A couple of pictures from Eric and Alison's wedding

These were a sampling of the pictures that my Mom sent following my last post... Thanks for your quick response, sorry it takes me so long to hold up my end of the bargain! There are some pictures that are less chaotic looking, but I thought these were the funniest ones. Oh, the wedding was beautiful and so much fun! Alison's aunt made her dress, it was the most gorgeous wedding dress I have ever seen!! Didn't hurt that it was being worn by a beautiful bride!

For us, it was quite an eventful day to say the least- Ben scared me to tears when I found him in his bed after nap time with his finger in an "unbulbed" lamp (thank God everything was okay), we were rear-ended on the way to the wedding, somehow left Ben's shoes at home (I thought I left them in the car!), couldn't find Ashlyn's hairbands (later found them in my makeup bag, which I know I looked there), I was barely ready and dressed in time for pictures...

... it was otherwise a lovely day in which I got to watch my brother wed the woman of his dreams and the love of his life. It was a blessed day - I could not be more glad to have Ali as my sister-in-law!! The ceremony went well- Ashlyn the proud flowergirl was upset that she forgot to toss any petals, but I was thankful she was more concerned with navigating the rock steps that were a bit more treacherous for her little brother the ring bearer who was hanging on her arm. When they made it to the front, she quickly tossed out several handfuls of petals... and so did Ben since he could easily reach into the basket. Ashlyn spent the first few minutes of the ceremony picking up any petals that Ben threw down. I don't know how noticeable it was to everyone else.


Love you Eric and Alison!! Congratulations!

Away for so long

Sorry I've been M.I.A. for awhile, no I am not quitting the blogging gig. As is the case for most everyone, this summer has been SO busy!! Since I have left out about 1/2 of our summer activities, I will just hit on the recent highlights:

• Eric and Alison's wedding (actually photos are just from the rehearsal dinner unless my mom wants to send me some pictures from the wedding day...)

dinner was at The Oasis, it was a beautiful sunset!

The Happy Couple

My family

• After the wedding, we had a day to pack and get ready to go to Mo Ranch, which is a family retreat with our church. This was our first time to go as a family and it was a lot of fun: we swam and floated down the river, played at the rapids, Ashlyn did the rope swing, Paul and I played volleyball with the other adults and the kids played on the many playgrounds. We also did a lot of singing and worship. Thanks to my parents, Ben still got in some quality naps but we had some difficulty getting everyone to sleep in the same room. By the last night we finally had it figured it out.

Although I didn't have my camera with me most of the time, I did manage to get a few pictures on the last day. What I found so sweet was that all the little babies that I used to hold and play with when I was a teenager are now teenagers and are the ones holding and entertaining MY little babies!!