Kind of a random, small place to be, right? I know that's what you are thinking. The reason for my adventure there? A wedding and a homecoming. All in the same weekend. All in the same family. And they know how to throw a party.
I know, you want to see pictures. Ok here goes:
This is my traveling companion, Grant.
Flying Frontier Airlines was a much different experience than I've ever, well, experienced . For one thing, I actually had a layover. In Denver. Check that airport off the list... Anyway, this is after we ate dinner and were waiting for employees to arrive so that we could actually leave. My rant about this: really Frontier? How many people in this country are desperate for jobs and you can't have enough staff on hand for me to get to this wedding/homecoming on time? Really?
Ok so really it only ended up being an additional hour. Not bad. Grant and I filled the time well. We played, "Come up with as many things as possible that would be worse than being stuck in the airport for an extra hour". It was fun. My list included things like, not being able to go to the wedding, having to work 60 hours a week instead of 40, you know, things that are practical. Grant's list? "Being in the airport for an extra 2 hours. Dying. Your mom dying. Your dad dying. Your dog dying." Way to be optimistic Grant.
I discovered something this trip: I loved having a travel buddy! It was great not dragging everything I'm carrying on into a little tiny stall right before the flight so I don't have to use the gross tiny bathroom on the plane where everyone can hear you doing your thing... Thanks Grant for making that trip fun!
We ended up not getting in until about midnight that night (and I had woken up at 530 that morning to work my full shift before leaving). Ally picked us up from the airport and that was so much fun to see her again! We got to the Taylor residence just after the big green van from Provo (you are all brave, brave souls for making that trip). This picture was taken around 1am or so...
Happy birthday shout out to Elisse (technically it was still her birthday, in CA anyway...). Not so shortly after this, we all fell asleep and woke up ready for a day of food, Taylor family fun, wakeboarding/wakeskating, tubing, food, and food. And the Twins game.
Ilene, Stopher, me and Jill helping prepare food for lunch that day. The rest of the crew was helping outside or sitting in the hot tub. I'd also like to point out that Uncle Brad (throwing the peace sign) and I are rocking the same t-shirt. Go Cougars!
Swimsuits are underneath I assure you. Also, it was a cloudy day but the water (luckily for me and my uncanny ability to freeze rather quickly) was warm.
Uncle Brad works for General Mills, and was able to get us tickets to the Twins vs. Brewers game that night.
One of my wisest amazon.com purchases.
The group in the box. With all the free pizza, hot dogs, and soda we could have ever asked for. (Jenny I drank a Diet Pepsi and thought of you.)
After the first inning, Anders decided he wanted to nap or something. Doesn't he look comfortable?
Actually, I think having us all there was good luck; the Twins went up 7-0 in the first inning. Totally awesome.
I can't remember at what point in the game this was. Maybe before it started? Oh well. Love you Elisse!
Everyone, then just the girls after the game. Good game Twins! Thanks for the win!
Ok onto the wedding. After getting ready (p.s. J-Mo, thanks again to your parents for letting me stay!) and getting to the temple, some of us waited for a long time, some got to go and then had to wait. Well, after everyone came out, it started pouring. Not just, "oh hey, its raining", it was a downpour. Luckily Dan and Laura took pictures before the wedding. This is one of my favorites:
This is so typical of their relationship: no PDA just high fives. Love you guys!
Waiting...
Reason #1 for coming to MN:
So exciting! We braved the rain and took pictures, but those are somewhere yet to be discovered by me or by anyone on facebook. Remember how it was pouring? Yeah somehow that didn't really matter. We were, um, happy to stand in the rain for pictures. Good thing there was only one with all the friends. We took off rather quickly. Reason number three for going to Minnesota?
Okay, so it wasn't really a reason. And you are probably wondering why reason 3 would come before any mention of reason 2... well remember the homecoming part? That's reason 2, and quite possibly tied with reason 1 for coming to MN. And thanks Google images for the picture. It definitely wasn't that sunny when we got there. And actually, I don't think we even saw this sign.
What do you do at the Mall of America? Well, if you are Mighty Ducks fans (which we all are), you ride the roller coaster they rode in D2: Mighty Ducks.
No, this is not us on the roller coaster. I took pictures of each of our pictures that were taken, and they are on facebook. Or will be shortly. There were like 10 and this post is already a short novel.
