Samantha and Amelia’s First Utes Game

From the moment the girls were born, Jake’s goal has been to take Samantha and Amelia to a Utes game as soon as possible. They’ve watched a couple of games with Daddy this season…and by “watched,” I mean, run around, eat snacks and snuggle with Daddy every so often while constantly asking him to explain what happened to the football and all the guys shoving each other to the ground.

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Amelia huddled up in her Utes Snuggie!

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This year, the perfect opportunity to go to a game was an afternoon game scheduled at USC. The girls napped well on the car ride up…

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Can’t say I would ever want to drive through South LA again, but even though the area surrounding USC was sketchy, to say the least, once we got on campus, it was a family atmosphere and Ute fans were everywhere.

Tailgating Samantha and Amelia style.

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The girls were a little bit ill at ease with all the music and noise outside the stadium, not to mention having to go to the potty in the porter potties (YOU WANT ME TO GO WHERE?!)

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The USC fans we encountered were all classy and offered to take pictures for us. So many people commented on the little Utes and then laughed when we told them we were having another girl!

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We packed lots of snacks and some wireless headphones Jake bought for the girls, which we figured would help block out some of the noise and keep them occupied playing games on the phones for a quarter or two. As it turned out, the girls were completely uninterested and had a blast squirming all over the seats, watching the Trojan mascot on a huge stallion ride around the stadium whenever USC scored (which, unfortunately, was a lot this game!), and trying out stadium food. I am definitely offended they chowed down on stadium hot dogs faster than I’ve ever seen them eat my home cooking.

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Go Utes!

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Ryan and Lucero met us at the game with their little cuties, Kennedy and Sebastian.

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Kennedy was so sweet with the girls and shared her peanuts with them, which kept them occupied shelling peanuts for at least two quarters. Kennedy is a hero forevermore in the girls’ eyes for giving them their first taste of cotton candy!

Where have you been all my life?!

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Samantha and Amelia stuffed their faces! The nice Ute fan in front of us took pictures for us and was very understanding with the girls since she has young kids and a twin sister herself. She texted her twin a picture of our squirmy twins with the caption, “Remember these days? Poor mom!”

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I wasn’t sure how long the girls would last at the game and was prepared to take off well before half time, but between watching the band, walking around the stadium, playing with Kennedy and Sebastian, and eating snacks, they completely impressed me by lasting until seven minutes were left in the 4th quarter! They probably could have stayed until the end, but wanted to beat traffic out of there and get home before meltdowns ensued.

I was probably ready to go before the girls… even though I brought a seat cushion with me, Jake totally owes me for four painful quarters of sitting on uncomfortable benches. Baby Girl and I were not happy!

Even though the Utes lost (a fact Jake still can’t talk about due to such high hopes for the season), we had a great first game with the girls. It was one of those things that was fun to say we did once, but probably don’t want to do again for a very long time. Jake had unrealistic expectations for how much of the game he would actually be able to watch while helping wrangle the girls, so it may be a while until we are all at a game as a family again, especially with Baby Girl here for next season!

As much fun as being at a Utes game in person is, when pregnancy and littles are involved, give me our couch at home and Snuggies any day.

Lots of love,

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Utah Week Three and Going Home

After our refreshing stay in the mountains at Solitude, we packed up, contacted the condo owners about the lamp that Samantha broke (they were really nice about it…I think my inclusion of the phrase “twin toddlers” softened their hearts a bit, because they told me I had my hands full) and met up with Grammy at the Hogle Zoo before heading back to Grammy’s house.

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The Hogle Zoo has definitely been upgraded since I used to go there as a little girl. Not too crowded and the enclosures weren’t the tiny cages I remember seeing back in the day.

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Our favorite part– the grizzly bears. It was lunch time right as we arrived at the bear enclosure and the zookeepers threw dozens of steaks out for the bears to munch on. Reminds me of two little bears I know.

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Mandatory carousel stop.

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Two birdies in their nest.

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The girls napped on the way back to Grammy’s and they had a renewed interest in exploring Grammy’s house again since we had been in the mountains for half a week.

The next morning, we saw my good high school friends, Crysta and Sarah, and their kids who weren’t in school. Samantha and Amelia loved playing hide and seek and tag with all the kids.

Samantha and Amelia with Crysta’s Lincoln and Liam.

