Canada, Part III - Cassy's Wedding

Last week my youngest sister, Cassy got married.  She married a great guy and we're really happy for them.  The guy's name just happens to be Jarom.  My family cannot keep the "Jaron" and "Jarom" apart in their speech - it will be confusing for the rest of our lives, I'm sure.

Here is Gracen in her cute little dress at the Alberta temple, where they got married.

Here's the happy couple as they greeted their photographers.

Cassy was so beautiful in her dress!  Because I'm a little lazy and a lotta cheap, I made the boys' ties out of ribbon and a hot glue gun. :-D  Here's a picture of me and my siblings, minus my older brother Jason and his two little boys.

Same pic, with mom and my Grandpa Allred.

We unfortunately did not get any posed pictures of the nieces and nephews in their cute little outfits.

Here's a word of advice for all those interested: do NOT wait to take pictures of the little kids last!

Here are a few reception photos.

This is how the kids entertained themselves:

What a long week!  Preparing for a wedding is a load of work.  We all had fun but were glad when it was over!

P.S.  We got the results of Jaron's exam yesterday and it is GREAT news!  Jaron did well on the exam but we didn't get the results in time to get financial aid for this semester so as of right now we are scheduled to start rotations in Kansas City on September 1st!!

P.P.S.  If anyone's looking to hire a college student for summer work, I know a great candidate. ;-)

Canada, Part II

Okay, I've been taking a bunch of pictures this week since I didn't take my camera anywhere.  We've been busy with my youngest sister Cassy's wedding this week but we've also found plenty of time to have fun.

We've managed to fit in a few of our favorite pastimes, like thrift stores and the pet store.

 My mom put on a cute little movie night for the grandkids where we stayed up late to watch Tangled. (My camera is taking horrible pictures these days, especially in low light.) I'm not sure which grandkid decided which couch cushions go where but it did the job.

 Genny and I hosted a bridal shower for Cassy that turned out to be a lot of fun.  My favorite gift for Cassy was a pink tool set that one of Jarom's uncles got her.

 We took a little time out to go out and visit our great friends Brody and Brenna again.  The kids insisted on playing outside which was a nice and muddy adventure given all the recent melting snow and the fact that Brody and Brenna have a new house with a yard and driveway that is yet to come.

 Poor little skinny Eli's pants kept falling down due to the weight of the mud on his pants.  At first he kept coming to the door so that I could pull them up for him.

 Then I think he just gave up and kept sloshing away pantless.  Priceless.

It got even funnier when I went outside to snap a few pictures and Eli walked up to me and said, "Hey, my hands are dirty!"

 We played so hard we tuckered the babies out. 

Are Kristin and I really old enough to have 3 kids each?!

 Here is me and one of the greatest friends I'll ever know.  Kristin is gorgeous inside and out and I just think the world of her.

 My Dad took some time out today to show the boys his electric train. 

 We spent the afternoon at the wavepool and waterslides with Genny's bunch and Cassy.

 I love how much my kids love the water. 

 We finished the day off with an easter egg hunt at Grandma Allred's house.  It was adorable with all 5 little cousins toting around easter baskets and getting so excited about the jelly beans and goodies they found.  Unfortunately my camera does not get good pictures in grandma's dimly lit house.  But I did manage to snap one afterwards of the sparklers (of which we let off so many the fire alarm went off!).

We don't make it up to Canada near enough so I am really grateful that so many people drop their lives to make spending time with us a priority while we're here.

Canada, Part I

We are having a blast visiting family and friends here in Canada.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to remember my camera so I have very few pictures to document our adventures.

One of the first things we did when we got here was help my amazing friend Kristin move into their new house...Okay, if that didn't sound quite right, you're right - what we really did was intrude with our very noisy/rambunctious/mess-making selves while Kristin and her husband tried to get stuff moved in.  Kristin just had her third adorable child, a baby boy whom my children adore.  We tried to get pictures of the kids eating lunch together.  I have no idea what everyone is looking at here:

 But here's a pretty good one:

It is so fun that our kids get along so well - we really wish we lived close enough to play more often.

