A Weekend Away

My little brother just got married this past weekend. I still can't believe that he is old enough to be married... didn't he just turn 14 last year?? Well regardless of how old I think he is he is married. We got the opportunity to get to know his new wife pretty good. Amanda (yes another Amanda) asked if she could live with us back in March until she and Devo got married. We of course said yes and loved every minute of her staying with us. Reid ate it up. When he heard her up there at any time he would rush out of the room saying he needs to go talk to Amanda. She entertained his quest to have a good chat and I will forever love her for the sweetness she showed my little boy. To her I know it was just simple chatter, but to me it made my heart melt to see him come down the stairs beaming after just talking to her. Devo did good!!

Now they are married and there will be no more morning talks but she will forever be a part of our family! The wedding was amazing. She took her endowments out right before the ceremony and my family along with hers were able to go do the session with her. I have never been inside the Salt Lake Temple before. It was breath taking. I enjoyed every second being in there. It is a HUGE temple!! It was also a live session which I have never been able to do so there were a lot of firsts that day for me (Amanda was not alone in some of her firsts... :) ). The sealing was amazing. There was some great council given to those two that I feel applied to all of us there. After the wedding we went outside to take pictures and it was FREEZING! Poor Amanda had goose bumps the whole time. After pictures it was off to lunch... I have to admit I was starving and the food was delicious! My mom did the luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

You would think the fun stopped there... oh no. My brother Brett had this vision. He wanted all of us kids to hang out and make memories. None of my siblings or Logan and I brought kids. So it was a nice treat to go places and not have to chase kids or feel bad because all the cousins were so excited to see each other they couldn't stop being crazy! Not that with my family age matters with crazy excitement! :) We saw and did a lot of fun things. We took a tour of the Conference Center (crazy huge), went to a Catholic church (beautiful), tried to go to the Governor's Mansion and the Masonic Temple (they were closed), went to a movie, shopped and ate at a bunch of really great restaurants. I think Brett did a great job. I have a ton of fun memories that I made so I am very grateful for his "itinerary"!!

(You can't see any of our faces, but we are all there... smiling I think)!