July- Week 4- Adam and Pidi Wedding!

The day before Pioneer Day, most of the Webster family gathered at Hire's for dinner and then we had a little rehearsal for Adam and Pidi's wedding on the 25th.  Their ceremony was at This is The Place Heritage Park.

Here's Ben escorting his cousin Kate and Pidi's niece Victoria.  They didn't do this during the actual ceremony, but it was pretty cute, none the less.  :) 

A lovely selfie with almost everyone at the rehearsal.  

The next day was pretty slow going before lunch.  Got Ben's haircut and McKenna's styled.  Then after, we got beautified and headed to the wedding.  

A little brotherly love before walking down the aisle.  Ben was thrilled to be a part of the festivities.

Dan's dad performed the ceremony and they both said "YES!" :)

So happy for them!  I guess I should share a little back story... Adam and Pidi first met in Brasil when they were 13 and Dan's parents were serving as mission presidents down there.  They had a crush on each other way back then, kind of "dated" (like 13-14 year olds do), then broke up.  Life happened.  Adam served a mission, Pidi came to school at BYU.  And they reconnected after all these years! 

The whole Webster family!  

All their nieces and nephews (missing Eli and Lola).  

Such a great couple! 

Some lovely dancing during the wedding dinner speeches.  

The self-named "fashion cookies." 

One of the best parts of a wedding at This is The Place, is the TRAIN! :)  Free rides-- All Aboard! 

Saturday after the wedding, Dan and I had to divide and conquer running errands.  I got pretty lucky with these two who were pretty tuckered out! 

This girl has become a pro at pulling up! 

And then I caught her in the act of already trying to climb on the hearth.  She hasn't quite made it up, thankfully.  

I babysat one of Ben's friends from the ward, turned on a movie, and they both ended up falling asleep.  Not the most successful playdate. ;)  We'll have to try again later.  

Baby's first sucker. 

She loved it.  Such a sweet tooth on this one. :) 

July- Week 3- Little Valley Days and Pioneer Day

Baby girl cousins, Anna and Ellie... 10 months apart! 

A few signs Anna can do.

Saturday, July 19th, was Little Valley Days in Mantua.  Dan took McKenna, Ben, Joe, Katie, Truman and Henry to main street for the Parade.  It lasted all of 15 minutes and they all actually got a TON of candy.  

Around lunch time, the women had to leave Mantua to head to a bridal shower for our final sister-in-law.  So Dan and Brian stayed with the kids to enjoy a little more of Little Valley Days.  The fish hatchery was open to the public for the first time in a long time, so they got to take it all in.  

Feeding the fish.  

The bridal shower was for Pidi, (pronounced P-G), Adam's fiance.  These girls were super excited to get a new aunt!  

And we're pretty excited to have our Webster family sisterhood complete!  (Missing Lara who was at a cousin's wedding.) 

After the bridal shower, I took McKenna uniform shopping for the new school year.  This Summer has been a Summer of too many late nights and it certainly took a toll on our kids, and us at times, in the form of overtired/grouchy children.  McKenna fell asleep in the car two separate times that day.  I was so glad if it would help her not be grouchy later.   

Dan found this little kid lawn mower for Ben at DI.  It's been a big hit around here.  He's such a good helper! 

After a full month with my mom, and two weeks with my dad in town, it was time to say goodbye.  

One last group picture!  My sister and brother flew home with them, and Dan and I would be joining them in Chile in 10 days or so!  :)  Stay tuned for that post!

I hosted a neighborhood babystting co-op at my house the day before Pioneer Day and watched 14 kids (including my own), ages 7-1 for a few hours.  It was lots of fun and not as crazy and you might think.  They are all such good kids!  Love the neighborhood we live in! 

Not enough chairs at lunch time, so the bigger kids had to stand.  

Watching a little Peter Pan after lunch.  

For 6 weeks I had been training for a 5K on Pioneer Day.  

The race started at 7am.  Thank goodness it was overcast for almost all of the race.  

Here's a couple before and after pics.  

Don't mind my blotchy, bright pink face. 

