Ashley's Wedding

Getting to Fallon (and all places) is a whole blog post in itself,

and no one cares about travel drama, 

but in my life most of the grey hairs, premature aging, and cell damage from high levels of cortisol

come from wondering if we are going to make a flight via standby as non-revs. 

The morning of travel day, I awoke to find all the flights from Bellingham to Vegas were completely full - sold out. But we decided to try it anyway, hoping for no shows. 

The first flight had TWO SEATS OPEN, but last minute Andrew didn't go with Jim on the YM camp, so he had to come with us. So yeah, we didn't make that flight. 

THE AGONY. 

We went home and waited for the second flight. Our brains were pretty set on not making that flight because how could that even be possible? 

But guess what there were FIVE NO SHOWS. We literally had to tell our brains that instead of heading to the mall for school shopping, we were getting on a plane and heading to Fallon! 

Phew!

The stakes were actually very low, so it shouldn't have been as stressful as it felt, but tell that to my cortisol. 

From there the flight to Reno from Vegas was wide open. 

And the next thing you know: here we are back in grandma's living room playing games with cousins and laying on blow up beds and discussing the alphabetical of pain. 

For the most part this was a girl cousin event, so Andrew was kind of solo a lot. lol

Jim sent me this picture of how camp was going: a hike through Ape Caves at Mt. St. Helens. 

(One of the boys hit his head and gushed blood and they had to call an ambulance)

Wedding Day! 

Dad was the sealer, so that was awesome. 

We were all sitting in the sealing room waiting for the wedding couple to come in, 

and my dad entered and said "they're very nervous - nobody look at them".

haha. It's both fun and nervy to be the center of attention. 

I told Avery to get a picture with the temple/Angel Moroni in the back, 

and she was so annoyed with me and took my camera and was like "ok there, whatever"

and she got a lot of the sidewalk in the picture! yay! thank you for all that cement. It really adds to the vibe. thanks avery so much. 

woo hoo!

Look at these cutie pies. 

We missed Kailyn all day.

Avery was so surprised that she "doesn't get a break to come home for her sister's wedding".

From Reno to shopping

(and Popeyes for the car I was in)

back to Fallon for the dinner and reception...

It was such a fun party! So many friends and good food and ambiance. 

The next day: Sunday.

Andrew found the cheese touch on the way into the building.

Avery tried on my wedding dress! So pretty!

Fallon in August includes tall corn, garden cucumbers and cantaloupe.

Corn on the cob. Hot. The best sunsets. 

It was a fast and fun weekend. 

Then back to Vegas - we had a long layover so of course we hung with these first day of school kids

before getting back on the plane (wide open! lots of seats!)

and back home. 

I guess I need to add "weddings" to my labels. 

We are at the phase of life when all the precious cousins are launching into that adventure.

 

March is Also Over

Some Marchy things:

Evan had a band concert. He played those drums in perfect rhythm. 

But more important is the fact that we are having band concerts without a mask in sight! and we are all packed in the PAC and the kids are singing and blowing air through their brass mouthpieces and there aren't dead bodies lining the streets. Yay we did it!

After the concert, we got ice cream. 

Lindsay took this picture and it captured the perfect middle school vibe. 

It's so fun to grow up with the Dicksons. We are marching through every stage of life together.

Every once in a while they let down their middle school walls and play hide and seek in the street. 

But here out in public, after a middle school band concert with peers all around, they keep up the cool kid personas, sitting there on the ice cream wall. 

This day Evan had baseball practice while me and Koda ran around the trails, and Jim and Andrew played FROLF. Andrew is a good frolfer!

Captain Jim! 

This is the first Allegiant selfie in the left seat. 

A few kids in the hood had a mask burning. 

Braxton got married! 

Look at this picture vs the picture I took on approach to land in Bellingham. 

Look at the bright light/sun in the sky, no clouds, dusty, earthy, brown. 

My kids were so enthralled by the whole thing. 

Andrew kept asking if they would have to watch The Kiss. He only has a hollywood idea of what a wedding looks like. I said the newly weds would most likely kiss more than once, but no, you won't have to see THE kiss. 

Andrew put a towel over his arm and pretended to be a maitre d. 

I think this is when they were putting cake in each others' faces. My kids loved that.

The take away from the weekend is that I felt SO old. Being around 20 somethings reminded me of my generational gap. We are now the obsolete aunt and uncle in the crowd. 

Example: my kids loved watching the newly weds together, both Morgan and Sam and Braxton and Jessica. As we got in the car to drive home from some event, they were talking about what a cute couple they were, etc. 

Then Evan asked "where you guys a cute couple once?"

Excuse me?! We STILL ARE a cute couple!

lol

See what I'm talking about? 

What a planet earth we have - within three flight hours this is what you see out your window. Green, gray, fog, wet, moss. 

See he's so cute. 

Sometimes when we kiss goodbye the kids DIE at how weird we are. So how can we even be a cute couple with that kind of reaction. 

This guy (?) wanders around Blaine in his bigfoot costume. haha it's pretty accurate.

It's probably scary when he wanders around Lincoln Park (forest). 

Checking up on the birds.