Wedding, etc.

Hey everyone! I know I said I'd post over the weekend, but I had some issues with uploading the pictures to my Photobucket site. I still have some more to post, but I'll post the album so that you can look at the pictures. The album is private, so if it asks for a password, it's "Snooks". I'm also in the process of uploading the other pictures from our trip... lots of scenery and some family pics... and I might even post a couple of the videos too :). I'll try to get those done tonight (if I can get the laptop away from Jason) :P.

We had a great trip and it was VERY eventful! Here's just a few things that happened: shopping, traveling (a lot!), a wedding, a murder, a tv interview, swimming, exploring in the mountains, killing a rattlesnake, and a bunch of family came to visit us! It sounds almost like one of those "choose your own adventure" books, huh?! :) To tell you everything that happened would probably take a week, but I'll try to summarize most of it for you :).

Day 1 - Wednesday, August 13th
We got up at 4am so that we could fly out of Atlanta at 7am. We had a layover in Salt Lake City (and yes, I looked for FLDS people, but didn't see any) and finally arrived in Boise around 12:30 in the afternoon (with the time change... we had actually been traveling for 7 hours or so by then). Mom and Shanna needed to do some shopping at the Boise mall, but we were hungry, so we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. After that, we went to the mall for about 3 or 4 hours (long sigh) and then on to WalMart. By then, it was about 7:00 pacific time (our bedtime) so we went to Jack in the Box and then drove home. We got there at about 11:00pm (2am our time) and we were beat... so we went to bed.

Day 2 - Thursday, August 14th
We spent most of this day resting and helping mom make food for the rehearsal dinner (the next day). Not much happened this day... just a lot of preparation and watching Olympics :).

*EDIT* - I forgot some of the stuff that happened on Thursday!!! Please forgive me. I got my hair done (highlighted with 2 colors and 1 lowlight color, then cut) for $50! I love John Day :D. Then later that night, after all the cooking and preparation, a bunch of my family came over to visit. Grandpa and Mary Jo (his wife), Joe, Shiela, Joey, her roomie, Cindy.... and I think that's all, came to visit :). It was great seeing all of them again! :)

Day 3 - Friday, August 15th
We got up and got ready for our trip to Redmond for the beginning of Adam's wedding stuff. We left at about 11am with 2 cars full of food, suitcases, and 11 people. On the way to Redmond, we stopped in a tiny town called Mitchell to use the restrooms and go see Henry the bear. There's a "domesticated" bear in their town... almost like a mascot, that hangs out near a gas station. We got a few pictures of him, but I don't have them uploaded yet :). Anyway, we said hi to Henry and then were on our way again. We got to our hotel around 3, dropped our stuff off, raced over to WalMart, then went to the rehearsal. It was extremely long (2 hours) and annoying, but I won't get into that right now :D. After that, we went over to the reception area for the rehearsal dinner - a good old-fashioned barbecue/cookout. It was really yummy and everyone was grateful for a chair and some shade (it was around 100 degrees). After that, we headed back to the hotel for some swimming and I stayed up with Shanna's step-girls for a rowdy game of Go-Fish :D.

Day 4 - Saturday, August 16th
We got up, got ready, and had to run to Bend to get dad a jacket and tie (he looked sharp!). We got to the church just in time for pictures and to catch up with some family I haven't seen in a while. Also, there was a homeless man at the church on the front lawn that had to be dealt with. Everyone was really nice to him, but a woman from the church (mistakenly) lectured a few of the groomsmen, even though they had done nothing wrong. I can tell you about it if you want to know :). Anyway, the ceremony began promptly sometime after 2pm ;)... and it was a really nice ceremony aside from the kooky priest (it was in a Catholic church) and all of the Catholic traditions. Tucker was the best ring bearer ever, and immediately after the wedding, he fell asleep (you'll see in some of the pictures). The twins did a good job at being flower girls too. I was so proud! :D After the wedding, we went to the reception area for all of the reception events. I had a good time, but Piper (Adam's wife) was really upset because a lot of things kept going wrong (I'll go into that next time). I finally got tired of wearing my dress in the 100 degree heat, so most of us changed and after that, it was a lot more comfortable. Mom & dad finally decided we needed to go home, so we all said our goodbyes and made the 2.5+ hour trip home. Once there, we crashed again.

Ok, I think that's about all I can write for today. I'll get on either later tonight or tomorrow to give the run-down of the rest of our week.

Before I go, though, I want to give a few shout-outs to some of the people I got to see at home....
~ Shiela, Montana (& Nongbie), Amelia, Joey, Joe, and "Uck(?)" - it was awesome seeing you! I hope we can get together around Christmas and chat some more :).
~ Cindy!!! I don't know if she reads this, but it was nice seeing her too! :)

Also, to RC, my JT buddy... you're in Denver, right? I'm sorry you have to deal with the DNC.... keep your chin up and it'll all be over soon ;).

Until next time... have a good one! :)