The temple!

The day before the wedding and the day before that

Franny and I had our nails done together on Thursday for the wedding. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! She thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and so did I! I was so proud of her for sitting so still while she was getting pampered and after while I was getting pampered.

Friday we all met at the church building to help put together the flowers for the wedding party and the centerpieces at the reception. She wanted vases filled with small limes and pink roses. They were really cute! I'm not sure if I got a picture of the finished product, so you may just have to take my word for it. We were there for several hours and Sophie and Franny were both real troopers! Sophie poured her water bottle on herself three or four times, soaking ALL of her clothes, so she just ran around the building in just her diaper (sometimes less!) Most of the time I didn't even know where she was- thank goodness Grant was around to keep an eye on her. That's my Aunt Gayle, Grant's sister Heidi, and his mom Sheryl doing an awesome job on the bouquets. (Mine was terrible! I wouldn't be surprised if someone had to go back and fix mine afterwards.)




Later that night we went to a dinner in honor of Julia and Grant and hosted by the Holmes. It was a really fun night with delicious food and great company. The highlight of the evening for me had to be when the fathers of the couple were getting ready to say a few words and Sophie lost her grasp on her balloon. The string was just out of my reach and Sophie was on the verge of a meltdown; I thought I could gracefully jump and grab the string but I was wrong. Instead a room of full of Julia and Grant's relatives saw me jumping and grabbing at air. That must have looked cool.



Clock-wise: The happy couple- aren't they cute together? Grant cracks me up when he makes that face. Richard and Kristy pretending they just met. Poor Franny, asleep and face-down on the couch. My Dad and Grant's dad saying a few words. (Which I barely heard any of, thanks to Sophie and her incessant whining over a certain balloon. It took my kids a little too long to adjust to the time change.)

What if Jurassic Park were real and...

Julia's best friend Tara- who, as my mom would say is "top of the charts" as far as best friends go- threw a Bachelorette Party for Julia at her and Grant's new apartment in Rancho San something-or-other. We had a great time and laughed our heads off.
Tara made delicious food and had some hilarious little surprises planned and it made for a great night. And just by the way, her surprises included but were not limited to a very tiny replica of a certain male anatomy part that can potentially grow to 1200 times it's original size simply by adding water. Impressive. I am too embarrassed to share any details about the rest of the surprises!

Tara had us play a game called "What if?" We each had to write a question and an answer on two separate pieces of paper. Example: "What if Julia got pregnant on her honeymoon?" Tara would draw a question at random along with an answer and read them together. I could not come up with a good question, and the only idea that came to me was this: "What if Jurassic Park were real and Grant and Julia went there on their honeymoon and got lost in the jungle with all the dinosaurs?" I was embarrassed about it and my plan was to pretend it wasn't me when it was read, but as soon as Tara read it I burst out laughing, but it didn't matter because Julia knew exactly who it was anyway. I am such a nerd.

Julia married into a great family. It was so fun to meet them all. I've been blogging friends with his sister Heidi for a while now, so it was to meet her in person and I was so glad she and Randi could come to the bachelorette party. They are both a lot of fun!

Here's a group shot we were able to pull off using the self-timer function. Not bad. (From left to right: Sloane (Maggie's b.f.), our cousins Jessica, Vanessa, and Chrissy, Heidi, Julia, Annie, Randi, Tara, Maggie, and me. (My sister-in-law Kristy couldn't make it because her work schedule was so crazy, but we missed her!)
And my sisters and I. It occurs to me now that we should have gotten a good cousins shot, but I think Jessica, Chrissy, and Vanessa left before we got picture happy.