Wedding, Blessing, Sealing, and Christmas!

We went to Utah for about 9 days for Christmas and it was the most action-packed week we have ever had there! Shad and I got there on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday we went shopping in Farmington with my mom and Alex and got outfits for my brother Andrew's wedding and then had lunch at Zuppas. Yum! Thursday we went shopping at Target with my sister Holly and her sweet Olivia, and we met my mom there for lunch. Shad and Olivia loved riding in the cool cart.

Friday was my little brother Andrew's wedding in Brigham City and we added a new member of the Grose family: Megan! She is a darling girl and hopefully one day she can teach me how to have such cute style!

That night was their wedding dinner in Ogden, it was quite the party! Shad definitely busted out some sweet dance moves:

Shad and me

They had a photo booth instead of a signature book to show that you came to their wedding. Cute idea! Here is our little family of 3:

Afterwards, while we were waiting for the happy couple outside, we lit sparklers and floating lanterns. 

Shad and I also started getting sick that day with really bad coughs and sore throats, and I lost my voice completely for about a week after that. But that didn't stop us from having an amazing vacation!

The next day on Saturday we had the opportunity to be sealed to Shad in the Bountiful temple. The drive there was crazy in a blizzard and we passed 5 car accidents on the way, witnessing two of them, and Shad was really sick and did not look well. We were really worried that it might not be a good day. But we made it safely and when he entered the sealing room all dressed in white with his hair combed he looked absolutely perfect and angelic. It was the most spiritual experience I have ever had. The happiness and joy I felt is beyond words and I am so so grateful that Heavenly Father placed him in our family forever.

It was too cold to take pictures in front of the temple, so we had to settle for taking some pictures inside the rotunda area. My best friend Sierra came to his sealing and took these beautiful pictures for us. 

Is this not the most angelic face you have ever seen?! And those eyes!

 My sisters and parents, and Jared's parents

 My parents

 Jared's parents

Sweet Grandpa Grose

 The Masons

 The beautiful and talented Sierra (click on her name to see some of her amazing work!)

It was an absolutely perfect day and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

The next day was Sunday and we blessed Shad at his parents' church. Sierra came again and took a few more pictures for us. She really is the best!

Besties

The next day, Monday, was Christmas Eve Eve, my mom's annual Christmas party complete with the nativity. Shad was a shepherd and left the thing on his head for all of 1.5 seconds (if that). I love that my mom does this every year so we can always have all the siblings there at the same time. 

Tuesday was Christmas Eve, and we spent it between my Grandma's and Jared's Grandma's house, but we only stayed at each for a few minutes because Shad had a fever of 104 at this point. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this day. Shad and I were both feeling pretty awful still so we went home and slept for almost 12 hours.

Christmas day was nice, we spent most of the day just chilling at my parents' house. This was our first Christmas together as a family of 3 (Shad joined our family on December 27th last year!)

Shad opened some presents and then went back to sleep for another few hours. He got his very first train set. It was so much fun even though he's still a little young to realize what was going on.

The next morning we left early in the morning to go back to Michigan. It was probably the most exhausting yet the best Christmas vacation we have ever had (well I guess you could say it's tied with last year's Christmas vacation when we came home unexpectedly with a baby!) 

Cali

Warning: Picture overload

I was very blessed to be able to spend a whole week with my family in California a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately Jared wasn't able to come because apparently he had better things to do.... something about training to become a doctor or something...? Psh. Whatev. Anyway, he surely missed out. It was such a blast. I flew into Las Vegas and my parents and brother Alex picked me up and we drove about 5 hours to Palm Springs. Along the way we stopped at a Greek food restaurant.



My parents have had this time share in Palm Springs for 12 years or so and this is the first time we've ever stayed there. It was pretty nice.



The first day we were there we walked around the town and shopped a little.


The next day we spent the majority of our time in the pool and just hanging out and playing games.


Isn't my cute niece so adorable?!

We also did a little shopping with just the girls!



This view of the moon out as the sun was setting was even better in person!


There was also a really weird alien house that we drove by and gawked at. Who would ever live in something like this?!


One of the nights we had to eat at Rubio's to get the famous fish tacos! I love Michigan, but there is nothing even close to Rubio's or any good Mexican restaurants around for that matter. At least not in Lansing.


We drove to Disneyland the next day. I hadn't been there since I was probably 10 or 11. It was so much fun, probably mostly because we went with little kids. I think they said it got up to 102 degrees that day though.... yikes!




The haunted mansion ride was decorated like the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was super cute.


My parents, my brother Alex and I also got park hopper passes to California Adventure. I had never been to that one so it was pretty cool. Here is us on the Tower of Terror ride. It was fun, but I had a headache after from screaming so much.


We went on the Monsters Inc ride and it broke down right in the middle of it, so I took pictures when they turned the lights on. I thought it was pretty funny.


We watched the little kids while my sisters and their husbands went on some "big kid" rides. We took them to the Tiki Room.


We also went to Seaworld in San Diego the next day. It was in the 90's, which is pretty rare for San Diego. At times I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. Awesome.


Luckily some of the aquariums and things were inside where it was nice and cool.




Tide pools.



They had a few fun little kid rides at Seaworld too.



We stayed in San Diego that night after Seaworld and spent the next day hanging out there. We went to the tide pools, but the tide was too high.



We went to Point Loma, which is where I was left one time when I was 10 when we lived in San Diego. What a traumatic experience, I'll never be the same because of it. (jk, it was only like 10 minutes or so before they realized they left me and turned back around... but still.)



We drove over the bridge to Coronado island and rode surrey bikes with Ash and her family. It was probably one of my favorite highlights throughout the trip.





Then we of course had to go to Oceanside and eat at Ruby's on the pier.



After two days of super hot and sunny days where we couldn't really avoid the heat at two theme parks, we went to the beach to cool off.... and it was cold and cloudy the whole day. But I guess I can't complain, I love the beach either way.


Ok, are you sick of looking at pictures yet? I'm sick of being on the computer at posting them! But I seriously loved every minute of this trip because I've missed hanging out with my family. It was kind of a bitter sweet thing leaving, because I really missed Jared and wanted to go back and see him, but I knew I wouldn't see my family again for a little while. Ok I'm done. Thanks for reading!