So we hung out at the Mall, ate lunch, walked around, etc. Went to Sears for a little catnap in the mattress section, tested out some exercise equipment, lifted weights, stopped by the Aquarium (but didn't go in), you know, things you normally do at a mall. Saw 3 Old Navy's and 2 American Eagles (didn't buy anything... one of my proudest moments I'll admit). Then this:
Grant saw the stage set up (for some event, we still have no idea what it was, and people already seated and ready for it to start) and decided to make sure the equipment was ready to go. I'm sure no one knew he really didn't work there... maybe the other 8 of us standing off to the side laughing and taking pictures clued them in. No idea.
We rode a log ride after waiting for forever for another part of the group that was there, and I considered this great preparation for Splash Mountain that I knew I would be riding 2 weeks later. I'm sure I look more scared than I actually was, but I was really nervous about my skirt flying up. Never a good idea to where a skirt to a theme park... or a mall I guess.
By the time we got off, we realized that we were indeed late for the reception and the pictures that we were supposed to take beforehand. (By this point the rain had cleared and it had warmed up considerably. Again, luckily for me and my ability to freeze.)
This is ghosting. It's where you walk right behind someone. Kind of makes you jump when you turn around and see someone doing. Not to be confused with ghost-riding the whip. Maybe there will be a post about that someday...
This pretty much sums up the trip. We were all so tired. Sleep well, Stopher.
We made it just in time for friend pictures. There were a lot of us there.
Just the girls. There is a classic one of the boys; again, it's lost on facebook.com somewhere. Let's just say there is a pyramid of boys and Dan is standing on top. 10 feet in the air, on his wedding day. Anyone surprised? We weren't...I'm not going to post the toast that Anders gave, its on facebook, and its like 10 minutes long, and everyone that would have any interest in seeing it probably already has. But, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend going to see it. Hilarious. Especially the part about Dan's armpit hair. Laura you lucky lady you...
Beautiful, delicious cake. We ate the whole thing the next day (except for the top, but I hope that went without saying. Even though I said it).
This is the "bridal party dance" a.k.a. the awkward dance-with-your-cousin dance. Way to go Ally and Anders! Really, though, all of Dan's sisters are dancing with cousins. More or less awkward? You can be the judge.
After this point, there was a wicked awesome dance party that included jumping jacks, Henry (a cousin) being crowd-surfed (almost) and the playing of one of the greatest songs of all time, Bust a Move. Good choices on the playlist made for a great dance party!
You probably thought it was over didn't you? Well remember that the wedding was only part of the reason I went out. Ally got back from her mission in Fukuoka, Japan the week before. It was really exciting to spend time with her again, and I can't wait until she comes back to Provo!
If you thought there were a lot of people there for the wedding, you were right. And all those people stayed for Ally's talk the next day (which was fabulous, as well as the musical number right before).
See Ally, we didn't just come for the wedding. And we sat in the back so we wouldn't make you nervous, and so you couldn't see the faces we were pulling to try and make you laugh.
After this, we headed back for leftovers from Friday's barbecue. The big green van left...
... and the rest of us celebrated not having to ride in the ever-growing-smaller big green van.
If you know Ally, she loves showing off pictures from her years at BYU-H, and other pictures as well. We always called it, "the slideshow of Ally's life". Which I always willingly watched because Hawaii is beautiful, and since I have never been, pictures are all I have. Well, after the van left, it quieted down considerably in the house, and Ally pulled out her mission scrapbook/journal and showed us that. So we got the slideshow of Ally's mission. Which was really cool. I've never been to Japan, so seeing pictures was way cool.
Shortly after this, I left for the airport to fly back to Utah. Dang work and not enough time off. I would have really enjoyed staying an extra few days. It was truly beautiful out there. I want to go back and see the sights (which J-mo so lovingly pointed out on our drive from his house to the St. Paul temple). The the cherry in the spoon at the art museum out there. That would be cool.
I must have really bad luck or something because again, as soon as I landed in Denver for my layover, I saw that my flight back was delayed. Really? And this time we left after the plane was supposed to land originally. And I didn't have a travel buddy, so back to dragging all my luggage into the tiny stall before the flight. AND I had to sit in the middle seat. Which is fine when the guy next to you isn't snoring the entire flight. Luckily I had Harry Potter 6 on my iPod to watch.
All in all, it was a great trip. And for the record, if Ally's homecoming had been a different weekend than the wedding, I would have gone for that. Just to be clear.
Take home lesson from the trip? Don't stand across a bridge from where your friends are sitting with your back turned...
... or you get slapped on the butt by another friend.
