Friday, August 30, 2013

Tierra

Nick announced Tanner and Sierra's celebrity name at their wedding, so it's officially Tierra.  A bit feminine but it gets the job done. 

Their wedding, like their celebrity name, was both beautiful and quite feminine.  It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, and we all had a blast.  And I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was the most beautiful wedding I have been to.  It was small, but my parents did an amazing job pulling this one together.

The flowers were beautiful.  

All of the grandkids love Uncle Landon

The guest book

Seating Assignments and Menu

Their memory table.

Loaded this with amazing cookies towards the end.  

My Mom did a great job making the place very much Sierra.  Wouldn't be complete without some vintage chairs and books.

The seating.  Nick and I spent hours the day before hanging the lanterns.

Her cake on a dresser.


Behind Sierra and Tanner, the little stars of the wedding.


As you walk towards the entrance.


The scrumptious food.  It was very good, but also the colors were of course amazing.

They had a lemonade stand with the colors of the wedding: raspberry lemonade, mint lemonade, and regular lemonade.



The girls performed their song.  And I was pissed at the DJ because it was way too loud.  Either way, they loved it.  After, when walking back to their chairs, Portia yelled, "That was awesome!"

It was so fun to celebrate with Tanner and Sierra.  We had some awesome dancing, including a dance line.  Palmer was the best dancer there hands down, although very serious about his dancing: drenched in sweat and focused.  The Dads gave sweet talks.  Tanner's grandpa offered Tanner's younger brothers to Sierra.  There was a great slideshow, and Tanner nailed Sierra in the face with cake.  I'm talking, almost flattened her.  It was a great day.  

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Oh The Difference

Lucy
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh,
The difference to me!


It's strange to think that Holly would be close to the same age as Briz in this picture.  

Happy Birthday to Holland.  Strange to think about being in the hospital two years ago meeting my little angel for the first time.  Like with all kids growing up, time goes by so fast, and yet, it feels like forever ago that she wasn't in my life. Imagining my baby as a two year old feels very surreal, which is sad.  I would much rather it be, well, real. All I know is her as a baby, so it's sort of a strange jump to her being a toddler.  But even still, I try to imagine what she would be like as a two year old.  While I don't know completely, I can imagine that she would be a chubby-cheeked, goofy, sweet little two year old.   And that makes me smile. I miss the two year old Holland.   


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Annual Utah

Shortly after we got back from Reno, we headed to Utah for some good ol' family time.  We love going to Utah because of all of our wonderful family that is there, and there is always so much fun stuff to do.  Briz is in heaven with Grandma Julie, Pops, Grandma Great, big girl cousins, and Libby, Kloey, and Kenz.  

Probably the biggest highlight was going to Pops' surprise 60th birthday party.  It was fun to see him be surprised and visit with so many people we love.

Pops was the main star of his birthday party, but these girls were a close second.  Running around, dancing, eating some treats, and singing made it a fun night.  Briz, also thought it was cool to stand in the front by her Dad while he was speaking in the microphone.


Part of being with the Cottles means playing tennis.  We are trying to teach Briz at an early age.  I even signed her up with a tennis class at the rec center starting in a few weeks.

But she looks like she doesn't even really need lessons.  That form is perfection.


We went to Seven Peaks.  Holy cow, that place is crowded now!  If Briz didn't love it so much, it would be tempting to not go back.  Highlight of this day was us sneaking Briz on a waterslide she wasn't supposed to go on because she was too short.  Nick is sneaky like that.


Baby Joe Daily had excellent timing in arriving, just so Aunt Sam and Aunt Lexie could visit him in the hospital.  He is so beautiful!  Sam and I discussed stealing him while Mary wasn't paying attention.  He has gotten even cuter since.

Briz got to play with the Sader and Leesey Lou.

We headed over to Manila Creek to play in the water there.  It felt SO good because it was so freaking hot outside.  Love all of the free and cheap stuff there is to do in Utah.

There was surprisingly limited fighting and whining between these two, which was wonderful!




We get sad every time we see the Nielsons, that we don't live closer.

We spent a day going to Lagoon. Briz was a little sad she couldn't go on some of the bigger roller coasters, but she was consoled after spending a few hours with Pops and winning a fluffy unicorn.



These two cute people planned their Dad's surprise birthday party.  And did such a good job.


The best little four year old model that I know.  She's been posing since she was an infant,





And then there is Briz whose picture posing is very  . . . creative.

A bunch of the people at the end of Pops' party.


We love our Utah family and can't wait to see them again, sometime soon.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

The Hughs

After we got back from Reno, Bri and Ronell's kids came to stay with me (all except Thatcher).  Since baby Thatcher had been born, I wanted to help out, and thought the best way would be to keep her kids entertained for a few days.  I think rather than entertaining them, I wiped them out.  But regardless, we had a lot of fun.

We went to Jamison Square in downtown.  It's one of my favorite splash parks in the city.  
Very few homeless people + a nearby ice cream shop = success.










The girls were wiped out and wanted sleep, and Palmer well, he wanted to play video games.

We went to Carolwood Park in Beaverton that night for some free pizza and activities. 











We went swimming at Uncle Mark and Aunt Susie's twice.  Their pool has been one of our favorite summer spots this year.  





It was a fun, crazy few days.  It was a blast enjoying some summer sun with these kiddos.