We had a wonderful time with family while we were there. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday-delicious as usual. Black Friday that night--crazy obviously. And then Friday-Saturday we celebrated the marriage of my cousin Rebecca to her new husband Spencer--beautiful, fun, and touching of course!
Mom asked me before I went to take lots of pictures. So I think I definitely did :) Mostly, I'll just share the pictures with some words here and there since there are so many and let the pictures do most of the talking.
This is our readers digest version of our vacation:
Thanksgiving Dinner
Pre-Dinner (1 of 3 tables)
Megan, the proud helper
Grandpa carving the turkey
Megan and Abby
Loading up the food in 1 of several food lines
Nut cup place settings
Obligatory after dinner naps
Black Friday
I'm normally a huge fan of black friday, but I haven't gone in a while. There wasn't anything in particular that we completely had our hearts set on but there were several things that looked like some pretty good deals. Megan really wanted to go so I figured I'd take her and it'd be a fun time together. Then if I see anything else I want, I could just grab it. Here's something new: Black Friday is a much nicer event in Idaho Falls than in New Jersey. Shocking, I know :)
This year, some stores opened on Thanksgiving evening. Meg & I tackled Walmart AND Target before heading home for the night. We had every intention of going to JC Penney's in the morning, but then we realized, we'd already gotten plenty and who wants to wake up again for a 6 am sale anyway.
Aunts looking through some ads. Grandma had saved us a huge stack of ads so we could find our stores and plan our course of action. That we did!
Running into Wal-mart for some craziness
Waiting in the check-out line at Target
I wish I had a picture of everything we got! Megan got quite a bit more than us but I was showing a huge amount of self restraint :) I got a diaper bag, a jacket, all of the Harry Potter DVD's (for $15.68 total!), Land Before Time, a 28-piece Rubbermaid set, & Meg bought my Christmas gift which is a Sassy's developmental playmat that was on sale for the baby :) (The kind with lots of colors and pieces that go over the top and toys hang from it)
Here's the diaper bag...how cute is that?!
And of course, we played a good amount of late night games. Our favorites this trip: Rook & Password
Friday
On Friday, after the temple, we had a luncheon at a really yummy place that I can't remember the name of for Becca & Spencer. I wasn't feeling so hot on Friday, but we had fun regardless.
I was trying to get some pictures as directed... apparently this is what "give her a kiss" means!
Haha! It was pretty hilarious.
Anyway, there's Frank and some of Jeri!
Brian & Annjannette
Me & Meg
Grandma & Meg
That night, the Bruce Tucker family came up and the Bruce Himes family also arrived! We had a pretty big get together at Grandma and Grandpa's filled with food, fun, and giant rounds of the name game. The boys (Geoff, Jimmie, Jake, Austin, Frank, and Brian) played racquetball all night. Wish I had gotten some pictures of this fun night!
Rebecca and Spencer's Wedding
Saturday was the big day! We started the day with the beautiful sealing of the couple in the Idaho Falls temple. We then went to a big luncheon to celebrate & came back for the reception that night. Becca was looking gorgeous of course and the two of them looked so happy together. Everything turned out beautifully and was a lot of fun! So happy for those two.
Here's a sneak peak of the happy couple at the temple:
Here they come!
First public kiss as the newlyweds
Some excited cousins!
Becca with Mom, Spencer with new father-in-law
The Egbert Kids
Geoff & Meg
Idaho Falls Temple
Becca & Spencer with Grandma & Grandpa Tucker
Becca & Spencer with Jan & John
The Strobel kids being silly!
Becca's lovely bridesmaids
With all the groomsmen
Luncheon:
Our favors were personalized decks of cards--fits this family so well!
Gorgeous centerpieces
Meg & Geoffrey
Marci entertaining the little ones!
Evening Reception:
Personalized hot chocolate & candy totes from the hot chocolate bar & candy bar
Lots of mini cupcakes from--you guessed it--the Cocoa Bean!
Megan & Abby being funny
AND... there was a photo booth! As you can tell... we had a lot of fun!
Meg-Geoff-Jim-Me
Succeeding at being totally and hilariously creepy!
Jimmie sat out on this next one so he took bigger pictures of the photos as they projected on the screen outside:
(Geoff-Me-Grandpa Tucker-Meg)
(Best photo ever. )
Geoff, Grandma Tucker, Megan
Hot Chocolate Bar
S'mores Bar where you literally roasted your own marshmallow
Some of the remains of the cupcake tower!
Life size cut-out of Nick since he is on his mission right now!
Gifts
Welcoming area
Relaxing before the real party.
There was a huge dancing part towards the end of the reception. We left when the dancing started because I was feeling very tired and slightly sick after a long day and had no energy to dance. Apparently it was great fun and pretty crazy! Megan stayed, so you'll have to ask her :)
Also, I learned that though I've always been emotional at weddings, I've learned this trip that my emotions really are swinging to extremes! Lesson learned: weddings while pregnant are nearly impossible if your goal is not to cry.
Also, I learned that though I've always been emotional at weddings, I've learned this trip that my emotions really are swinging to extremes! Lesson learned: weddings while pregnant are nearly impossible if your goal is not to cry.
Overall--it was a wonderful day and awesome vacation. It was so fun to be able to see all of the family on my Mom's side and know that we get to see all of the rest of the family next month!!
And Nala had her first stay at the kennel. They said she did really well even though she was nervous at first. They said she was very playful and got along great with the other dogs.
However, I think they wore her out a little.
As fun as it all was, I think we're all feeling a little bit like this now:
