Weekend Bliss

We had a perfect weekend. I love it when everything goes exactly as you planned. Or even close. When something actually turns out to be as good (or better) than you imagined it. So it was with this weekend.

My cousin asked me to take her family portraits this year. Since I've spent the last three years wishing that I could have been a photographer, this was beyond exciting for me. So, Landon being the supportive and wonderful husband that he is, we made plans to go to Rexburg. As a bonus, my sister heard about the trip and decided to join us.

We left late Friday evening and drove straight there, then managed to stay up even later talking with our parents, eating Oreos, and being entertained by Stella.

Saturday morning, we made our way to campus, where my mom gave us a tour of the brand new bookstore (it's HUGE!), and we saw an amazing exhibit by Landon's dad in the Spori gallery. He is so talented, and we hardly ever get to see his work, since his life is now filled up with 6 kids and being Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Landon then went off with his family and I got to have lunch with my my mom, sister, grandpa, aunts and cousins:


After lunch, I went with my cousins and took some photos of the Bronson family grandkids. It was difficult, since it was raining outside and we had to take pictures in the basement. My poor little point-and-shoot camera really wasn't made to be used in someone's basement on a stormy day with no light and very wiggly toddlers, but I think it went well anyway. I am working on the pictures this week, hoping to have them lightened and color-corrected soon so that everyone can see them!

After that, I had Tara drop me off at Landon's house and we spent the afternoon with his family. It was a blast! I am always amazed at how much energy his little brothers have, while still maintaining the attention span necessary to play a full game of RISK! It's fun for me to continue to get to know his family, and to be around kids. I have always been the youngest everything, it's weird to be the oldest!

That night, we had a party with many of our good friends from high school and college. So many times when we go home, there are way too many family functions between the two of us to even call our friends, so we wanted to take this opportunity to see as many as we could. I couldn't believe so many people came! Old roommates and friends we hadn't seen in years! I couldn't believe how great it was to be together again. Living so far away from both my work and Landon's school makes it hard to have a lot of friends in Utah. We really missed Preston and Erica, some of my best friends from high school, and hope we'll catch you guys next time! I'm mad I didn't think to take pictures.

Sunday morning we went to shoot Tara's photos (we meant to go Saturday, but her husband was unexpectedly called away for work so, given the emergency situation, we went Sunday). I was really nervous. Landon was really supportive and calmed me down and wished me luck. We were lucky. The weather was FREEZING but not windy or snowing, and the pictures turned out good! Tara hasn't seen the finished product yet, but I am pretty happy with them. You can view a few of them on my photo blog.

We stopped in IF on the way home, to visit my Grandma Jackson, who has recently relocated to an assisted living center. She seemed happy to see us and in pretty good shape, which was nice to know. We had a small hitch with a windshield wiper and were just wondering if we would ever get home when Landon and my wonderful, amazing Dad were able to fix it and we were on our way. So we got home extremely late, but it was completely worth it.

Thanks to Tara, Landon, our families, Abby, and all of our great friends who came for making this a weekend to remember! We love you all!