Alicia and Ben's Wedding!

We set off on a big road trip about a week after school got out. It was Grace's first time traveling more than a few hours in the car so I was nervous about how she would do. Packing for and traveling with a baby is no joke! It wasn't always easy, but actually went alright for the most part. Spencer, Alan, and I took turns sitting in the back and entertaining her and that was very helpful. 

Spencer was still accruing hours towards his driver's license so he drove quite a bit of the way. Mason just wished he could drive. :)

We drove to Middleton the first day and spent the night at Darwin and Debbie's. They are always such great hosts!

Pretty view on an early morning run in Middleton.

On the drive down to Herriman the next day, we stopped at Twin Falls for a picnic. It was the first time we had done that and was a nice break. Apparently, I didn't take a picture of the falls though. 

The main reason for the trip was Alicia and Ben's wedding. Most of the festivities took place at Alicia's house in Herriman. We felt so blessed to be able to stay at Katelyn and Zac's house which was only 10 minutes away. It was close enough for us to be involved with some of the preparation but also gave us a separate space to take care of Grace. Katelyn and Zac are also wonderful and generous hosts and just let us come and go as needed. 

We had a family breakfast the morning before the wedding. This picture of Grace and Jeremiah's son Jackson is the only one I took though. Jackson is Grace's first cousin once removed (I think!) and about two months older than her. 

The rest of the day was spent doing a few things to prep for the wedding and hanging out with Alan's family. Almost every single member of Alan's extended family was able to be there! We missed Grant, Carter, Austin, Eric, Caleb, and baby Caroline! They all live on the East coast and weren't to make it. 

The wedding and reception were held in Alicia's backyard. The large crew of friends who transformed the yard the morning of the wedding was a testament to what an amazing friend and person Alicia is. She would have done the same for any of them and it was fun to see how much they all love her. Alicia's friend and neighbor even agreed to take down the fence between their yards so they could use both backyards for the reception! There was A LOT to be done and everyone wanted to make sure it was what Alicia wanted so she had to make a lot of decisions. I felt bad that her wedding morning seemed so stressful. Everything turned out absolutely beautiful though!

Alicia had asked me to take pictures at the wedding clear back in January. I was happy to do it but was so relieved that she also asked Camille to take pictures. That took a lot of pressure off me since it was tricky to do with Grace. Camille got some really great shots and is way better at editing than I am, but these are some of mine:

Alicia's new family! Cyrus (14), Alicia, Ben, Benson (16), and Amarie (almost 11).

Poor Spencer wasn't in any of the wedding pictures, but he started feeling sick during the ceremony and had to run to the bathroom as soon as it ended. He spent the rest of the evening throwing up and feeling terrible. I was worried he had somehow had a peanut exposure at first, but when it became apparent that it was actually a highly contagious stomach flu, I only wished it had been a peanut exposure! More on that later.

Alan took Spencer and Grace back to Katelyn's house to rest while Mason and I stayed at the reception. I felt bad that Alan had to be the one to leave since it was his sister's wedding, but as a photographer, I couldn't leave early. 

It was super fun to see a few of Alan's cousins at the reception and I felt bad that Spencer missed seeing his second cousin Kyler (Ryan and Heather's son). Spencer and Kyler became friends during Spencer's freshman year, but then Ryan and Heather moved their family to Utah. They kept in touch a little by text, but Spencer would have loved to have seen him. :(

I was super surprised to see Alan's best buddy from college at the reception and felt so bad Alan missed him too! Caleb and Alan were roommates for several years but we didn't know he was also Alicia's realtor. I got to meet his wife and two cute girls and sent a picture to Alan. Thankfully, Alan was able to come back to the reception for a few minutes at the end and got to catch up with Caleb a little. We invited he and his wife to Grace's sealing the next day and were touched that they rearranged their schedules at the last minute to be there. 

Mason also got to meet his cute pen-pal friend, Violet. Violet's mom and Alicia were co-workers so Alicia set Mason and Violet up as pen-pals while Violet was hanging out after school last year. They wrote cute emails back and forth for a few months but were super shy when they actually met and wouldn't really talk to each other. I'm glad they got to meet though. 

We don't know Ben very well yet (we met him for the first time last Christmas), but he seems like a great guy and treats Alicia so well. They seem truly happy together. The only bad thing is that since Ben's ex lives in St. George and they share custody of the kids, Alicia sold her home in Herriman and moved to St. George with Ben a few weeks after the wedding. We won't get to see her as often as St. George is not on the way to my parent's house, but we are so happy for her!