A Trivial Smorgasbord: Catching Up . . .

Wow. I haven't blogged in a long time. Such a long time, in fact, that it will probably take me eons of time to catch up. I just barely got back from a trip to Utah, and my parents and grandma just left from a visit to our house. It has been so nice spending time with my family, although it is a tad bittersweet. I get used to being far away from my family and I don't really feel sad about it most of the time. After a visit with them, things get rough when the trip ends. I spend about a week wallowing and teary, and then I am fine again. Sometimes I wonder what is worse, not seeing your family, or saying goodbye after you have seen them. Anyway, since we are only on day two of wallowing, I figure I should start updating my blog. Let's start at the very beginning, shall we (a very good place to start . . . I hear a Sound of Music song coming on).

The entire reason we flew out to Utah in the first place was to witness this:

I can't believe my little brother is now a husband. Bryan and Lizadel were married on October 11th. Crazy stuff. Isn't his wife beautiful? I cried when I saw her in the dressing room. Seriously, she looked that gorgeous. That's why I think it is totally lame that Bryan saw her in her wedding dress before she walked down the aisle. Way to ruin the dramatic effect by taking pictures before the wedding, guys. Otherwise, I think even my tough, Marine brother might have found it hard to contain his emotions.

My cousin, Anya, was the lucky one who got to watch Kaden during the ceremony, since Chad and I were both in the wedding party. I should have warned her to rethink her heels, because in true Kaden fashion what started as holding him like this:

Turned to this:

How can babies tell if you're standing up? It's crazy. Thanks, so much Anya for cuddling him!

Chad, Kaden, and I flew out on the Friday morning before the wedding. Can I just say Kaden was amazing on the plane? He really was such a good baby the entire time. I am still terrified to fly with him alone, but I was most impressed with how good he really was. We had several compliments about his behavior, and instead of giving the polite thank you that was probably expected, I kept saying, "I KNOW, right?!" (Just an aside, since this was my first time flying with an infant, I learned that being a parent traveling with a child pretty much means you might as well have leprosy in everyone else's eyes. We flew Southwest, so there were no assigned seats. It was hysterical some of the comments that were made as people passed us by. One woman's face lit up when she saw an empty window seat, then said, "Oh! THEY have a BABY!" in a Cruella-DeVil-esque tone. Not that I blame people, I mean, I never choose to sit by the couple with the baby, either, but I never vocalized it. GOSH.)

For me, one of the most exciting parts of any big event like a wedding in the family is the possibility of seeing extended family that I don't get to see too often. A lot of my relatives weren't able to make it this time, since the wedding was on a Monday, and most of them could not get the time off work. Still, it was so fun to see my Grandpa Jensen, Grandma Joy, Aunt MalaRee, Uncle Howard, Aunt Arianne, and of course my cousins: Anya, Alissa, Evan, Brody (Alissa's little boy), and Sterling.

When I see this shot, of all of us all grown up, I think, "Man, we've come along way from catching pollywogs and walking ditch banks."

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. My parents did the flowers, which were gorgeous. The wedding and reception were held at an indoor garden in Sandy, Utah. It was a great location: lots of fountains, twinkle lights, greenery, and flowers. Lizadel is Filipino, so there was a lot of Filipino food which was very tasty, and all of the groomsmen wore traditional Filipino shirts.