Katie Bug's Wedding

My cousin Katie married a really great guy.

Their wedding was beautiful.

He's from Gunnison; we all drove down there for a big bbq the night before the big day. Afterward, the bride-to-be and I had a low-key night back at the hotel. The next morning, Katie rolled out of bed, threw on her custom-made dress, and was ready to go (seriously, it took her 10 minutes to wash her face and curl her hair--the girl is a natural, stunning beauty).

They had a beautiful ceremony inside the Manti Temple.

Then we drove up to Nana's house for a party!

Cousins! As the oldest of Nana's 39 grandchildren (oldest and bestest, she calls me), I've been the first to do a lot of things in the family. But Katie was the first grandkid to get hitched. I'm so happy for her, and it was wonderful to be there on her special day! It's crazy that we're all getting to be grown-up and such. I remember when we were tiny kids running around up at the farm, playing house out in the field.

I'm so happy she found him, as well.

A few weeks after the wedding,

we were all chatting at a bbq at my aunt's house.

It was nice to see them just, you know, being all married.

They were so cute

not in a mushy, newly-wed way

in a Hey-we're best friends and

we're so happy with the way this worked out way.

They are just good together.

Nana Banana--isn't she beautiful?

Sunday Luncheon

I had the chance to sing in church the last time I was home in Utah

and my lovelies all came to support me:

Nana, Mom, my sister, my niece, Kristen 

My mama always cries when I sing.

Always.

I love this picture because we look

like each other.

She just had a birthday a couple days ago.

Her birthday, in fact, is exactly my half-birthday.

Afterward, we had lunch on Main Street in Park City.

Totally delicious.

Rachel's drink was fancy;

it came with two cherries!

She's such a sweetie--

James came to lunch, as well.

While we chatted, he came up with some

brilliant ideas for his music persona.

He writes dubstep and DJs parties--

yes, he is the coolest person. Ever.

We threw around a few ideas,

he designed a bit on the back of the receipt.

But that's all top secret, for now ;)

Don't worry, you'll find his EP here as soon as it's ready.

Lovely, it was.

We've got to have those slow, lazy lunches

with the people we adore.

I mean, I've got to have them.

They make me happy.

Sweet Carolina

After a summer of overseas adventure,

I was excited to return to the South.

I flew directly from a tour in Arizona.

Kristen drove my car from Utah to North Carolina

and picked me up at the airport.

(She's the nicest girl, ever)

It was early. We were sleep deprived.

She had driven through the country,

I had flown through the night.

We needed sustenance.

Home-cooked Southern sustenance.

The Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen!

Golden biscuits turned breakfast sandwich.

She had the ham and egg.

I had a BLT, that's what.

(Did I just say "That's what"? Yup...)

We spent the day moving the contents of my storage unit

into a musty basement apartment.

The weekend was a blur of old friends, thai food,

a redbox dvd, church, way too many tortilla chips and salsa.

Come Monday, we had to get Kristen some genuine Carolina barbecue.

Lexington and Eastern style,

served with hush puppies and fried okra.

Bam.

After lunch, on the porch, we played checkers and rocked in the rocking chairs.

My apartment, while intolerably musty and without oven or fridge,

does have two redeeming boons:

a baby grand piano in the living room

and access to a private community lake.

When light rain began spritzing down on the sand

we took cover at a picnic table near the dock.

We are bananagram champions.

The next day we visited the Duke campus,

saw the famous chapel and had a picnic in the Duke gardens.

And, of course, no tour of North Carolina

would be complete without a trip to the beach.

Her manicure happened to match the sunglasses.

Someone scultped a beautiful sea turtle

with a shell made of sea shells.

Love this girl--we had a blast!

p.s. please notice our clothing.

We weren't exactly planning on going to the ocean at that point in the day

so we were without proper beach attire.

That didn't stop Kristen--she swam out as far as she could in her dress!

Breakfast at Dad's

My daddy makes the best biscuits and gravy

West of the Mississippi.

I love hanging with him in the kitchen

 while he works his magic.

This is Lindsey.

She's dating my brother Cody.

She happens to love biscuits and gravy.

Naturally, this discovery led to a must-have

morning get together while everybody was in town.

A great chance to meet Lindsey.

And a great chance to meet Savannah,

the girl dating my brother James.

(Doesn't she have the most adorable smile??)

JaNae's boyfriend David was going to be in town, as well--

couples' breakfast!!

As for me....AH was invited...but he lives in Canada.

So I invited my bestie Kristen,

who doubles as my significant other

at most of our family functions.

Saturday morning, I rolled out of bed.

I mumbled goond morghnimmmhh to Kristen

when she came into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"Is this a pajama or clothing affair?" she asked me

(I'm translating her morning mumbles so you can read them).

I could hear bacon sizzling downstairs.

Thumping straight to the kitchen and chilling

with the fam in pjs sounded pretty great,

pretty right-up-my-alley, actually.

But then I thought about the rest of the day's plans

and concluded it was probably best to get dressed

before all the festivities began.

Best decision I made that day.

See, after I brushed mascara through my lashes 

and threw on a pair of jeans

we went to the kitchen to help with breakfast.

I was helping by hovering near the fresh biscuits

when Dad said, "Somebody just knocked on the door."

Weird. We were only expecting my brothers and my sister.

"Are you going to answer it?" Dad asked.

I looked at Kammra and Kristen,

assuming one of them would go to the door.

Dad looked at me.

"Can you get the door please?'

....whaaa? Why? So confused. Sure, whatever.

I walked to the door and opened it to see

the cutest Canadian guy, ever.

Standing on my doorstep,

adorable crooked smile and all. 

AH surprised me by coming all the way to Utah

just for breakfast with my family.

I squeezed and hugged on him

and then took him inside to meet the clan.

We jostled around the table until

we were all packed in and set to eat.

"Good thing you don't all have four kids, yet," Dad smiled.

We laughed.

And then it got quiet.

We looked around at each other.

Then we laughed again, somewhat nervously,

completely awkwardly.

Dad offered a prayer and we dug in.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Homemade strawberry jam.

Golden honey off the honeycomb.

Lots of jokes and laughs and stories.

These are my favorite kinds of times.

All the more fun because of my surprise visitor^^ 

Daddy had his sweetheart, too:

And Daniel drove up to see Kristen.

She fought the rest of us away

and managed to save him the last biscuit.

It was a fun group.

You can see JaNae and David on the far right of the photo below;

not sure how I didn't catch them in any other pictures.