HOORAY FOR ALEX!

ohhh, alex!

my baby sister got married over the weekend, is she not the most beautiful bride ever!? oh that dress! her hair! i still get all emotional whenever i think about it. it was just the most beautiful weekend and the most beautiful wedding and everything went off without a hitch and i was so proud of her. it was just a really gorgeous day. we flew out to utah on thursday night and then flew back to new york on sunday night, so it was a crazy whirlwind of a trip. brandon was with huck at huck's grandma's house for a lot of it, since huck was recovering from a cold, and i did my sisterly best to document the weekend and make stupid jokes and luckily provide back-up sister bridesmaid dresses when the skirts we'd planned to wear turned out to be too big for both of us. thank you, zara! MVP of the weekend!

i have a ton of photos because obviously.

the night before the wedding the three of us had a slumber party/bachelorette party. we stayed up as long as our eyelids would let us and talked about all of the silly things you talk about the night before a wedding. it was the first time i'd seen amanda in over a year and it was so good to catch up with her! we had a million things to cover. at one point that night alex went out to solve a lipstick crisis and it was just the two of us and one of alex's bridesmaids in the hotel room for a bit (alex had the best bridesmaids, it was so fun to meet all of her friends and her new sisters-in-law), and there we were talking really fast like sisters do, covering everything we'd missed and laughing at probably inappropriate things and this poor girl was just sitting there with wide eyes watching us. we must have looked ridiculous with our hands waving in the air, talking at each other. the older i get the more and more i appreciate and love that amanda of mine. i am so lucky to have her in my life. it's been just the two of us old married biddies in the family for so long, and now there are three of us? it's so weird! i can't believe alex is all grown up, and now i'm going to cry again. 

in the morning my mom came over with diet cokes and we all got ready and made important necklace decisions and put on our bridesmaid skirts for the first time (not recommended) and ripped our panty hose (that was me) and charged cell phones and passed the dry shampoo back and forth and found last-minute blow dryers in the closet. and then we were off! it was a tornado of impressive. 

runner-up MVP of the weekend goes to amanda's baby silas, who is just the chunkiest most wonderful specimen of fat baby. (with my uncle steve on the left and my dad on the right.) (oh, and uncles! when i first spotted my Lovin aunts and uncles at the groom's dinner the night before i burst straight into tears. i have an insanely great family, and i am a ninny.)

yay!!!!!! and welcome to the family, james!! he's gonna make a good brother-in-law. he is such a smart, solid guy, alex done good. he and brandon have become fast friends and we're both excited to spend more time with them in portland over christmas.

pictures. it was cold. we rocked it.

and then the party! huck was feeling better enough by then to come to the reception and dance his pants off. kid has moves, man! 

girl knows how to make an exit! congratulations you guys! oh my gosh the warm fuzzies!!!!!

and now with my brother on a mission and all the girls married off, my parents are just like . . . . . . . . . . . . .

now what.

p.s. huck on the flight out to utah...

aaand huck on the red eye home. (we were delayed about 4 hours on the tarmac. that was cool.)

hooray for alex! pass the chapstick!