Family Pic

Because it still makes me crazy that I missed getting even our own family picture at Chris and Erin's wedding last summer (yes, I've griped about this before), and even though Adam's not in a Calvin Klein tux, and even though it was crazy bright outside so there was some massive squinting going on, I still had to at least attempt at a family picture!

So, ta da!!  Here's the clan as we basically look these days.  Never mind that I'm pretty sure that I married Benjamin Button.

Justin and Michelle

We went to Utah at the end of January to be there for my very youngest brother Justin's wedding.  Justin is the youngest of us seven Smith kids, and somehow he managed to come away from that experience (i.e. my bossing everyone around for a good portion of their memorable childhood) an upbeat, happy, friendly, and charming guy who genuinely seems to like everyone and every situation that he's in.  There are plenty of times that he can be on the goofy side, and he has a real ability for losing/misplacing/forgetting/accidentally destroying items like coats and bicycles and laptops and skiis and four-wheelers (and more upsetting is how he has managed to pass those exact qualities on to Max), and so we're all wondering how he convinced a beautiful, with-it, talented, driven, and charismatic woman like Michelle to marry him.  But she sure looked happy enough, so she must know something that we all don't.  Or maybe it's that she sees the Justin that we don't give him enough credit for. 

When I got married, Justin was only 11 years old.  He came to our wedding in a borrowed suit coat looking a couple of sizes too big for him on his stork-like frame, and he was very much still the eager little boy who would cry tears of joy when he received a Nintendo 64 the following Christmas.  Not so long ago Max and Olivia were looking through my wedding photo album and Max asks me, where's Justin?  When I point him out, Max is shocked because "Dad is taller than uncle Justin!"  And since I moved away from Utah only days after my wedding, in lots of ways Justin is still frozen in my memory as that little boy.

A couple of summers ago while our family was on the way home from a beach vacation in Cape Cod we decided to take a small detour through central Connecticut and surprise Justin who was then serving his mission there.  We planned our trip so that we could spend the night near the city he was in and then go to church in the ward where he was assigned the following Sunday morning.  That Sunday morning when we pulled into the church parking lot, there he was, now 6'5" tall, still somewhat stork-like, but with his huge smile and his huge Polynesian companion, out waiving to welcome everyone in.  One look at him waiving at us as merely an unfamiliar car that needed to be welcomed to church, and you could see that he was happy.   To see him out there doing what he was doing, and so incredibly happy about doing it, and there because he wanted to be, not because he knew that family members were checking in on him, was an ineffable experience in understanding the person that he had grown up to become.

So it was my pleasure to be there to see that same overjoyed smile as he got married.  And besides all of that, they were such an adorable couple.  Wow, they were cute.  I'm pretty sure that Adam and I were never considered adorable.  It was such a great day I say let's do it again next year. Well, not really....but I think that you know what I mean.  We love you.  Congratulations!

The luncheon and reception

The luncheon and reception were both at the Provo Library, which is just beautiful.  It's hard not to get distracted by that building and start thinking of how for most of my memory growing up it sat in a dilapidated state with rumors of terrible things going on inside its run-down buildings. It's so great to see that it was restored and used at it should be.  

Anyhow, the food was great, the program very nice with the fathers of both the bride and groom singing a touching and emotional version of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, and there was no lack of space for several little nieces to do lots and lots of twirling in the sparkly, full-skirted dresses that their grandma sewed for them all.

But anyway....it was a great time. I got to catch up with plenty of extended family on both my Smith and Johnson sides. In fact, I don't remember much else except that I was having a splendid time going from table to table catching up with all the family I hadn't seen in a really long time when eventually Adam comes to me asking if I'm ready to go home meaning that he's through with a day of suit/tie wearing, hours of chatting with relatives, and was tired of the fact that he ended up managing nine kids under the age of ten who were now well past their bedtime. I told him no. And suddenly it seemed vaguely reminiscent of my own wedding reception somehow (sans his managing all the kids part, of course).  This was my party!! Hmmm.....  

Aren't we Smiths cute?

Some of the extended Smith and Johnson family members there.  And Aunt Janice who was ready to eat Saul for dessert, and I do believe that he would be very delicious. 

The girl cousins in their "wedding dresses."

The big boys each sporting bow ties (and each with a crazy mouth o' teeth!).

