Andrea's Wedding

In May our family had the awesome opportunity to fly out to North Carolina for the wedding our our niece, Andrea.  It was such a story book wedding!  We flew in and got to the beach the night before the wedding, so it was the first thing we experienced on our grand tour of North Carolina--and what a great way to start a vacation!  

I will start you off with some of the professional pictures.  It is tradition in a beach wedding to "trash the dress".  Which is exactly what you think it is.  The bride and groom run into the ocean after the ceremony and dinner.  It was so much fun to watch!  Andrea purposely bought an inexpensive dress so she wouldn't feel too bad about ruining it.  These two are such a beautiful couple, and so in love.  The trashing was my favorite part!

Here is Andrea walking down the "isle" (really just the sand from the catwalk to the arbor) with her dad, Rob.  Rob is usually stoic, but he teared up a little that day.

The whole group.  No shoes were allowed at the wedding.  How cool is that?

I love this picture.  Here are all the Barlow/Young ladies.  Karma (Mom)  Karen (brides mom)  Andrea, Megan (brides sister) and Becky (brides aunt and Karma's other daughter)  Such lovely ladies.

Andrew on the morning of the wedding.

Joshua as we all waited for the ceremony to begin.

Michael was enjoying the beach immensely.

Here comes the groom...

Caitlin was mesmerized by the favors.

After the ceremony we had a nice dinner in the hotel.  It was a small wedding group, but we had a lot of fun! We even broke out and danced while the bride and groom were changing.

Poor Daniel got stuck with our family for the dinner.  I guess that's what you get when you are single and the tables seat six...

Gotta love that boy.

It was a wonderful wedding,and a great event for the Barlow family.  Best wishes, luck, and prayers to the newlyweds in their new life!

Joshua's Recital

I am so proud of my boy!  Joshua has really started to excel with piano.  This year his spring recital was held in the auditorium of the high school.  He handled the pressure very well and performed his pieces the best he had ever done.  What a stud!

Mayday

I have been learning a lot of things about specific Sanpete culture.  One of the major local events is the annual Mayday performances put on by the elementary school.  Everyone in town shows up!  Everyone makes sure they look their best, and the kids work hard for weeks to perfect their dances.  This is big-time around here. This year Andrew's kindergarten did a Hawaiian dance and Joshua's 3rd grade did the parachute dance.  It is fun to see the kids do these dances that are so traditional and have been performed for literally generations.  One nice thing is that they have bent the rules and use contemporary music which keeps things lively and fun for the kids.

I helped sew maypole ribbons for the 4th graders this year as well, so I guess we all got involved in the tradition!

Sorry about the fuzzy pics.  My ipad doesn't have a flash  --  really?!  someone needs to ream mac about that -- anyway, Joshua is in the white shirt with blue shorts.  He really worked the dance moves!

Muffy

Our cat is such a character!  She is so small you think she is weak.  Then she shows up with a pot gut on the front porch.  She loves to lounge on the couch in her favorite spot, and sometimes get so comfortable she loses all sense of propriety.  She has broken two legs, and lived to meow the tale.  She can be quite a pain, but alas, we love her.

Geckos

We have two new critters in the house.  Joshua and Andrew wanted pets to take care of all by themselves, so we settled on leopard geckos.  Please say hello to Janet and Striker.  Andrew named his Janet after his Grandma Jaussi, and Joshua named his Striker because she is a voracious eater.  They are fun and make a great addition to the Jungle room.

April Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the April babies!  Andrew (13th) turned 6, Laura (30th) turned 32, and Grandpa Barlow (also the 30th) turned the big 7 - 0!  What an awesome adventure for all three of us!

Spencer

Yes, it has been a while!  Here's what we have been up to in the last three months or so...

We had the awesome oportunity to experience what it would be like to have twins in April for a week while my friend Holly and her family went to Disneyland.  We got to keep Spencer, who is 4 days older than Caitlin.  He is such a sweet boy!  Granted, the two babes seem to have it out for eachother, but it was fun to have an extra baby to cuddle.  He is such a lover.  And I love little boys!

Everyone had fun pretending we had twins.  The boys thought it was a grand adventure.

On the rare occasion that the two weren't fighting, we got some good cuddling in.  Spencer was so good, even without his mama for a week.  It was good for Caitlin too to realize she isn't always the center of my life.

The best part of having Spence is that Holly and her family had a wonderful time at Disneyland and didn't have to worry about the baby who was too small for the rides.  She is such a great friend and it was nice to repay some of her generous kindness.