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This random cat from the park apparently wanted to come home with us as it jumped in our car.

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After the park, Grammy watched the girls while we packed the car to go home. During our stay, Grammy had prepared for “meltdown moments” by stashing away some new crafts and small toys to bust out at opportune times. The girls were totally occupied running around and pretending they were dinosaurs with the masks Grammy gave them. Too bad we couldn’t bring Grammy with us back home!

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It felt like a long vacation, and the girls had been having periodic meltdowns for a week or so about wanting to go home, but as soon as we said goodbye to Grammy and Grandpa and drove off, they of course started crying that they wanted to go back to Grammy’s. We can never win.

Miraculously, the girls were great in the car and slept the four hours to Saint George. We made a quick dinner pit stop there before gearing up to head to Vegas. The girls were super cranky and sick of the car by the time we got there, but all in all, it could have been much worse.

We normally would avoid Vegas at all costs, but we knew we’d be so tired from the trip that we’d need to make an overnight pit stop.

Since we had Bandit with us, we had to find a dog friendly hotel for our stay– so annoying (but we love you, Bandit!)

I had to laugh at some of the “Doggie menu” options!  Totally overboard, but nice for people who are willing to fork over some dough to pamper their pets. Apparently, we are not those people! Sorry, Bandit, but I would rather spend the money on a nice meal for myself. You know, because I actually chew my food before swallowing.

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The next morning, our plan was to tire the girls out before the four-hour car ride back home, so we hung out at the Mandalay Bay pool, which connected to our hotel. The girls were in heaven and I was happy about keeping them occupied without venturing out of our little bubble into downtown Vegas.

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Our mission to get the wiggles out was successful. The girls ran around non stop at the beach-entry wading pool, wave pool and lazy river. Since we were out in the morning, we had the place to ourselves, except for a few other families. I’m assuming most people in Vegas were too hung over to leave their rooms in the morning!

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The girls don’t even play this much in the sand at home, but for whatever reason, occupied themselves for hours in the imported sand here?

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Samantha soaks up the sun.

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By far the most relaxing part of the entire Utah trip for me!

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Tired out from the sun and sand, the girls slept the whole four hours home to California– truly miraculous! Despite it being 100 degrees when we returned (in the middle of October, ugh!), everyone was happy to be home. Except of course, for the girls, who repeated how much they missed Grammy’s house regularly for the next week.

Thanks for a wonderful stay, Grammy and Grandpa!

Lots of love,

 

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Utah Week Three: Solitude

Yes, we are still on Utah posts… it never ends!

The morning after the wedding, the Kagels stopped by to say adios as they were on their way back to California.

Bedheads!

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After a very long and tiring evening the day prior, it was nice to relax and enjoy the mountains for a bit.

We explored the area around the Solitude condo, which was very…solitudinous! We happened to hit the week after summer vacationers had left and the week before the winter season began, so there was very little staff around and all the restaurants and shops were closed.Next time, we will plan better and bring more food to cook at the condo, since we were counting on being able to eat at some of the lodge restaurants part of the time. We hardly saw a soul out our entire stay, which was perfect in my book.

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Samantha scouts out the next awesome rock to throw into the lake.

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Amelia fell in the dirt and was proud of it!

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We can scream as loud as we want and nobody cares!

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Being silly.

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Monkey see, monkey do.

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The girls are nearly always good sports for photos with Daddy, but not with me. Those stinkers.

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Watcha doin,’ Samantha? I thought we agreed to stick out our tongues on this one?

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Amelia gives her ironic face for our family selfie.

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Samantha’s turn.

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The girls thought picking out “cattails” was pretty much the funniest thing ever.

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With Aunt Sarah and Mike off on their honeymoon to Oregon and Northern California and most of the out of town guests gone, it was just us and immediate family left in the mountains. Later, Great Grandpa, Grammy, Mike and Ali stopped by to take a walk around Solitude with us and play some foosball back at the game room. We caught up on everything we missed at the wedding and gave high fives all around to a job well done.

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The girls were way better foosball players than their mom has ever been.

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Absolutely no clue what a “telephone” or a “booth” is.

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After naps, we drove up the road to Brighton and passed several moose along the way, including this one which crossed right in front of our car. The girls were enthralled and cried the entire way home the next day because they wanted to “see more moose!”

