Family Time

After Christmas, we made a quick trip to SC for a wedding!  My sis-in-law married an awesome guy in the temple on Saturday, the 29th.  It was neat to be in the temple with all of the Turek siblings now.  The day was truly one to remember.  The weather remained rain free which was much better than the forecast.  The reception was beautiful and the lovely couple looked happy and carefree all day just as they should.

Because of the occasion we were able to see a lot of awesome people as a bonus

                                                     

                                       4 generations of Turek men

                                         Posing with grandparents

                                                   

                           Bridesmaids and the lovely bride

My two favorite men

Kira snapped this photo which shows how I feel in SC with everyone.  Plus, you can see the pretty jewelry that she made for all of us for the wedding.

We also saw cousins, an aunt, and friends that were able to attend the wedding.

There are some great pictures that were taken from the wedding that I'm sure Jessi will share soon.  I don't want to steal her thunder.  

Joshua loved getting in cuddles with his Aunt Jessi.  Here he is also modeling his new cowboy boots that Aunt KiKi bought for him.  He loves his boots and really "needs" a cowboy hat now to complete his look.

 Somehow, I managed to not get a single picture of Joshua and Aunt Kiki. When we travel to SC, we leave our camera behind and I left my ipad upstairs while we were at the Turek home so....no pics.  :-(

You can tell by the smile though that we had an awesome visit and second Christmas at the Turek home in SC.  Some of my favorite memories from this trip at the Turek house were late night chats about everything and nothing all at the same time.  Matt leading us all in madlibs.  Giggles from my little one as he played chase with Nani, Pop Pop, KiKi, Jess, and Uncle Peter.  (Yes, Peter is the only one he consistently gives the title before the name.)  Santa finding us in SC who is always so generous.  Seeing our grandparents and visiting with them.  Helping set up for the wedding reception and really feeling like I was able to contribute as a daughter should.  Going to Zaxby's twice (lucky.)  Playing Cranium with Jessi and Peter and then eventually everyone else in the room whether they wanted to or not.  Making breakfast for everyone.  Just simply being together as a family.

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend a couple of days visiting my family too.  We are so lucky that our families only live about 45 mins apart so when a special occasion takes us to one location it really takes us to both locations.  All of the kids were home at the same time so we had a few family pictures taken.

The ipad at the house was left in the living room since that was also our bedroom at night.  Here our a few pics of J man with his fans.

We had some good times with my family too.  Julia gave me new hair and styled it for me for pics.  She always makes me feel pretty.  As kids we wandered the mall together and rented movies.  I loved whipping everyone in Rummikub especially my Dad since that is a crazy accomplishment.  I believe he will be ready for me when I come back.  Watching my parents play with Joshua and really bond with him this trip.  It makes me sad how little they get to see him.   Watching my Dad spend an hour trying to set up this paper gingerbread house to prepare it for gluing only to have Joshua yell, "Tower!"  He of course then crashes it to the ground.  The kids all gasp and we see not our Dad but a now Grandpa simply laugh.  Joshua and my mom building a real gingerbread house later but I'm not sure how much building happened but there was a lot of frosting and candy eating.  We were able to see grandparents, aunts, and uncles at a family party.  Matt leading us in Madlibs.  We ate carolina style bbq.  We just talked and laughed and really enjoyed being with one another.

For both families Joshua pretty much had everyone doing whatever he wanted them to do.  He is an only grandchild on both sides so he doesn't go out and play with all the kids.  He just brings all the adults to him.  :-)

Unfortunately, the trip was short and we didn't get to see all of our friends or spend long enough with our family members.  We are already hoping and planning a trip possibly for this summer.

We had beautiful views on our flight home.  Joshua was seriously a dream on the way home too.  He just played and looked out of the window.  Lucky us!!!