The Rest of Provo...

So I'm still feeling like there's just not enough time to get creative with my words on how great this past week was. So I think I'll stick to some basic bullets and captions. After the weekend of Sarah's wedding (where I'm not sure I mentioned that I fell in love with every one of her best friends... you see she has more than anyone I know, and we all come from different places, and frankly I think we need a reunion of Sarah's best-friends every year because it was the funnest "Bachelorette Party" and wedding-event-filled day ever. What an incredible bunch of girls.) I'm still sick about my missing pictures since I had some favorites of all these lovely people at the temple (and some good kissing ones of Sarah and Paul :)) , so if I ever manage to retrieve them, I'm sure I'll have a lone "Sarah's Wedding" post in October or something. Anyway, until then.... the rest of the week at Ross' parent's house looked something like this:


Just enjoying the Utah- summer-evenings.... since we've forgotten what it feels like when they COOL OFF.
Elder Biesinger, officially Jared again, home from the mission for almost a week at this point. Cutie eh?

This was at a Ropes Course in Provo (that I never knew was there but Zach found it once and it's super fun.) You split the cost amongst however many of you there are, so for like 12 bucks, we got to do a zip-line, and some other scary-up-high-harnessed-in kind of things (mostly I just wanted to do the zip-line.) Super fun.

Yes that is my long-time, long-distance sweet, sweet friend, Michelle. Friends from BYU-Hawaii when we needed each other... lost touch, then reconnected through blogging. A reminder of why this mommy-cyber-world really can be SO wonderful. She was in Utah on her way from Idaho Falls to Gainsville, FL (a big move in a little tiny trailer :) sold most of what they owned... ) and came down to Provo with just her baby, Annie to talk as much and as fast as we could in person before we were back to typing. How wonderful. And yes, I said Gainsville, so of course I'm setting her up with my sister. ;) I love when the world's small.

This was in Ben and Marie's new house.... still being framed, in Lehi. It's going to be SUCH a beautiful place! I couldn't believe all the upgrades they had "thrown in" for nothing. I mean the market stinks down here too, but we still had gold door-knobs and white walls when we moved in. We're SUPER happy for them. Since they already rented out their OTHER property (yup), they're living with Ross' parents until it's finished in September.... so add that to Jared just returning from his mission and Brooke home for the first few days of our trip to see him... and it was a happy but FULL house.

This is Ben (it goes Brooke, Ross, Ben, Zach, and Jared... in case you're really trying to figure it all out :)) He and Marie have this gorgeous little 16 month-old boy, Kanoa. Here's a few of Marie. Can you believe that gorgeous hair? And you haven't even seen it in a bun....

That one's Zach. I know all these handsome Biesinger boys are hard to keep track of.

Home from Edmonton, Canada. We were SO happy to have him back in the mix.
Ross' clever photo. That killer depth of field. :)
$5 all you can eat french toast at Magleby's... actually my first time, but just as good as I imagined. Becky, I thought of you and your feeding tube the whole time... because I'm pretty sure you're the one I always heard talk about Magleby's. I sure hope you're feeling better. :(

Kanoa.

Fatter even than my babies.... Beau. :)
And his hot mama, Brooke.

And the Carringtons. Sigh. John, Marnie, and their beautiful little boy Marion. Marnie, why, oh why did you leave us? You are so missed in the desert. Thank goodness it feels like not a day has passed since you were prego and sick on my couch all day, because we didn't have NEARLY enough time to warm up again. I'm just so so so happy we could see you for the hours we did. And that I could witness that gorgeous boy in action. (The other boy, John, but I sure loved seeing you too.) How do I not have any pictures of the hosts? Nana and Grandpa... thank you so much for letting us eat ALL your food, WRECK your house, sleep in every nook and cranny, soak up all your AC, dump our children on you FAR more than we ever should have (I'm having major post-trip guilt about that). You are superb grandparents, parents, and in-laws. What a FUN week.

