tornado warning for parts of Colorado. But there's tornado warnings practically every day it seems, and so we decided we might as well still give it a try. So I strap Jacob in the baby carrier and all of us were geared up in hoodies, pants, umbrellas, and Luke even had on his big boots, a hat, and raincoat too!
The rain wasn't too bad at first but once we made it to the field, walked around the fair for a bit, and found a spot to sit under a tree all the sudden it started really pouring hard! There weren't that many people out to begin with due to the rain, but as soon as the rain started pounding everyone started running! Luke and I ran to a bridge to get dry and then finally the word spread that the fireworks would be delayed until the next night. So Luke and I walked home in the pouring rain- all for nothing! I really actually didn't mind though, I thought the whole thing was kind of funny and it's definetly one I'll remember!
So Luke and I made the walk home, gave Jacob a bath to warm up and then put him straight to bed- poor thing was so cold and practically asleep on the walk home. Then we popped in a movie with some popcorn and hot chocolate, and of course then we heard the fireworks going off! So we missed them afterall, but at least we could still see and hear them from our window.

Luke also had Monday off so we took advantage of the day to work on our yard and take care of things around the house. We were going to try a new place for dinner but it ended up being closed for the holiday so we went to Cafe Rio, which was still kind of a treat.

While we were there we saw another young couple there with a 3 year old girl and Jacob was eyeing her the whole time we were eating. Finally she walked close enough to us that Jacob wanted to get down, so we let him walk around to say hi to her. But then Jacob goes right in front of the girl and then just flops down and lays face down on the floor like a fish- right in the middle of the restaurant! I have no idea what he was doing, but he seemed to just be trying to be silly to impress her... but the girl just stared at him. So then Jacob tries his next move and walks right past her all smiling and flirty and then walks back to Luke but he must have been nervous because he trips right in front of Luke and bangs his head on Luke's chair. Luke and I were trying so hard not to laugh but we know the girl and her parents probably thought Jacob was a dummy! Haha it was just so funny because he was totally embarrassing himself trying to impress an older girl! So it's basically confirmed to me Jacob will be just like his dad in trying to do anything silly to get attention from a girl! Not that Luke ever lied on a floor or anything, but Jacob definetly made a little fool of himself, and Luke seemed pretty proud!
Anyway, it was an enjoyable long weekend, and it's always great to spend time together as a family :)