I finished in pretty good time.  Adrenaline really helps that. ;)  I had 9:03 min mile.  I finished 89/298 overall.  And 37/177 for females.  I also finished 6/27 in my age group (30-34).  I felt pretty good about it and loved training this time without any leg pain.  When I trained for and ran a 10K two years ago, I'm pretty sure I had tendonitis in my achilles tendon.  No fun!  

We pretty much chilled the rest of the day as a family and tried to get the motivation to go and do something fun!  We planned to head to Bountiful Park for all the Handcart Days festivities, but ended up getting there JUST as they stopped selling tickets to do all the fun things!  Hopefully we only need to learn that lesson once.  So, to make up for it, we headed to Kangaroo Zoo.  We almost had the place to ourselves since it was a holiday.   Only one other family was there.  Even though they were cllosing earlier than we thought, our kids played hard for 45 minutes and that seemed to be just enough for them,  :)   

We ate popsicles at home and called it a night.  Hooray for Pioneers! :)

July- Week 2- Double or Nothin'

July 11-13, we hosted a reunion at Mantua with my BYU roommates from sophomore year: Katie, Laura, Hillary, Heather, Brittany, and Mary.  We lived in Apt. #11 at Park Place (or the Pink Palace).  We called ourselves "Double or Nothin'" because of the double 1 in the number 11.  We are all married now and have each had at least 2 kids.  And what's super cool is that we all had baby GIRLS first!  Double or Nothin' next generation!  

Here are mine and Hillary's babies dressed, by chance, in matching jammies.   

 Everyone arrived Friday evening.  We let the kids play a little, put them to bed, and then the grown-ups talked, and talked, and talked.  

Saturday morning, we ate a delicious pancake breakfast made by the Roneys.
There were Ranger rides, of course.  

(Nora, Adelaide, and McKenna)

 (Ben and Corrine) 

Mary lead some of the girls in a kid yoga video.  

And swimming.

Lunch that day were yummy sandwiches by the Spencer family.  

Ben had too much fun and needed an afternoon nap.  

We talked more, kids played more.  We decided to be brave and attempt a group shot with (almost) all our kids; no easy task.  Brittany got a weekend to herself with us, so her kids were missing.  So just imagine another cute 2 year-old blond girl, and two 1 year-old blond twin boys in this picture.  :) 

 See?  This is all of us trying to get the kids to look and smile. :) 

The dads that were able to come were so good to help entertain the kids while the moms talked, and talked, and talked.  Did I mention we talked? ;) 

 We had a white elephant gift exchange too.  When we all moved away from each other, I somehow ended up with a clock that we had in our apartment, so I brought that as one of my gifts.  

Heather made us pulled pork tacos that evening for dinner.  

 Before Hillary's family had to leave, we played a game that her husband, Britton, created!!  It's called Panic on Wall Street and it's a real board game!  I wasn't very good at it, but it was still fun.  

 Sunday morning we ate french toast made by Brittany and got ready for 10:50 Sacrament Meeting. By this time, Hillary's family was gone and Dan had left to attend his meetings at our home ward. We were left with Katie's husband, Kevin, as the only male.  As we went to church, I'm sure people thought we were polygamists when we walked in with all of our kids and Kevin as the only dad.   

More pictures form Sunday- 

Heather and Mary jumping with their girls.  

Mary was in charge of Sunday lunch and made an awesome salad bar!  

 Brittany helped the kids make pretzel dough into whatever shape they wanted.  

 Katie taught us how to make hair bows.  

I was in charge of dinner that evening and made a baked ziti.  Brittany flew out Sunday night, so the Spencer family also left so they could give her a ride to the airport.  Mary, Heather and I were the only ones left now, so we actually went to bed at a decent hour.  

But of course, Anna was having a hard time going to sleep that night.  Thankfully, she loves to snuggle... and take selfies with mom.  

I just love these ladies so much! Brittany brought cards with questions on them to use as a more organized conversation starter/guide. I learned so much for each of these girls and their incredible mothering skills.  I so wish we all lived closer so we could play all the time!  I'm very thankful for social media that helps us keep in touch easily!   Thank you all for such a memorable weekend!