The Great Escape

Yum yum Cabesa! (above the happy couple takes off! in a car full of balloons)

The ID Shot gun wedding!

The best help in the West!!

Cousin Tanner, lookin' all bad!
Thank goodness it didn't rain for long! Nothing these bridesmaids can't handle!

Looks delish Hailey! (I think you do have a future as a Vanna White type).

Mom and Amy at the reception. Great work Mom!!!

Take a bite for Laney!

Amy, Emily and Hailey

Amy and Janna

The wedding party jumps for joy.

The Happy Couple! Jake and Emily Mortenson. Congrats!

Me, Mom, Dad and Hailey after the sealing. Outside the Boise, ID temple.

Wouldn't be a family get together without a big picture!

Grandpa recieves his Father's Day gift. The whole family signed the matte. Uncle Bobby pitched in the dollars.

Two Melon-heads at Dave and Michele's for the breakfast!

This was Emily's Bachorlette party, they did her up like this and took her out to dinner!!!

Katie has a loose tooth that she won't pull! Look what a snaggle tooth girl she is!

We celebrated Father's day on Tuesday before I left. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast and stirfry and brownie sundae's for dinner. I got Craig AAA this year for Father's day. He has wanted it for as long as I can remember. Also he got a life is good t from the kids.

Well, after a long 6 months since we moved into the house in MI I escaped for a little family time out West. My cousin, Emily got married this past weekend and I was lucky enough to attend (sans les bebes even!). I would have preferred to go with Craig, but airfare being what it is, I came alone.

I flew into Spokane on Wednesday (I was supposed to arrive in the afternoon but didn't end up getting in until about 7pm because I barely missed my flight in Chicago. Too sad.). Mom and I did some quick shopping downtown and I got to visit with my friend Tricia Martin and spend about 14 hrs in Spokane (Dad even drove through Manito Park for me on our way out of town)before heading out to ID.

We drove to Grandpa Howell and Edna's cabin in ID. It was fun to finally see it after hearing about it for years. Also I got to watch Grandpa and Dad take down a tree. It was pretty entertaining and I'm happy to report that there weren't any injuries. Overall the drive was really fun hanging out with my Mom and Dad and stopping in McCall at "My Father's Place" for milkshakes and burgers.

After a really chilly night at the cabin, we drove down into Boise. Once we arrived we got to work setting up stuff for Emily's reception. Dad and I put together a gazebo and I even got to help a little roofing Bobby's shed. It was fun to work with my Dad. Then mom and I ran to get flowers and Hailey arrived around 4pm. It was so fun to see a bunch of my cousins and be free to help out setting up the reception.

Saturday morning we went to a breakfast for the family at Uncle Dave and Aunt Michele's house. Sadly, they are out of town (not so sadly, they are in Australia for the summer, wish it were me!), but I got to visit with the rest of the Aunt, uncles and cousins and get everybody's input on the Laney and Taylor Hawes baby pool (more on that later).

After the breakfast and after awarding Grandpa a signed pic for Father's day (and some cold hard cash, apparently that was a tradition of Great Grandpa Howell to give money for bdays, in this case it was Father's Day). We went back to the hotel to get ready for the sealing.

It was such a blessing to be able to be in the temple with so many members of my family for Emily and Jake's sealing. I really enjoyed feeling the love and support that comes with being surrounded by family in a place that reminds me of our Eternal goals.

After the sealing there were pictures outside the temple and then a luncheon where they served some fabulous Idaho potatoes!! Also they had the Chocolate Chunk cookies from costco, we all enjoyed a bite in honor of Laney(even though it wasn't Sunday)!

After the luncheon Mom, Hailey, Dad and I changed into work clothes and raced to set up stuff for the reception back at Bob and Chele's house. It was HOT! But fabulously it was dry heat.

The reception was beautiful and so perfect for Emily's fun personality. They had a soft serve ice cream machine and candy to put in bags to take home as favors and cute little Jones' soda bottels and pinwheels on the tables. Even their guest book was cute, it was "oh the places you'll go" by Dr Seuss.

Sunday morning before 6am I was at the airport and headed back home. It was sad that as soon as I arrived Craig grabbed a rental car and took off for Cincinnati, but atleast I got to go when I did. Reality has set back in now that I'm back in the humidity and there are no mountains around. Atleast I have Hailey's move to Chicago in a couple weeks to look forward to!

Success, at last!

This past weekend we went down to Ohio to visit Craig's parents. While we were there we were successful in completing a trip where NOBODY threw up. It was a miracle! It seems like every time we leave the house somebody gets sick.

We also got to meet up with our friend Lara. She lived next to us when lived in Wooster and it seems like whenever we come down she's gone or we don't connect. It was so fun to get to see her and hang out!

Another success story from this weekend is our visit to the temple. My friend Tasha Tanner came to Columbus to visit her brother and we arranged to pick her up and go to the temple together. It was a wonderful experience and also great for Craig and I to get to visit the temple together at teh same time! That hasn't happened in YEARS! After the endowment session we got lunch at PFChang's. It was wonderful. The whole way home I kept gushing about how great our day was. I had so much fun catching up with Tasha and eating great chinese food and it was so rewarding to finally get to the temple together. A huge thanks to Yaya and Paw paw for keeping our crazy kiddos while we were down in Columbus.

In addition to visiting friends and going to the temple we had a fabulous weekend visiting with family and playing in the pool. We even got the chance to see Phil, Amanda, Alexis and Addy on Friday night. I can't wait to hang out with them again (and go to Cedar Point together this Fall!). Katie was thrilled to see "the cousins" (Driana, Summer, Anthony and Cameron) and go swimming with them on Saturday night in Ya ya's pool!

We made the drive home today and it was nice to break it up with a lunch break at Kent and Leisy's house. It was a great weekend full of many of my favorite people, now that's what I call Success!!

Katie's Baptism

Katie, Taylor and Sophie on Sunday after she was officially welcomed into the Grand Rapids Ward!

Sophie, Amy, Katie, Taylor and Craig before the baptism.

Katie and Craig before the baptism. That cute little dress is the dress the building has for girls to be baptized in. It fit her perfectly. She was so glad to not have to wear a jumpsuit.

Craig, Sophie, Amy, Katie, Yaya, Paw Paw and Taylor before the baptism. Down below is Katie with her Baptism Towel. Thanks for the awesome momento of the day Ya Ya!

Katie was baptized on Saturday June 5th. I would have put pix of the baptism up earlier, but for some reason blogger was saying they were down. Here are some pix of her big day. It really was nice. We joined forces with another family in the ward so she was baptized the same day as a little boy in her class named Elijah Chino. Craig's parents were able to come up for the baptism

and we were so happy that they could that we asked them to be part of the program. Craig's Dad said the opening prayer and Craig's mom gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost and even gave Katie a really excellent book on the Holy Ghost that she likes reading (she even read it for our FHE lesson last Monday). After the baptism we had ice cream sundaes. It was perfect!

I'll have her add some words of her own about the experience when she comes in from riding her bike!