wedding bells in youuuutah!

my cute cousin married nico in the salt lake temple, so we flew out for the occasion. my whole family also flew out, and i relished those short days with them. we live on the same continent as family now, but it still takes us a whole day of traveling to get across the country. someday we'll live a little closer to all those people we love.

aunt claudia and uncle kevin live in south africa, so we loved seeing them for the first time in years. the theme of our utah trips is always not enough time. wish i had more time with my cousins, more time with friends, more time for another cafe rio salad.

our one little hiccup was that sage fractured her leg on a trampoline the day before our trip. she was happy to be strollered around and carried everywhere, but i felt so sad when she would try to limp to keep up with the gang. after a few weeks of wearing a brace and laying low, she's just fine.

i didn't bring a camera, but i do want to remember these moments...

 nora was so over the shoulders picture thing. i think sage can just own that pose. we'll have to think up a good one for nate and nora.

 cousin pounds.

 my grandmother has 24 grandkids and 24 great grandkids. every single great grandkid was here for the wedding! somehow we managed this chaotic picture when 80% of those being photographed wanted to be napping. 

 the balkman girls. we went to women's conference together at the tabernacle.

 brooke's wedding reception was a sans children affair. it made me sweat bullets to leave little N behind, but i'll admit i loved having no responsibility and dancing the night away. i mean, my 80 year-old grandma was cutting a rug (what does that even mean?), so i had to get out there.

i picked these dresses out at my favorite french clothing shop in singapore. it's ridiculous how happy matching children's dresses make me.

 sage is really into jesus and why he had "owies" on his feet.

 and just to keep things classy, nora pooped evvveeerrryyywwwhheeerrreee while we were at church. nate especially loved the splotches down his suit since he was the lucky guy holding her during the unfortunate event. we didn't have any extra clothes for her, so we toted our naked baby around temple square for an hour.

 we spent our last day with the lawler clan, with this sunset as our backdrop. i remember being so frustrated with utah's bipolar spring weather when i lived there, but wow, there is so much beauty.