A long and journal-y post that ends with a wedding

Back at the beginning of August, we ended up taking another trip to Utah. We had two main reasons for going. The first was a conference at Snowbird that Kevin had submitted a paper to. Initially, we had thought that he could go to Utah by himself and that could be the time that my mom could come out to meet Matthew and keep me sane with a newborn.

But then my sister Jennie got engaged in the middle of June, and we didn't think it was a good idea for my mom to come out in the midst of wedding prep. So we decided to stress her out a different way by visiting her!

(Stress is the wrong word. My mom doesn't get stressed, or if she does she hides it well.)

Luckily, Matthew was born early enough and healthy enough that we could take him on a plane, so off we went with a cute 11 day old baby on a 3 1/2 hour flight.

We attached a pipe cleaner and a binder clip to his pacifier since those were the only things we had on hand while we were packing. Maybe someday we should get something that really attaches.

The flight went pretty well. To make a long story short, I didn't end up sitting next to Kevin and Joseph even though I probably could have. Our seats got upgraded and I ended up in first class, so I thought of course that was worth sticking with. But my visions of La-Z boy seats and personal flight attendants bringing you Belgian chocolate every half hour were misguided. It was just a little bit more leg room, a meal I didn't need, and better snacks. 6 rows behind me, Kevin and Joseph had basically the same treatment. Oh well. I was sitting next to a guy and having a nice conversation, so I didn't want to move. But of course, the minute I pulled out the nursing cover he turned away and we never said a word again. So I just hung out with sweet sleeping Matthew and the magazine crossword puzzles for a few hours while Kevin and Joseph watched Lightning Mcqueen on the laptop.

And then we were in Utah! Since my dad was going to the same conference as Kevin and Leslie would be working most of the time we were there, they met us at the airport.

Since we were up pretty late by both Utah and Michigan standards, it was nice that church was a little later. I was excited to take Matthew to church for the first time, even if he wasn't.

I . . . really need to take some better pictures with Matthew.

The rest of the week was kind of a blur. Joseph kept his uncle Spencer and Grandma Barbara busy. Matthew ate about every hour and a half, except at night when it was more like every 5-6 hours (fine with me).  My mom and I took turns running into the room when we heard Matthew yelp because he was pulling his hair and unable to let go. Joseph and Kevin and I had mild colds that we worked through and tried to not spread to Matthew.(Not that Kevin would spread it to us . . . he was at the conference rasping his way through his talk.)

When he was done with the conference, we all met up again, hung out with Joseph's cousins and cousins once removed and second cousins and great-grandparents from all sorts of sides of the family, and then we were off to Duchesne!

The drive to Duchesne was a little frustrating, to be honest. Sometimes roads have to be one lane due to construction. I get it. I also understand that you have to wait your turn while the cars coming from the other direction have to go on that one lane. But what I don't understand is why a construction worker would only let about 15 cars through at a time when it's a 20 minute wait each way. Nor do I understand why they would reduce a road to one lane for five miles when there is only a 200 foot stretch where there is any equipment doing anything on a road that locals say didn't need fixing anyway. It was almost funny, except that it was late at night with kids who couldn't get back to sleep.

But we made it. An hour after we thought we would, but we made it. The next few days were another blur of taking care of Matthew, eating, playing with Joseph, and hanging out with family.

His faces crack me up.

Sunday night, we headed back up to Logan for Jennie's wedding. We had seen everybody back in May, and this time didn't even include Kiana since she's on her mission, but it still felt so nice to just have everyone there that could be there.

Especially this cute girl. Good job, Kaylie and Derek.

The next day was a busy one full of wedding prep and apartment organization. Well, in theory I helped with all that. In reality I mostly fed Matthew and stressed about not having a skirt that fit to wear to the wedding and going backwards on the childbirth healing process (it was nothing major, just unpleasant and annoying). Postpartum life rocks sometimes. But everything was resolved by the end of the day.

And then . . . it was wedding time! Joseph was really sad that he couldn't watch, and even having Meet the Mormons on in the waiting room couldn't catch his interest. Somehow he managed to find something that interested him, and we finally were able to head in. The sealing was lovely, the pictures were sunny and thankfully short-lived (good call, Jennie), and then before too long, it was time to head to the wedding luncheon.

The choice was to squint in the sun or look splotchy in the shade.

I've been a big fan of my teenage boy cousins. So has Joseph.

I always feel like paparazzi when I take pictures like this of people coming out of the temple.

I just liked all the different colors in this picture. That's all.

Jennie had asked me to prepare a musical number for the wedding luncheon, so I played a combination of "A Whole New World" and "At Last I see the Light." It was good having an excuse to refine that arrangement because I've had it sort of made up for nearly 3 years now, but it was always too boring. And now it's not. (Hopefully soon I'll post the video.) We then were asked to get up and say nice things about Jennie.

There were just two problems with that . . . we found out a minute before we got up that we were getting up, and, well, we're just not that sentimental. So none of us knew what to say at all. Luckily, everyone there (even Matt's side) already knows how awesome Jennie is, so they probably all just came to the conclusion that she has weird siblings. When some of Matt's siblings spoke and gave nice, polished remarks, it felt like even more of an epic fail. Oh well.

Right after that, I needed to go feed Matthew, but I still wanted to hear what people were saying. I thought the steps up to the stage would be a nice, dark, private place that was still in earshot of the gym. What I didn't realize was that there would be nieces and nephews running up and down those stairs and dads trying to corral their kids back in. I guess I could have moved, but sometimes you don't think about those things when you have a hungry, impatient baby. At one point, there was a huge influx of girls running up the stairs whispering, "Hide, hide!" And then I heard a bunch of kids singing "Love" by Nat King Cole. As soon as the song they weren't performing with the rest of the group was done, they all left the classroom. It was hilarious.

After the wedding luncheon, we set up for the reception. Except I mostly fed Matthew, and didn't help set up at all. But they did a good job -- lights strung around trees, pictures of family hanging from trees, beautiful tables and chairs, beautiful and delicious food . . . it was great.

Closest we got to a family picture. We do have another son somewhere.

The next day, we packed up, drove to the airport, stood in line forever at security, and flew home.

It was a good trip. We're glad we made it. 

And I'm glad that Matthew hasn't needed to eat quite so often these days.