Eric, Levi and I started August off with a bang this year with back to back weddings in Texas and then Utah. I was pretty nervous to fly with Levi for the first time, especially for our trip to Texas which included a tight layover in LA. Thankfully however, he did GREAT on the way there and barely cried at all. I nursed him during take off and landing to help out his ears and other than that he was pretty content to just watch everyone and try to put his mouth on EVERYTHING (with slight germaphobe me busily wiping everything down with antibacterial wipes haha).
In PDX getting ready to start our long day of travel. Using the baby carrier made everything sooo much easier! I definitely recommend it as the way to go!
Once in Texas, we went right into helping with the preparations for Eric's brother Matthew's wedding. I made 14 gallons of punch and helped dear Emma steam about a million table runners. Meanwhile, Eric helped his dad and a couple of brothers put up lights and a big chandelier thingy in the cultural hall for the reception. It took them several hours but it looked amazing when they were done!
Levi got to meet some of his cousins and everyone loved on him lots. My personal favorite was little Camden who was so excited wanting to hold baby Levi. Aren't they the cutest?
Papi and Levi. Not the best smiles from either of them but oh well.
On Friday evening the whole family got together to do some family pictures. I am so excited to see them. Everyone looked great and the color scheme really worked out I think. But it was like a zillion degrees outside so we all kept taking refuge in the cars with the AC running whenever it wasn't our turn to have our picture taken.
After pictures, the little ones were put to bed and the menfolk had a bachelor party for Matthew while us ladies went over to Joseph and Erin's house for a fantastic bachelorette party for Valerie. Oh my goodness I LOVE getting together with all my sisters-in-law. They are just so much fun and we laughed a ton. I wish we lived closer to them so we could get together more often.
Saturday was the sealing and the reception. Valerie (Matthew's bride) was the highlight, just lighting up everything with her sweet smile. The sealing was beautiful and the reception that night was memorable with a live mariachi band and full dinner with rice, beans and fajitas. We had fun dancing and catching up with Eric's family and not going to lie, but Levi was rocking it in his little fedora. :)
On Sunday we got to get together for dinner with Josh and Haley and Matt and Liz and their kiddos. It was so fun to see the guys together again with their babies! I can't believe they're all boys! Haha I hope they grow up to be good friends also.
On Monday Greta brought Anson over to play at Nona and Papi's house and then we went swimming and were joined by Kristie, Carma and Shannon and their kids. Eric had a ton of fun playing around with his nieces and nephews and Levi and I mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the perfect temperature of the water.
Levi with cousin McKenna and Auntie Shannon
Everyone get Uncle Eric!
Eric with Weston
Monday night after swimming we hurried over to my cousin Emily Swanson's house and had dinner with her and her family. It's so great that they live so close to Eric's family so that we get to see them and catch up whenever we go to Texas. Her little boys are so cute and getting so big!
Tuesday we said goodbye to Eric's family and headed off to Utah for Katalin's wedding! Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes which meant that by the time we landed and deboarded and got our bags and our rental car we had just enough time to hurry to Vicki's house, feed Levi, change and then take off for Katalin's reception. Thankfully we did make it there with time to spend at the reception. We got to see Kialei and Kip as well as Dallin and Sandy and catch up with them while we chowed down on donuts and fruit. (Which while delicious didn't quite cut it for dinner so we ended up grabbing some fast food on the way back to Vicki's house.)
After the reception in Highland, Levi screamed in the car all the way back to Holladay. He was so tuckered out from the busy day and the fact that he had only taken one nap instead of his usually three that he just lost it. He cried so hard he made himself throw up! Twice! Oh it was sooo sad but there was nothing that would calm him down. He just was done and wanted to be in his bed sleeping. But when we got back to Vicki's house, he had a bunch of cousins to meet on that side of the family! We got to see and catch up with Jana and Stacey and Sarah as well as Emily and Vicki. They all loved on Levi and exclaimed about how cute he is even though poor little man was just so done by that time! He didn't last long before I took him downstairs and put him down for the night.
The next day was Katalin's sealing and wedding luncheon. It was just so good to see her so happy. Dane is perfect for her and I just know that they are going to have an amazing eternity together. I loved getting to be there and have to give a huge shout out to my awesome husband for not only watching our cranky (no naps again) baby during the sealing but also calling the airline to switch us to a later flight to make sure that we could make the luncheon and also calling his dad to get him to ship us my favorite shirt which had somehow been left behind in Texas! You would never guess from these pictures we took outside the Temple just how grouchy Levi was at this point and how much he was fighting our best efforts to get him to nap! Haha.
You can catch a hint of his sleep deprivation in his eyes here. Haha
Because we were able to switch our flight to a later time, Eric and Levi and I had time to drop by Best Deal in Orem after the luncheon and catch up with Michael and Jamie and their kids. I had to feed Levi while we were there and Michael and Jamie's oldest daughter Alyvia came with me and just chattered at me the whole time Levi was eating! Haha. She spelled her name for me and talked about her shapes puzzle and told me that she can count to ten but always messes up counting to twenty. It was very cute.
We flew back home to Oregon Wednesday night. Levi was exhausted which unfortunately meant he screamed and cried for about half the time on the flight. It was frustrating and exhausting for everyone and we were so glad when we finally landed and got to head home.
Since we've been home we've been settling back into our routine. Levi has been napping and sleeping really well, Eric's been doing contract work for Best Deal and I've been busy catching up on all my daily around-the-house stuff as well as reupholstering some chairs. I love how they are turning out so far! We are so glad we got to go to Texas and Utah and see so many dear family and friends but it is kind of nice to be back home and back to our normal. Here's some final pictures of life since we've been back:
Levi graduated to riding in his stroller without the carseat. I think he likes it :)
Levi is getting to be more of a thumb sucker. He is so cute!
I'm planning on painting these chairs white, but they are already looking SOOOO much better with new fabric on the cushions! Taking the old fabric off was a piece of work (62 staples in each cushion! Can anyone say overkill? Haha) but it was worth it to make sure that the cushion underneath was still in good shape (it was thank goodness).