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A mama moose with her baby moose not too far off.

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At Brighton, we met up with Grammy, Grandpa and our friend, Susan, and took a lovely fall walk around Silver Lake. Amelia loved to be bundled up tight and pushed in the stroller most of the time.

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Wish I could have been bundled up and pushed around in a stroller! I was freezing and, to her intense protests, stole the only one of Samantha’s hats that would fit over my ears.

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Walking with Grandpa.

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Samantha and Daddy.

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Grammy with the swaddled Amelia.

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The ever popular throwing rocks in the lake.

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To end our last night in the mountains, we roasted hot dogs over at the cabin with Grammy, Grandpa, Great Grandpa and Susan.

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Sammy with a hatchet. SCARY.

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Girls on roasting duty.

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We all snuggled up on the couch with some hot chocolate, which started out well and ended with lots of spilled hot chocolate and some very sugar rushed/cranky toddlers.

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We don’t get to snuggle up with hot chocolate very often in California, so it was worth the consequences!

Lots of love,

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Sarah’s Wedding: The Reception

Apparently, the dinner, speeches, dancing and festivities after the wedding ceremony were all amazing. Too bad Jake and I were wrangling the girls through 90% of it, so I had to piece together things second hand from everyone.

By the time family pictures were done, the no nap situation was starting to take its toll and the girls only got worse as the night went on.

Bottom line: I fully understand why no one wants to bring their kids to weddings! I felt like I didn’t get to fully enjoy my own sister’s wedding reception and was in such a bad mood when it was all over that I sat in bed back at the condo and binged on some leftover chocolate chip pancakes! My biggest regret of the entire day was definitely not hiring a babysitter (or two…or three) to come with us to the reception so that the girls could still be a part of the wedding, and so that Jake and I could celebrate with everyone too!

After family pictures, we took the girls away from the deck below where the toasts were going on and most of the guests were seated for dinner so that we wouldn’t disturb anything. We found the perfect table upstairs, with a bonus of having heating lamps; I guess I’m a true Californian now that I can’t handle any kind of weather below 60. I even had a coat or two on the ready, but was so tired and out of it that I didn’t have the presence of mind to grab it from the car and put it on!

The girls nibbled on some appetizer crackers while Jake and I attempted to listen to my dad’s and the best man’s toasts before dinner. The speeches were heartfelt from what I heard of them!

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Samantha clutches the bubbles she found.

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While waiting for dinner, one of the waitresses took pity on us and brought out some snacks for the girls. Amelia was delighted to try her first maraschino cherry, which she promptly wiped all over her white bolero.

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We were keeping the girls contained on the upper deck during the toasts and dinner.

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Zombie eyes! This is why we take naps, Samantha.

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I’m so tired I can’t tell the difference between this bouquet and this cracker!

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Noah was so good and partied with the best of them the entire night!

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After taking approximately two bites of dinner, Jake and I alternated trying to talk to family and friends and attending to the girls, who were melting down fast. We walked around the lodge with the girls and found some fascinating moose heads and saddles they could climb on, which kept them happy for a bit.

Love the moose head photo bomb.

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Hopefully the photographers got a bunch of pictures of all the details/decor at the reception. I was so busy, I hardly took more than five pictures the entire night, but I just love detail photos! All the weeks that Sarah and my mom put into painting frames and making signs/decor for the reception paid off. Everything looked so cute! Samantha and Amelia loved seeing their names in print, too.

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Samantha and Amelia were fascinated by the dancing and had a blast blowing bubbles during the happy couple’s first dance. Ow ow!!!

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Sarah and Mike did a fantastic job on their dance. The girls loved it and still ask to watch this little video clip of their dance on my phone all the time!

Way to go, Dad, on the Father Daughter dance! Precious!

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After Mike and his mom’s dance (also an awesome job!), it was time to party– Jewish style! We all joined hands and danced around in a circle for the Horah. This was definitely Samantha and Amelia’s favorite part of the entire wedding. They couldn’t believe Aunt Sarah got lifted up in a chair in the middle of the circle! The girls had such a blast, they even let Grandpa and Uncle Steve hold their hands and dance around the circle.

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When the music stopped, the girls begged to do it again!