The beginning

I know I know, Sarah was even MORE gorgeous than you could have imagined. What a magnificent bride. So I filled my memory card far too early in the trip, burned the first few hundred to CD to free up some space, thought something seemed a little fishy about the CD but little by little, deleted precious photos of Sarah's wedding from my card while I crossed my fingers. Just got home this morning from week in Utah/weekend in San Diego, popped CD in computer and it can't read it. NOOO! So so sad. So I'm siphoning some photos off of Missy's blog for the temple part. Of course I started deleting at the beginning, so I only got rid of the MOST important photos. Boo. All of the above belong to the lovely girl below. Thanks Missy, cutest pregnant mama ever. (You can't see her belly here but just trust me.)

Our desperate attempt at a family photo in a moment of rain reprieve (sadly my hair had already been sacrificed to the pony tail and my necklace already broken.)
Missy's number one, Avery, "golfing" on the damp grass after the storm.
Sophia, not too happy about the storm. :(

Can you tell who's who? People say we look alike. Rebecca thinks we look most alike when we do this face. We discovered it in College. Obviously I'm posting it on my blog so I can boast of ANY similarity with this girl. She's superb. If you haven't read her blog, you really should.

There's too much to say, but I need to start somewhere (with so many pictures to share) and promised myself I'd rest a little during the girls' naps, so I'm off. But we're home and missing everyone you're going to see all over my next few posts....

SAS

So if you've noticed in my sidebar... the big event that sits solo in my upcoming events is.... Sarah Ann Stancliff's WEDDING!!!! She is a "kindred"-- and one of my all-time best friends. Met her at BYU and am so thankful that I moved to La Jolla condos that Fall. We leave tomorrow for her wedding, I don't know what I'm wearing, I haven't finished my laundry, haven't started packing, definitely haven't finished losing the baby weight resulting from the phase pictured in many of these photos (but will have to let that one go seeing as only have mere hours now), so I don't have nearly enough time to write all the fabulous things I have in my heart about her. But here are some sweet memories through pictures, the grainy ones from college (I couldn't find my box with the mother-load, so these are a few sad stragglers) and the others from my trip out to DC to see her. Sarah, SO MANY people's best friend and angel, you are such a blessing to ALL of us! Paul is a lucky lucky man and I'm so happy you found him! ... and then found him again... :) and that time, let yourself fall in love with him. I can't WAIT to be married-friends forever. Where it all started.... the big B Y -- at our graduation.

And no that's not my skin, just a belt. Sarah, I think your mom still thinks of me as your immodest friend because of this picture.
Tortilla Flat. Sigh. I wish-- oh how I wish we'd lived there all four years and that I'd gotten to room with you long BEFORE I found my prince.


Halloween... of course.

Thank goodness you're so much smarter than me, you were able to teach me so much I should have already known of the history laced throughout our nation's Capitol. :)
Yes, me AND Rebecca were both expecting... and Sarah, when during your pregnant-sandwich people gave up subway seats and offered you free doughnuts, it had nothing to do with your tummy region at all, and everything to do with your gorgeous smile and hypnotically soothing alto voice. But that was funny wasn't it? Travel with two mamas, must be a mama.

Proved in several posts since, I've never been the same since my tart yogurt experience. Thanks for insisting on the Mochi. Yum.Pumpkin scone? Who says there's no meal between Breakfast and BRUNCH?I'm hoping that my convenience in getting us to the front of the ticket line (apparently since Angelina made pregnancy so cool, New York treats us like celebrities) outweighed my ball-and-chain effect as I was moving rather slow at this stage... and my quart-hourly (?? more than tri, I know that much) potty breaks.

Top of the MET where we ate what we managed to save of our Sprinkles Cupcake that we intended on eating atop the MET, but ate most of on the way as an old man shot us dirty looks and scolded us in the way of nutrition. Not sure if he was worried about the baby, or just our thighs.... so weird.

My sweet sweet Sarah...

I'm so so happy you've found your prince.