Utah Party Week

Holy moly, and was it ever a party.  I mean - it is ALWAYS exciting and fun and busy when we go home...trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with both of our families but it sure felt like there was something different this time.  It was seriously NON stop the whole week.  On top of not sleeping good or long enough any of the nights - we were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home.  But sooo many good and fun things happened.  I'd do it again just  like that if I had the choice!

We ended up sneaking out of town a day early.  Laura, my youngest sister, who was getting married the next week and the reason for our trip, was also going through the Bountiful Temple on Saturday.  So we told Tanner's family we were going to be there Friday, but we didn't tell mine.  We texted them pictures from our drive on Friday on Saturday telling them how much we wished we were going to be there with them.  Hehe.

We showed up at the temple and my dad saw Tanner first and did a double/triple take before he realized what was happening.  Awesome.  Then we saw my sister and mom and they both started crying.  I am so incredibly happy we got to make that and be there with her and all the family and friends that were there.  Such a special experience.  I love the temple :)

Later that day we did a little errand running.  We hadn't got all of the wedding gift shopping done so we needed to do that, and we were also in the market for a new ride.  Not to bore you with all the details of our shopping experience...I'll sum it up with this:

I didn't get any great pictures of it for some reason.  But it's a 2011 Audi A4 Wagon.  Tanner's brother has one and I drove it like 2 years ago and thought it was awesome but never figured I'd ever own an Audi.  But we were in the market for an all wheel drive and a wagon so our options were limited and Audi it was.  It's "root beer brown" and tan leather interior and has satellite radio and heated seats and is smooth and sexy :)  I love it.  But I will say I do miss my Xterra.  I figured I'd have that forever.  I loved that car.  But I guess it was time to move on.  This gets significantly better gas mileage too, so that helps me move on a little easier!

Sunday we had a dual family barbeque.  Both our families are awesome and get along really well and so we figured why not get to hang out with both one day?  Plus it made for the perfect opportunity to share our surprise.  While everyone was getting ready for dinner and piling more and more food on the table, I brought out a special plate to a table my parents, Tanner and his parents were sitting...

We got these from Parson's Bakery in Bountiful.  It had been our plan for quite some time to tell them this way (well, after we realized we'd be having a dual fam party).  As soon as we found out we were expecting we decided to wait till we were home to tell them because we wanted to do it in person.  It seemed like a really long wait and I was talking to people at work about it for several weeks before so it felt weird that our families didn't know.  But the wait was 100% worth it.  It took everyone a little bit to figure out what was going on.  Some longer than others :)  My mom caught on first and screamed and then everyone did and it was so fun and exciting and happy and the cookies were dang good so that didn't hurt either.  I was thinking I'd do a little pregnancy blog soon so I'll give more details about all that there.  But it was super fun letting the cat out of the bag.  I was having a hard time keeping it in!  (We were 14 weeks when we told them).

The rest of the evening we just hung around in the awesome summer evening air and played.  So much fun!

The next day the whole Niederhauser crew went to Cherry Hill for the day.  I'd never been and it was really fun!  It felt like summer.  Super hot and swimsuits and water.  Couldn't have been better!  I didn't get any pictures of that though.  That night we went to see Planes with Mimi and Papa and Nat and Preston and their 3 kids.
Tuesday was a hang out day with Nat and kids while Tanner golfed with Preston.  The Smithfield clan had to head back home.  Later that evening we did some shopping at City Creek - I got some new Sunday shoes that were desperately needed.  Tanner helps me shop when I'm too cheap to spend money :)  And then we ate at the family favorite - Rio Grande.  So yummy.  After that I headed home and Tanner headed back north with his family.  The next day was Laura's bachelorette bash and he was going to speed week with his brothers and dad.

I'll include a few of the MANY pictures from our party with Laura.  We did it up my FAVORITE canyon in Utah - Millcreek.  We spent a LOT of time up there growing up with cousins and even as an adult we would have dutch oven cook outs and parties and hikes and mountain biking, etc.  I love that place.  Plus it was nice to have more mountain time and it was a little cooler up there than in the valley.  We played a bunch of games, ate yummy food mostly in her wedding colors, chatted, opened presents and decorated corset sugar cookies.  It was a lot of fun!

The party planners

My cute niece Adi

 

Playing Bingo and then Scattegories

Pin the hose on the (hot, black) fireman :)

Trying to set off a mouse trap without cutting your hot dog.  Whoever had the longest hot dog at the end was the winner.

Loading her up with the essentials

 

And while we were doing the girl thing...

 Tanner got to spend the day at the Salt Flats doing something he grew up doing with his dad and loves. Speed Week! 

The next day was the wedding.  It really was perfect.  It was a hot day, but the morning at the temple was awesome.  We took a few pics and then had a couple hours to kill before the luncheon.  We killed it at REI by buying our box for the top of our car.  Luncheon was delicious.  It was at the Wight House in Bountiful, same place the reception was.  Tanner and I wandered around the shops on Main St. and then we played games at the reception till it was time for more festivities.  I thought the reception was really fun.  It was great to see so many people from growing up and such.  It was kind of chaotic trying to say hi to everyone and it was really hot in the building - but other than that, it was a perfectly exhausting wedding day!

I love her simple cake with the flowers and burlap ribbon.  Her flowers and table decorations were all different and beautiful too but I figure this post is getting rather picture heavy so I won't put ALL of those on here either. 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Wood

 And of course - the super classy car decor made with love by Tanner and my brother in law Shane.  Good thing Laura is such a dang good sport!

"There's glitter EVERYWHERE!"

And the last thing we squeezed into this wild week was an overnight camping trip up in the Uinta's.  We went a little farther so that we could take all our dogs.  6 dogs and 11 people.  That's good odds, right?  The dogs playing in the water were so much fun.  Bandit, my brother's dog really got into it.  So funny.  It was beautiful and so fun to get a last dose of mountain air before heading back to the flat lands.  Don't mind all the pictures.  I can't help myself.  There could have been a lot more :)

Potty training in the mountains :)

 

We love our Rozzi!  Samson had to hang back unfortunately.

 

Hadn't done one of these for like 15 years.  Great form, though, right?

 

 Then we had to unpack and clean and pack and then we drove to Layton and then an very early morning for a long drive back to ND.  Although it was pretty fun in my car :)  Not sure how much Rozzi appreciated the slightly more compact space.  We all survived though.  And whew.  That's it.  We need to stop going on long vacations with so many things because it really makes for LONG posts and more pictures than people probably care about.  Oh well - I love them.