Last week my little sister got married and I still can't believe that one, she isn't 12 anymore and two, she is old enough to not just have a boyfriend but now a husband! We love Nick and are so grateful Kimmy found such a wonderful guy. The wedding was on Thursday and while I could spend this whole post going through all the wedding details and saying how beautiful the bride was, the cute cupcake wedding cake and decorations, how much fun Pearl had running around, family and friends, a yummy steak/salmon luncheon, and how perfect the day was (minus the heat) that would be BORING to everyone but my family. Sorry Kimmy:) So, I've decided to venture down the bath of the bridesmaid dress disaster. You see months ago Kimmy and I went bridesmaid dress shopping only to find the perfect dress with one major problem - no sleeves. So we figure we can just put sleeves in the dress, no problem this happens all the time. Well my mom freaks about it so we decide to have them made by the same lady who is putting sleeves in Kimmy's wedding dress (which is one of the cutest I've seen). Kimmy doesn't want to pick out any patterns so my mom and I go and buy the fabric and pick out two patterns to combine. Months go by and no one hears from the lady sewing our dresses. I start to panic, especially when two weeks before the wedding no one has been fitted yet. We finally get a hold of the dressmaker and she says I can come and get fitted the Saturday before the wedding. To my horror the dress is NOT what I had envisioned and I try to be a good sport while thinking to myself the dresses are ugly and make me look fat! Not to mention the fact that when I got measured the first time around I was still nursing Pearl so now the top was huge on me (yes, I am totally bummed about the old chest size coming back). And Nick's sisters have threatened to not wear the dresses if they are ugly - I admit I don't want to look like an ugo either but hey if my sister wants them I'll wear them. Oh well, too late now and she promises they will be done for the wedding. To top of the worry about not having a cute dress to wear, I can't find any shoes I like! URGHHH!!! Who would believe in my household that someone can't find shoes to wear?! I mean Jeff and Pearl each got new wedding shoes (real surprise there) but I just can't seem to find anything. Well, Monday night - 3 days before the big day - my mom calls and says no one else has gotten fitted and it's time to PANIC! Kimmy is totally freaking out - did I mention we were moving her into her apartment when my mom called and it was way past Pearl's bedtime so we are all grumpy? I get told I have to find a black dress to wear and I'm on my own for it. SO...I'm thinking how hard will it be to find a cute black dress? Well, let me tell you it was hard! I was in near tears at the mall after going to every single store in the place. Nothing fits, everything is sleeveless, too short, and too casual. I call my mom crying and she says the dresses are done! What???? I took a day off work to find something, drove all over town, cried, and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown for many reasons and now the dresses are done. You would think that would be the end of the dress fiasco but no, Kimmy says I still have to bring a black dress in case Nick's sisters don't like the green ones. I am furious! So I buy a dress, another pair of shoes, and $80 worth of jewelry because I have no idea what I'm going to wear the next day. The big day comes and I get to wear the ones we had made which were absolutely adorable! I loved it! But it was a last minute decision on what to wear and a bit of threatening on my part that I will wear the green dress because the black one I bought was too big in the chest and too short. I'm sure anyone who has stuck with this post is thinking to themselves, what was the big deal? And yes, looking back on this situation a few days after a beautiful wedding, it wasn't a big deal but living the bridesmaid dress nightmare over the last month has been a beast to deal with! Pearl was an absolute angel the whole day, no nap and all. She loved every second of the day and would spin around in her dress laughing and you could tell she knew she was pretty cute. It was funny because I think she's figured out that Kimmy isn't coming home again because the past few days she has gone into the back room looking for her and then on Thursday wouldn't leave her side. Oh and Jeff was pumped to find our paver (watch the slide show) with our names on it for becoming lifetime members of the USU Alumni Association. It's supposed to be put into place at the Alumni House in the next couple of weeks so the next time you're on campus try to find it. One thing about this for certain, I sure appreciate everyone who helped pull off my wedding day a whole lot more after all this. Who knew weddings were so exhausting?
Okay, we survived the wedding on Thursday and decide to take a few days off for some R&R. Which for Jeff means we go camping. Now I didn't mention that camping is my idea of rest and relaxation in that last sentence and he knows it so he "bought me off" for the weekend with a gorgeous pearl necklace. Well, I guess any girl can hang out in the dirt and smell like B.O. and campfire for a few days with a bribe like that. I know I should like camping more but there is something about it that just drives me totally nuts. I hate having everything smell like campfires, dirt in everything, and not being able to turn on the lights when it gets dark. I don't totally hate camping. In fact I loved being with my family someplace not 100 degrees and being able to look up and actually see stars, millions of them, at night. I guess I take after my grandma Jewkes because her idea of camping was in a trailer, cabin or hotel! I'm just glad my parents have a trailer that the girls sleep in instead of a tent! I think Jeff prefers this too, since he gets a tent all to himself. It took forever to get up Logan canyon and find a spot - pretty much all of Friday to pack, get my parents' trailer ready, and drive up there - but we finally made it.
Jeff spent the weekend doing "man things" which I honestly have no idea what that means (probably napping, playing with fire, and killing small animals/bugs), while Pearl, my mom, and I headed up to Bear Lake. It was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake so we visited the craft fair where my mom bought me a super cute bag/purse. But as soon as we got there the stroller got a flat tire, urghhhh!!! Not only was it super hot but I spent all my energy chasing Pearl around (she was following all the doggies she saw) or carrying her. We had lunch at my grandparent's trailer, not a glorious place but hey it's beach front property and it has a place to sit down, and then headed for the beach. Pearl had a blast playing on the beach and running in the water. She wouldn't get out until I finally dragged her to the beach because her lips were turning blue and she was shivering. Of course in my worry that Pearl would get sunburned, I slathered her several times with sunscreen but forgot to cover myself with it. So I left Bear Lake totally pooped and burned! Bear Lake is notorious for bad sunburns and for someone whose body hasn't seen the sun in years, let's just say the lake won the battle. It was a good reminder that long gone are the lazy days of college when I drove to Bear Lake every week to lay around and work on my tan.
My mom's family came up for tin foil dinners that night (why is it that men, aka my dad, brother, and husband, can't get dinner ready themselves?). At this point, Pearl was starting to show the signs of weeks without naps and long days playing and with one day left of R&R, I was showing signs of exhaustion too. We spent Sunday playing my family's infamous card game - Hell - which is sort of like Solitaire on steroids, then packed up and drove home. I'm now trying to recover from loads of laundry (thanks Jeff for your help), cleaning, getting caught up at work, and of course blogging! We had a blast but I'm glad to be home.