This week we also had a combined birthday party for all the April birthdays in our family - Alden, my sister's daughter, Brielle, and my mom.  In case you're wondering, no one turned 359.  The birthday kids turned 3, 5, and 59 (and yes, I do now realize the 9 was backwards - aren't we so clever.).  I love how much my mom likes being around her young grandkids.

 Alden got loads of great stuff from his aunts, uncles and grandparents.

 On Tuesday my sister went through one of our church's temples for the first time and I was lucky to get to be there with her.  To learn more about our church's temples, go here.  On the way home that night, it started to snow pretty good.  We woke up to about 6 inches of snow accumulation (it was well over my ankles).  The next day, the high was 57 degrees and the kids had fun playing in the warm weather in what was left of the snow.  Every state we've ever lived in, people use the comment "Don't like the weather?  Wait a minute, it will change!"  I've never lived anywhere that it is more applicable than here, though.  Alden is trying to figure out the seasons - what "spring" and "summer" and "winter" actually mean weather-wise.  The poor kid is so confused because I told him it's spring but it is his understanding that snow comes in the winter.  Almost everyday he asks me what season it is (and whether it is summer yet).  After this snowfall then a nice, sunny day we got a few more inches of snow that seems to have stuck for awhile.  Hopefully things'll warm up for the big weddin' day this week.

Some of the other fun things we've gotten to do (but I haven't taken pictures of) is to go swimming at Nicholas Sheridan pool, which was a blast.  My kids love the water, especially Gracen.  When we walked onto the deck and towards the pool, Gracen walked right over the edge of the pool and into the water, without even missing a beat.  The baby pool was up to her shoulders but she still got mad when I held onto her.  That girl sooo thinks she's as big as her brothers!

My siblings and I all spent a day together, taking our kids out to lunch and then mini-golfing.  I really like hanging out with my siblings - I wish we got to do it more.

I also got to get together one night with a bunch of my old friends from high school.  It was a blast and I am so sad that I didn't take my camera!  It's fun to see where everyone's at and who they married and what they're doing.  The funniest thing is, it seems like none of us have really changed that much.

Everywhere we go, people comment on Gracen. "My, she has a lot of energy." "She's not shy, is she?"  "Wow, none of my kids were like that."  Yeah...I think Gracen is exceptionally more in the energy department.  She's a bucketload of fun but this girl has no sense of self-preservation and gives me no rest.  Sitting through an hour of church feels like a workout.  For church today we went to a new town, a new building and a new ward.  Gracen sat with 3 families other than our own during sacrament meeting. She is the opposite of shy!  Tonight she slept 10 minutes on the way home from my Aunt's house, which made her think she didn't need to go to bed.  So while I tried to write this she managed to eat a stamp.  Nice, Gracen.

 And on that note, I will bid you good-night.  "Bye-bye!"

Slide Off

Early Saturday morning the kids and I set out for Canada for a trip to see my family and attend my sister's wedding.  Jaron stayed behind so that he could have his first opportunity to go hunting in over 3 years.  My kids have become quite the good little travellers - except Gracen.  That girl did not like to be in her carseat all day long.  We left at 5:00 in the morning.  I like to leave early because it means we can take our time, making stops as necessary to let the kids burn some built-up energy.

About 2 hours in to our trip, we were travelling in some pretty rough road conditions - icy roads and really heavy fog.  After a half hour of bad roads, I suddenly came up on a car braking really quickly.  I knew I wouldn't be able to stop that quickly on the slick roads so I started to brake and switched lanes. I thought, though, that if someone was breaking that heavily in thick fog, it must be because something was in front of them that I couldn't see yet.  I applied the brake harder than I should have and as I started to go past the other car, I started fishtailing - big time.  I spun side ways one way and side ways the other way before spinning a complete 360, landing hard in the median ditch.  I was a little shaken up and was in total wonder at how I somehow managed to miss the other car (who, by the way, drove on without stopping to see if we were ok!).  

