Joe & Brooke Plus Six

I've been thinking for two days how to write this blog post in a cute and clever way. But I'm stuck. It's just not happening today. So, how about a photo tour of our weekend instead? Sound good? Good..

These two lovely people got married.
It was a beautiful ceremony, and I got to spend an hour in the temple wiht my parents and ALL of my six siblings. That was a first for our family, and it was pretty cool.



All of my children(plus their numerous cousins) survived being left outside of the temple and left to their own devices during the wedding. I just liked this picture of Charlie.



I also just liked this picture of John.



The wedding reception was perfectly fun...bounce house, dancing, balloon animals, cotton candy, you name it, we had it. Including a fractured elbow for Harry at the end of the night. You know, a vacation for our family is really never complete without a trip to the ER.
(Isn't my brother so handsome? I loved this picture of him with his youngest daughter)





Just when my kids thought they'd never had a better weekend, it got better. We went to Disneyland. We'd been planning this for a couple of weeks, but wanted to keep it a surprise. They were surprised. They kept saying things like, "I can't believe we're actually here". We hadn't been to Disneyland in a while - something like three years. We'd never been without grandma and grandpa or friends to help us out. But we had so much fun with just our own "little" family. We only had one breakdown when Charlie found himself one inch too short for the Indiana Jones ride. Otherwise, he was proabaly our best rider...he did them all...Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, all the other mountains, he even fought Darth Vader! They only thing sad about the day was that we didn't really have any extra time or hands to take many pictures. But here's a small sampling...





I love this picture. I have another version of it from an earlier trip to Disneyland. Except now there are two more children in the photo.



It's pretty fun when your own family takes up almost the entire ride!



A year ago, this picture would have been impossible. It's amazing what turning four can do for a boy afraid of people dressed up in animal costumes.



We had some Jedi training in the afternoon...






And then I took Maggie and the two little boys over to Toontown and Fantasyland while the bigger boys and dad hit up the "scary" rides.


Did you know I had twins? Just born a few years apart.


We closed the park down and headed for home. My husband was a super-trooper and got us all home safely,(but a little cranky) by 1:00 a.m.



And now, two days and thirteen loads of laundry later, we are officially unpacked.
Yes, really, thirteen. I think we'll be staying home for Thanksgiving.