December Trip: Derrick's Wedding

We were looking forward to having our first Christmas by ourselves with the kids.  We were excited to have a month off of school and not have to travel during the holidays.  Then around August, my little brother told me that he was planning to get married in December out in Utah.  We started making plans to head out West for his wedding and Christmas.

 

Derrick and Anika leaving the Mt Timanogos Utah LDS Temple.

The kids and I headed out with my parents in their new motor home.  Mike didn't finish with finals until the day before the wedding.  As soon as he finished, he drove out to meet us for the reception in Wyoming.
 

 

Just before buckling up for the long trip.  I was a mean mom and made them stay buckled up the whole time, unless Eliza needed to go potty or Caleb needed a diaper change.

Of course riding in the motor home was much more comfortable than our little car, but Caleb did all he could to make sure we weren't overly comfortable.  The first night, just as we were starting to talk about pulling over to sleep, I looked at Caleb who had suddenly stirred and woken up.  Streams of vomit began erupting from his mouth.  He kept going for what seemed like a whole minute.  I will spare you all the details, but know that it was not pretty.  I was so thankful for my mom who cleaned up his sopping wet car seat while I changed his clothes.  We thought maybe it was car sickness since it was so sudden, but it continued through the night, so fortunately/unfortunately it wasn't car sickness.  That was one loooong night.  I was so ready to just find a hotel and have Mike pick us up as soon as he could and take us back home, but I stuck it out and we survived.  I was so glad that Eliza didn't get sick.  The next night we stopped somewhere with laundry facilities (Cabela's in Nebraska), so that we could wash the load of dirty clothes that quickly accumulated.

 The kids enjoyed stretching their legs at Cabela's.

The night before the wedding, my parents treated everyone to dinner at Tucano's.  There were lots of people, but mostly I visited with Grandpa Carl and Uncle Kevin, who were visiting from California.

Of course there was some celebrating!

 Jay (who has an obvious obsession with Harry Potter at the moment) and Eliza hugging looks like a posed from a high school dance picture.

Grandpa Carl got to made fast friends with his youngest great-grandchild.  After hefting Caleb for a minute, Grandpa gave him the nickname "Two Ton."

We definitely missed having Mike at the temple for the wedding.  We tried to get a few pictures outside of the temple before everyone froze.

I made dresses for Carly, Eliza, and Chelsea for the occasion.  I was pleased with how they turned out!  These three cousins are each 6 months apart (Eliza, then Carly, then Chelsea), then Caleb was born 6 months later.

This little gentleman was dashing in his just-a-tad-too-big suit.  He nearly stole the show from Derrick!

 This is a siblings and spouses (minus Mike) picture taken with Whitney's camera (for some reason I didn't get any).  Both Eliza and Caleb wanted to be held, so Whitney helped out.  I'm not quite sure why the photographer didn't just stick my parents in this shot (or is there one like that too).

After the wedding, we all headed up to a small town in Wyoming for the reception.  Mike arrived at the motel a few hours before us.  Uncle Kevin and Grandpa Carl were there too.  I feel like I spent the whole night chasing after the over-tired kiddos and didn't visit with Grandpa and Kevin as much as I would have liked too.

One of the most memorable parts of visiting Wyoming was that cowboys really dress like cowboys.  I think our side of the family were the only ones without cowboy yoke shirts (even people's white Sunday shirts were cowboy-fied), Wranglers (Sunday best ones, of course), and belt buckles that weigh more than some newborns. 

 I'm excited to have a four generation picture with my Grandpa Carl!

 Uncle Kevin holding "Two Ton" with Eliza and Mike.

 Well at least half of us are smiling.

 A valiant attempt at getting the grandkids to smile and look the same direction.

The morning after the wedding, we got a personal tour of the Fort Bridger museum.  Anika's family knows someone who works there and she was kind enough to open the museum for us.  There were hands-on things for the kids and lots of informative exhibits.  We all enjoyed ourselves.

 Here we are pulling our handcart like back in the day!

 Cowboy cousins out for a morning ride.

Caleb even went for a trot with Daddy.