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We alternated between walking around the lodge with the girls and going out on the patio to dance. The girls even made a few song requests from the DJ. Unfortunately, he didn’t have If You’re Happy and You Know It on hand.

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Attempting to get a group photo of all the flower girls during the dancing. Fail.

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We had bribed the girls all night with the promise of cake, and at last, they could stuff themselves silly! Thank you, Mike for not stuffing cake in Sarah’s face. He was under threat of violence from all of us if he did anything of the sort!

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Don’t mess with an overtired Samantha and her cake. I had no less than 10 hair bows/headbands on hand to put in the girls’ hair (I rightly assumed they would ruin the flower girl hair crowns from the florist hours ago), but was so out of it, I didn’t think to put any in their hair! Hence, the increasingly scraggly hair as the night went on!

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Cute pic of Grandpa, Auntie Lynn and my Dad.

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Downstairs, Sarah had set up a cute map where guests could put a pushpin in wherever they thought Sarah and Mike should travel to next. Samantha and Amelia of course chose Swaziland (duh).

Downstairs was also one of the best details of the reception– an awesome photo booth. You didn’t sit in an actual booth like at some receptions I’d been to. Instead, there were two live photo booth photographers there to take funny pictures while we threw flower petals in the air. The photographers instantly printed out the photos for us, and Sarah had some custom photo frames to put the photos in for the guests as the wedding favors. The photographers also put them online for viewing and downloading later on. What a fantastic idea! So much fun.

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Too bad we were too stressed out to think of any silly poses to do! Someone on Facebook commented on how she loved this picture because it was so “real.” That’s exactly right! With twin two-year-olds and a baby girl on the way, it doesn’t get any more real than this, people!

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Wish I could edit out this flower in front of Samantha’s face! Such a cute one of Noah and the girls.

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I call it, “Exhausted Pregnant Mommy.”

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Samantha clearly enjoyed her second chance at throwing flower petals, since she didn’t toss any out when walking down the aisle. My favorite expression from Samantha of the night!

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Trying to either get the girls to cooperate or move out of our shot!

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Amanda and I.

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Some other cute ones from the rest of the family. Mike and his girlfriend, Ali.

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Siblings: Mom, Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny.

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Zack, Allison, Noah, Auntie Lynn and Uncle Steve.

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Grandpa and Noah.

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Aunt Linda and Uncle David.

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Jack, Sarah, Eleri and Rhys.

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Mike, Sarah and Hannah.

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Shelley and Hannah.

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Uncle Johnny, Aunt Annie, Rhys, Eleri and Jack.

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The pictures with Mike’s family were hilarious– especially the ones with his grandma and grandpa!

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In going through the photo booth photos, the photographers clearly loved Mike’s grandpa because there were at least ten close ups of his mustache! Pretty impressive!

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Dad, Mom and longtime family friends, Barb  and Dan Panzica.

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At the front of the reception, Sarah had a table where we could take instant photos with one of her vintage cameras and could print them out/write a message on them and stick in her guest book. Ali took this one of us with my phone right before we started taking some instant photos. I laugh every time I see this photo because you can totally tell we are forcing smiles and the girls look devilish!

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The girls took a spiral way downward after the sugar rush from the cake wore off, so we spent the last hour or so of the reception in a little dark room with a TV that we found. We stuck the girls on the couch and checked outside every few minutes to see what was going on. Music was pumping and the party was still in full swing, while we were inside sitting on a couch! We missed the bouquet toss and 98% of the dancing, but such is life.

After the “send off” of the bride and groom (Mike and Sarah did a fake one for the pictures and then stuck around to dance and play card games with their friends), we took off ourselves, even though the party had just gotten started. The girls were out once their heads hit the bunk bed pillows.

Even though we didn’t get to fully take in every detail of the wedding, we were so excited to be able to be there for Sarah’s special day and were happy everyone had a great time! Most of all, we were happy for the newly wedded couple!

Weeks later, Samantha and Amelia are still talking about how they got to “throw” flowers at Aunt Sarah’s wedding, so apparently, they had some fun too. It was so special that they got to be included– thank you Mike and Sarah!

I hope Samantha and Amelia will look back fondly at these pictures one day and take pity on their loving parents. Maybe they will even get the experience of taking napless toddlers to a wedding one day in the future! I look forward to that day with glee.

Lots of love,

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