As I looked back through our tracks on the median, I couldn't believe we were all fine and the van seemed fine.  We were stuck pretty good into the median, though, so I called my car insurance and they sent us roadside assistance.  After an hour and a half of waiting (we were in the middle of nowhere, Montana), turning the engine on and off periodically to stay warm, we were back on our way thanks to a great tow truck man who got out of bed and trecked to rescue us early on a Saturday morning.  The van was wobbling something horrible, though and I thought I must've done something to my alignment - or worse.  I called the tow truck driver and he stopped again to help me chip away some of the mud embedded into my wheel wells.  That reduced the wobble to a minor shake.  When I called my dad about it, he reassured me wouldn't affect my vehicle and that I could continue on my way until he could help me when I got there.  As I drove through the wetness of the now melted roads it helped work off some of that mud and the shake became barely noticable.

As I drove, I started to get emotional.  Not because I was shaken up by it all, but just the opposite - I was so filled with gratitude!  There could have been so many tiny circumstances that could have made the whole scenario a million times worse.  What could have been a horrible accident had been chalked up to an hour and a half's delay for our trip. 

First of all, we didn't hit the other car - AMAZING.  Second, there was no traffic behind us to become involved in the incident.  Third, we were all fine - I don't think the kids even really realized what had happened.  Fourth, I had a cell phone to immediately call for help.  Fifth, I had car insurance that covered free towing.  Sixth, the Progressive operator couldn't locate our location given how remote we were.  She said she had limited internet access but I suggested something and she tried it.  She was amazed when her internet let her look up weigh stations so that she could locate the one we'd just barely passed.  Seventh, judging by how far away from a city we were, that tow truck driver hopped right out of bed to come help us - a huge blessing given I had young kids in a cold car.  Eighth, the tow truck driver was nice enough to go above and beyond by stopping again to help me with the mud.

That all was enough to make me feel pretty grateful and humbled for the rest of the day.

We're enjoying our trip so far in Canada.  It's fun to be in the town I grew up in again and to see how little it changes.

P.S.  Despite the fact that people on both sides of the freeway could see I was obviously stuck with little kids climbing all over the front seat, only 2 people in that hour and a half stopped to check and see if we were ok!  Two people!!  I know we live in the day of cell phones, but what if I hadn't had a phone?!  I am SOOO grateful for those people who stopped - it was reassuring even though I knew I had help on the way.  So...if you see someone on the side of the road, please think twice about slowing down and checking to make sure they're okay!

Bangs

My parents cut my first bangs when I was 3 months old.  Because I was so young when I first had them cut, I had these massive bangs, cut from the center of my head forward, until I was in 6th grade.  The last time that I can remember having full-fledged bangs is I think 8th grade when I had thin, loopy, curled-under bangs.  So it was high time to give 'em a try again.

One would think one could take a decent picture of themselves in the bathroom but I guess this one can not!

The hairstylist said that I'm in "bangs shock" and I'd have to agree.  All afternoon I just didn't like them.  Right now I go back and forth.  Hopefully she's right and in 3 days I love them!

Alden's opinion was that I look like a boy.  Jaron's not sure yet.  Jaron's mom said I "look younger."  What do you think?

One Lucky Gal

I am one lucky lady because I get to go to church with these fine folks every week:

 

 Aren't they a good lookin' bunch?!  This one is the kids and their "say cheese" faces:

 And these are our fun faces:

 If you noticed the lovely black eye on this one, it's because she insists on climbing kitchen chairs all day long and took a nasty spill off one last Sunday.

 But our Gracen is one tough girl and nothing gets her down for long!

 

I honestly couldn't ask for a better group to get to be with.  I am one lucky gal!