Family Picture Day

 May 16th our dear friend Rachael took our family pictures.  She chose a beautiful location, close to the Pier and looking out over the ocean.  She was so fun and made it easy to smile!  Here is a selection of my favorite family photos.

Time to Party!

 They held a reception in Ririe on May 8th and an open house in Ashton on the 9th.  Tyler and Kirk made that swag from trees in their yard.  It was beautiful!

 They are so stinkin' cute!

 The decorates were very elegant.

Mom and Dad

 Chant and Porter having a serious discussion.

Ainsley and Easton

 They served little cheesecake bites, cream puffs, chips and salsa, and there was an Italian Soda bar.  My girls volunteered to make sure the chips and salsa were well stocked.  They loved helping and felt so important being able to be a part of it all.

 On the way back to Ashton after leaving the Ririe reception, the sky was beautiful!

 After a long day of partying, Ainsley was exhausted!

It was such an amazing few days and we loved every minute of it!  I was excited the parties were back to back and not a week apart because that meant we could go to both.  It was so nice to see people from the ward who came.  And I loved being able to talk to Chayla's family more.  They are a fun group!

After a weekend of partying, we left Sunday morning to start our drive home.  We left at 7 a.m. and got home about 9:30.  We were exhausted but we made it.  Well worth the trip!

Tyler and Chayla

Ainsley, Lily, and Brinnley

 May 8th my nephew, Tyler, married an incredible girl, Chayla.  We were so excited to be able to be there for the amazing event.

Porter, Ainsley, and Brinnley

 The ceremony was beautiful!  My Dad stayed with the kiddos and brought them all down so they were waiting outside for us to come out of the temple.

The cousins:  Brent, Ainsley, Lily, Brinnley, and Porter

 We tried to get a better picture with all of the kids actually looking at us and this is what we got instead.  At least we had someone looking...

 Mother and Father of the groom  (Kirk, Christi, and Jayden)

 Madison, McKenzie, Kirk, Jayden, and Christi

 Z, Madison, Christi, and Maddie

 Maddie and Logan

 The Bride and Groom!  She was beautiful and he looked quite handsome!  Such a cute couple!

Lacey and Ainsley 

Jayden, Easton, and Kaelie

 I thought this was so cute.  Porter and Kirk just having a chat.

 Logan, Lacey, Luke, Maddie,
Ainsley, Lily, and Brinnley

 My brothers and me

 Kasey, Tracey, Dad, Mom, Christi, Kirk, me, and Chant

 my Dad and me

 Grandpa and the kiddos

 I snagged him long enough for a hug.

I have to say that this was such a sweet wedding.  Everything felt so calm and relaxed.  There wasn't the frantic, stressed feeling.  It was all about enjoying the moment and being with family and friends. I bet the mother of the bride was feeling a little crazy, but she never showed that.  These two are a great couple and we were so excited to meet Chayla and her family.  And they are amazing people!  We had such a fun time with them!  It was beautiful and I felt blessed to be there with them.

P.S.
This is my 500th post!

The Pier

April 20 we had a beautiful day so we went down to the Pier.  This oil rig was in our area for about 2 weeks getting repaired and waiting for its departure to Alaska.  It caused a lot of controversy in our area, but it was still cool to see.

 This is the ferry that goes back and forth from Victoria, Canada and Port Angeles.

 It came right next to the Pier, close enough that we could wave at the people on board.

A random sailboat was docked right at the Pier.  That was a really cool sight!  Such a fun day for us!

Visitors!

 April 8-12 Gran and Jen came for a visit.  We were beyond thrilled to have them come!  We were missing family like crazy.  Chant had to work still, so I got to play tour guide.

Our first day we went to Salt Creek.  We've never been there when the tide was so low!  It was pretty cool for us to be able to walk all the way out to this little island.

 The kids climbed up on it so I could take there picture.  It was kind of gross because that rock is covered with little shells.  I was hoping whatever they were that they were already dead!

 This is another place the kids have never been able to walk to before.  Pretty cool.

 Aunt Jen, the artist!

 I forgot my camera, but we did go to the city pier one day and walked around downtown.

 Saturday we took the ferry into Seattle.  Coming in the skyline was beautiful!

We took them to Pike's Place Market, the gum wall, and to see the Troll.  (All of our favorites.)

That night we went to the most fun little diner.  It had a Route 66 theme, and all the booths had city names over them.  It took us a while to figure that out because there were names like London on the plaques.  It was pretty funny because the waitress used to live in Texas and she went off about how much she hated it there and couldn't wait to see it in the rearview mirror.  We debated telling her London is in Texas and so were a few of the other towns, like Sidney.  We decided to leave her in ignorant bliss so she wouldn't hate her job.  She was a hoot!  She told us they didn't serve milkshakes on Saturday because they are too busy.  We totally believed her.  She was laughing so hard she sat right down next to Chant in the booth.  The other funny was Porter.  He kept saying his tooth was really wiggly.  Next thing I knew he had pulled it out.  We asked a bus boy who walked by for more napkins because he was bleeding a lot.  The kid was kind of like okay.  Then we told him Porter had just pulled his tooth out.  We died laughing because that kid's face was so funny.  Total shock!  It was such a fun night!

We were so grateful they made the trip to come see us!  It was perfect timing with it being Spring Break.  And we needed it!  Love you!