THE REASON for going

Yes, the trip has been fun, relaxing, exciting and full of laughs but the ACTUAL reason for getting together w/ Brooks family was for his brother Gabe's wedding to Adriana.

On Friday the menfolk went golfing, and we ladies and kids stayed home and watched our kids turn to raisins in the pool........that was newly cleaned, mind you.

Then later Adriana was going through the temple for the first time.

Jodi was so sweet in staying home w/ all the kids while the rest of us went.

I didn't realize how MUCH NEEDED that was for me and it was so fun to meet my new sister-in-law for the first time......the day before the wedding.

Later there was a luncheon at her family's house.

Once there was a Smith family with NO girl children and now there are 3 Smith girls!!!!

Adriana: the sweet, breath-of-fresh-air, bubbly new addition that we all absolutely love.

Jodi: but Brooks and I like to call her the "machine" because she can go and go to parks all day, day after day with all the energy in the world and STILL come home and clean the rental home spotless and not raise her voice at her kids. Not to mention her adding two adoring fans to her list.....my 2 girls, that LOVE "Aunt Jo-Jo" and would go to her before me.

Then there's.....me: nice and refreshed from the day at the temple and chillin' at home.

However, this picture WAS taken BEFORE Emerson came in and announced that Aleeya had pooped on the stairs outside.

SATURDAY: The Wedding

We spent the morning packing the van so we could leave right after the day's events.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and Adriana's extended family was so nice watching the kids outside the temple for us during it.

(Aren't my kids the cutest?!?!?)

HANDS DOWN my favorite picture of the WHOLE vacation!

RA, Tio Bug and Emerson. These 3 look like twins.....or at least a 3 generation picture.

Here we are waiting outside for the newly married couple to come outside.

All the Smith cousins......STARTING to lose their patience.

UNTIL, Camden caught THIS!!!!!

(after it biting him twice)

And even when the happy couple came out...........

They STILL wanted to be with the snake.

(This was after I told Camden he had to let it go and he's starting to sulk)

Emerson obviously hadn't gotten the memo yet that we ARE NOT taking it home.

Since Emerson and Camden were sooooo mad about letting that snake go free, here's how our family pictures went:

(Notice Bronson. He's such a good kid.)

Aren't they lovely?

But before we left so the kids could FINALLY get a nap and out of the heat, I HAD to get a picture of all the brothers. It seems I got EVERY picture with someone's eyes closed, but I still love how much these 4 love each other and are best buds. Being around them...... I can't help but just laugh.

The girls got a nap in the car while the rest of us ate Slurpees and waited for the wedding luncheon.

It goes w/o saying that I have the BEST mother-in-law in the whole world, but I just love how much she loves her boys and how ALL of them love and respect her back.

I captured her and Brooks walking down the road together. How cute is this?

During the luncheon, the kids actually behaved well. Camden needed to take a break from the social action and go see if there are lizards outside, but other then that it was pretty tame. When it was time to go, I couldn't help but cry.

I was just so grateful to Ron and Pat for all they did to make this vacation/family reunion happen. We just love them so much.

We chose to leave at 5:30 and just drive through the night, so the kids would sleep and that Iris would give us a rest from her long-car-drive screaming.

Aleeya's arm got hyper-extended or something and she couldn't use it the whole way home, so I had fun (sarcasm detected) leaning back and feeding her and handing her things.....her every waking minute.

And for those of you that would think traveling through the night would help Iris' anti-driving attitude.....you would be wrong. Because she let us hear it, know matter HOW many times Brooks and I sang "I am a Child of God" or "Families Can be Together Forever"!

I drove into town around 3:00 am and felt of rush of I-LOVE-where-I-live-and-there's-no-place-like-home

until I opened the garage door and smelled a VERY familiar smell......

the smell of a flooded basement. (here it is after we pulled up the carpet and took out the pad)

The storm that happened the DAY after we left (meaning the water stood downstairs for a WHOLE WEEK), even knocked down my corn stalks in my garden. The nerve.

Welcome home, right?

Actually, considering the water was in our basement/garage for so long, we got off pretty easy with the damage.

But man, what a trip!!!!!