Audrey's Wedding Week - Part 1

We just all got back from Audrey's wedding. It was a super packed week so I'm breaking it up into 2 parts.

These first set of pictures are from before we left.

He's been loving wearing these boots.

Checking out the sparkliness of her shoes

Tie check...check!

Second (the not as good batch) of tomato soup

 The original plan was to take a quick trip with Kyle.  However a friend on Facebook posted how she wanted to go for a long trip to Vegas but can't drive just by herself and her daughter.  Her daughter has a few medical issues. So we switched our plans and I went down early with the friend.

Road trip time!

We got down on Monday evening and from there the craziness didn't stop.
First up was on Tuesday morning I took some photos of Tyler and Sam.  Even though we started at like 9 it was so stinkin hot and the car said 105+ by the time we were done.  Whew.
They were a cute couple and so fun. These are straight out of the camera.

 

 The ones above aren't really engagement photos.  I told Tyler to suddenly sweep Sam off her feet, and this was the reaction.  The full set of photos is so funny.  Can you tell that she was terrified?

While I took their pictures my mom was awesome and watched the kids as they ran around at the park.

It was like interconnecting treehouses with many ways to climb up

Fencing is super awesome when you have little wanderers

He was so sweaty by the end

The big kids joined in with Dexter

GG at the park with them

The afternoon was filled with watching Grandma Hansen so Leanne could run errands.  That was my main reason to come early.  Help watch Grandma.
That evening though we celebrated Jake's 22nd birthday!

Happy birthday!

Dex was super excited for Jake's birthday

The next morning we went out to Shark Reef with my mom.  Dexter liked it, although we did have to work hard to show him all the cool fishes.  However the tunnels were his favorite, and also the places where fish swim under you.

These were the Caribbean fish

Shark tunnel #1

That's as close as his finger got, but I touched the sting ray and horsehoe crabs

He did like watching them all swim and crawl around

Getting close to the jellyfish and GG

SHARK!

Can you find him?  He loved looking down, above and all around in the shipwreck area

Last shark tunnel.

Wednesday was more watching the little ones and Grandma Hansen.
I can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday, but we snuck in a quick dip in the pool.  That's one plus of it being hot still in September.

Chillin' before swimming

Thursday I worked on crafts for decorations.

Painted the carboard letters (the O did get a different shade of pink later)

The [almost] final result.  The E got some pink crystals added to it later.

We worked hard Thursday night setting up lights and the backdrop, along with some tables.  Friday we got to play with GG in the morning again.

Can you tell he doesn't like water?

He was excited to setup the Playmobil train.

I need to mention that my mom was so awesome and watched the kids a ton.  It's hard to be helpful with little ones tagging along.  Especially when one of those little ones (ahem, Ellie) screams her head off if anyone but Mom is in the room with her.  Even on the wedding day she helped out so I didn't have to drag them to the temple for hours, then to the luncheon, and then to do final setup on stuff.  She drove them over and took them back when needed.

He loved the Dreamlite pet that Nub Nub had

Glowing stars everywhere

Playing in GG's backyard

Eating a bubble wand is always fun

Friday night was the craziest.  Kyle finally got into town at like 4 o'clock but then I had to dash off to help.  At that time we were asked if we could work on the wedding cake.  So Suzanne, who made the 200+ cupcakes, Patti (the friend who rode down with me) and I went to my parent's house to try and work on this last minute thing.
We worked our butts off for 5.5 hours.  Suzanne did great frosting the cupcakes.  Patti worked her professional skills on decorating the cake.  I assisted where I could.  We still had to bake 2 layers of cake.  We did save some time by buying the frosting.  However, Audrey was being pretty particular throughout the whole wedding planning about the color pink she wanted.  So that took a while to get the right shade.  The cake turned out beautiful.  Was it perfect?  Nope.  There was a few small details, and at the reception it was even leaning a bit.  However, I am super proud of it saying we pulled it off in 5.5 hours that night and then 1.5 before the reception.

The end of Friday night.

The pink middle layer

We managed to fit 200+ cupcakes with cream cheese frosting in my parent's fridge

One of the most careful driving times I have ever done

The cake all put together.
Silver ribbons and flowers on the bottom.
White with pink scrolls next.
Pink with black and white pearls.
The pink swags and diamond ribbon.
With all the amazing cupcakes.