It was a great day.  Congrats to Justin and Michelle.

Date

Today I sat on an airplane next to Adam and we were without any kids.  It almost felt like we were like newlyweds again sitting there together, without kids, sharing snacks and playing the inflight trivia game together.  Then halfway through the flight Adam leaned over and gave me one half of his headphone earbuds with me because the song playing was Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt."  I may have been the best date we've had in years. 

Oh, and we landed in Utah and by the afternoon we were skiing at Alta.   

p.s. Trip made possible by a great Grandma and Grandpa willing to come out and stay with the kids for the weekend. Lucky us, and lucky kids!  Our biggest thanks!

p.p.s  My apologies to all our friends in Utah that we're not going to see. 

Christmas Break in (many) photos

For the rest of December
(in three parts: Wilmington, NYC, and Philadelphia)

I made four loaves of bread for my friend Brandy's Christmas lunch

(this is for my dear friend over at Tortillas and Oranges who successfully apprenticed me in the technique)

 ...we took Aunt Jayne to see the Christmas displays at Longwood Gardens

 

...we went bowling with the Andersons, where this boy surprised us with exhibiting a double ear infection making for a last minute Drs. visit, 

but where Jayne got the high score of 137

(made only slightly less impressive by the fact

that in 2nd place was 2yr old Wyatt with 134).

....went to NYC for Christmas

....actually getting Adam and Sharon to go to Rockerfeller Center

and brave the crowds of tourists

 

...Christmas Eve dinner with some NYC friends

....happy kids on Christmas morning

....Olivia's handmade bookmark for Aunt Jayne (and one for Max too)

...Jayne's first hotdog from Gray's Papaya

....checking out what Dad looked like as a little kid

....getting Adam and Sharon to actually go to the

American Museum of Natural History and brave the crowds of tourists

...making sure Jayne doesn't leave Philly without having had both a proper cheesesteak and a pulled-pork w/ brocoli rabe sandwich from Reading Terminal Market

....a sweet boy whose only present from Santa was a binky clip

(but having no complaints about that)

(p.s.  this photo was taken at Reading Terminal Market by a man who offered to take a picture of me and Saul together referring to us as "yous guys."  I heart Philly.) 

\

....Whoopee Pies for dessert

....a visit to the Franklin Institute and the Body World's exhibit (very cool!)

....cheese fondue for dinner

And other fun (un-photodocumented stuff) like...

...catching up with a few NYC friends at church

(and missing the last two hours of meetings because of it...oops)

...getting to see White Christmas on Broadway w/ Jayne and Sharon

(and taking a couple of rides on the elevators at the Marriott Marquis just for kicks)

...a day at the MoMa and the kids' request to see Starry Night

...two trips to Chinatown for knock-offs

...a piano recital with the neighbors

...seeing Sherlock Holmes

....a tour of Independence Hall and seeing the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

and, of course,

...lots and lots of good food, fun conversation, and game playing.

So When Olivia asked me the other day when she gets to go back to school because she really misses school, I was all, like, "What, this hasn't been the best time ever and you want to go back to school?" 

Some people!

New Year's Eve

Just in case you're at home watching NBC and Carson Daly (no substitute for Dick Clark, I might add) at Times Square and hearing John Lennon's Imagine in the background, well, that was just what it was like in Wilmington too.   Except, that instead of John Lennon it was BeatleMania, and instead of 200,000 people it was more like 200.  And, it wasn't snowing, it was raining. And the fireworks....I guess someone decided that they can't go off in the rain. 

But there was a "train", if you count a couple of golf carts tethered together circling around Rodney Square.  And there was "ice" skating, if you count a big plastic sheet as ice.  And there was a "Date with a Tramp" if you count a big trampoline where you can jump while attached to bungee cords.

See, Wilmington knows how to party.  Too bad my camera jammed up after only a couple of pics.

Happy New Year.  And maybe next month I'll finally finish posting all of the pictures I have from Christmas.  And then maybe I'll get ambitious and post all of the pictures I have been meaning to put up from last summer.   But maybe not. 

For now I should go wake up Adam who fell asleep during another Rhianna song and give him a New Year's smooch and tell him thanks for being the best part of the last decade. Wow. 2010 here we come.

Happy Holidays

Just before the holiday season officially ends, we finally got our picture of the kids in front of the tree. 

I hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday season.