Whirlwind Week

The last week of July was so jam-packed with fun that it's taken us a few weeks to regroup and sort through pictures for this post. It started out with a visit to Waterloo, Iowa, to see Michelle's brother Brice who had just came home from his mission to Chile. Emily and her family came up too for the fun, which included swimming, pizza, parks, little Quinn remote starting our car from inside the hotel, and melty ice cream.

Then we caravanned back to Omaha so that the party (minus Ryan) could catch their flight to Utah for brother Craig's wedding. Helen started the trip in style by going through her and her mother's first outfits of the day even before checking in at the ticket counter. Amber and Michelle deserve honorary certificates from the Amazing Race for planning the flights so well that the Omaha party met Amber, who was coming from Tennessee, before leaving the security check in Salt Lake. Impressive.

The party set up camp at Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's house. It was quite the invasion, and such close quarters allowed for much bonding/teasing. Craig was not immune to the teasing. In fact, he might have been the prime target as they told Heidi all of his deep dark secrets at Family Home Evening. But we can trust that he has forgotten the teasing, as no one's brain is firing on all cylinders the week of their marriage. Emily joined the party on Tuesday, just in time to play 20 questions with Heidi. Hannah cleverly found out the model and make of Heidi's car, which allowed them to pinpoint the right car when they had saran wrap, streamers and balloons in hand.


On Tuesday one of Michelle's long-time dreams came true - she ate at the Mayan restaurant. Which for those of you who don't know, in addition to fine food, features jungle-style warriors diving off of indoor cliffs into pools of water. My Dad, Linda, Natalie, Josh and their boys, all came to the event, but Helen stole the show. Here are some fun pictures they took so I wouldn't feel so sad for missing out.












Wednesday was the wedding. Michelle was assigned by Amber and Emily to capture the tender moments on film. She refused to take any kissing pictures, but here is a sample of her handiwork. As you can see, the bride and groom were lovely, and the reception was a lot of fun. Michelle's favorite parts were all the bright colors and the delicious sherbet in fruit (of which she confessed to pocketing 4 to eat on the way back to her grandma's that night).



On Thursday they all sat around and missed Craig & Heidi. Probably they would have called them up to chit-chat if Emily hadn't been the voice of reason and put the kibosh on it. Michelle got to
have lunch with her BYU friends Andrea Hales and Emily Peery. She claims that the three of them are all still as super-cool as they were in the 90's, back when they ran under the title of "The Random Chickens." I told her she'd better get an outsider's opinion before releasing their book of memoirs.

Michelle's back now and my Oreo consumption has once again come down to a healthy level. Oreos and sloppy joes can't really replace my girls when they're gone, but that doesn't stop me from trying.

(Make sure you click on anyone of the pictures to take you to our Picasa album with lots more!)