Elise's Wedding

I can't believe my youngest sister is married. It was a wonderful weekend - I loved being with our whole family and meeting the Finlaysons. I've only included a handful of pictures - wish I had taken more...

Coming out of the temple - my favorite part because of the pure joy on their faces.

The youngest nieces waiting for their Aunt to come out of the temple.

This face kills me. 

 When they came out, they were swarmed by all the kids - very cute.

Gorgeous flowers to complement her choice of navy and green 

The sisters at the beautiful reception site:

All of the Peterson nieces and nephews:

Peterson siblings:

Waiting for the ring ceremony to begin - the perfect form of entertainment, especially with cousins:

The beautiful couple:

Sam surprised Elise with a song from her nieces and nephews:

The girls found the candy, gelato, and carmel apples very quickly:

Rainey did get dinner at some point:

Waiting for Sam and Elise to cut the cake - love the anticipation on their faces:

Last Saturday, we had the chance to walk with our dear friends to honor their daughter, who is cancer free now! It was a big event at Sugarhouse Park. The girls loved it! And who can pass up Cinderella?

 

We went to princess story time at the library:

And we made gingerbread cookies in Halloween shapes - they still talk about it and ask to do it again. I tell them we can do it at Thanksgiving - need a bit of space between such an involved activity. =)

And here's our most recent family picture from the Mitchell reunion in August. We got one at the wedding, but it keeps failing to upload onto this site...

We're excited about the arrival of a baby brother in December. Kevin and I are loving this stage with 2 big girls, and we are making sure to take advantage of the time now before our lives get rocked with #3.

Family time

We've had the privilege of being able to gather with both sides of the family this summer - for each reunion, we had everyone but one family from each side. In July, we headed to Newport Beach and shared a beach house with the Mitchells.

The girls LOVED the beach. Rainey especially loved the waves, and E loved the sand. We hardly saw Rainey because she just wanted to be with cousins.

One day, we took the girls on a bike ride - they were in heaven.

I loved looking behind me and seeing these cute, happy faces:

The girl cousins who were there:

The girls loved the sunglasses that they got from their secret cousins - they wore them every chance they could get:

In August, we gathered in Woodside with the Petersons. The girls were in heaven with all the different activities we got to do. They just loved being with their cousins.

Wagon rides:

Cousin camp - the older cousins organized daily activities for the younger cousins. It was awesome:

The kids loved their time with Grandpa and Gramsey:

We spent lots of time at the playground, pool, and we did some outings to SF and Stanford shopping center. Here, we got some yogurt, and E was especially excited to have her own chocolate yogurt. Right before I took this picture, she said, "This is a wonderful day." It was.

We even got to ride horses, which Rainey enjoyed. E was all set to sit on one, but when it came right down to putting her in the saddle on the pony, she adamantly and repeatedly said, "No thank you." At least she was polite.

In between these memorable and magical gatherings, we did the usual summer activities with swimming and hiking and being outside in the warm weather.
Painting, which is always a hit - totally worth the effort when I see how happy they are here:

We even made it to the farmer's market, which is one of my favorite things to do in the summer - hula hoops and birds that wave. Who needs the good food and fun atmosphere?

We can't believe the summer is basically over - seemed to fly by. I do love the slightly cooler weather, changing leaves on just a few trees, and more of a schedule that comes with the Fall.

Spring!

While I'm sure we have more snow storms to come, this past week has been extra fun because of the sunny weather. The sun does wonders for my mood. I didn't realize how much until I got to be outside so much.

We've already enjoyed one hike.

Love this face

R trying to soak up some much needed sunlight.

Backyard time all day.

Two Rapunzels:

Before Spring, we used a Groupon to get 10 tickets to Jungle Jim's. The girls were in heaven.

It was so weird for me to see E do each ride by herself, especially the first picture - that ride is quite fast, but she was loving it.

Another recent highlight: Princess luncheon down in Draper with cousins. R was so stoked!! Here she is just before...meeting Rapunzel:

Here's one of the many pictures we got with each princess. R chose a Belle princess dress:

This company did a great job - lots of time with each princess. After the lunch, they broke the kids up into small groups and the kids got time with each princess doing different small activities. Here Tinker Bell has given them a little bit of her pixie dust (glitter on their faces) and she told them to wish for something they wanted. You can see R taking that wish very seriously. =)

After, she asked me why her wish didn't work: "Mom, I wished SO hard so that I could fly. Why didn't I fly?" So sad and so cute - too bad Tinker Bell could only give them a tiny bit of pixie dust so that there would be enough for the other kids. There are a bunch of other pictures from the heavenly morning for R, but these are a fair representation. For some odd reason, I don't have any of all the cousins together. Getting a few hours with just R was very fun for me.

Some highlights over the past couple months:

Ice cream after dinner - E's first cone.

Our last day with my cousin who watched them while I taught my course:

Throwing rocks into the Jordan River - they could've done this for hours.

Great boulders and a climbing tree in our neighborhood - we go here often:

Indoor picnic with all of the animals:

R holding her many babies - she came up with the way to tie them onto her body:

"Kate the Moose" - we bought her from Costco and she's well-loved. This was what I saw when I peeked over the counter while I was making dinner one night (now a common spot for E):