Porter family vacation, part 1

Our summer vacation started off with a bang, celebrating Isaiah's adoption on Friday, then the wedding of my cousin Spencer to his beautiful bride, Kathleen (also Audrey's violin teacher last year) on Saturday!  Audrey, Isaac and Violet were all asked to be in the wedding party, what a special honor!  We are so happy for this wonderful couple and pray that God blesses them with many years of marriage!  We were so blessed to be a part of their special weekend!

Getting ready in the bride's room!

Passing the time on the iPod before the wedding.  

Violet nervously did her job of walking down the aisle (she didn't actually have any petals to toss), and safely made it to the front row where she stood with my Aunt Yvette!  Good job Vi!  

Audrey did a great job as a jr. bridesmaid

Isaac also did a great job!  At one point in the ceremony he looked right at Randy and I with a bit of panic look on his face and I motioned to him to walk down on the far side of the stage.  He followed instructions beautifully and sat in the front row for a bit, taking off his jacket, even laying down in the pew for a minute before sitting back up, getting back on his jacket and quietly returning to his spot on stage. Smooth!  

Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Carr

With all of us dressed up we had to be sure to snap a family photo!  

My brother's family flew in from Portland on Friday to come to the wedding also!  Audrey loved sitting next to cousin Emmy for dinner and taking her out on the dance floor!

With all the excitement of the day, this little guy had no problem falling asleep in his stroller beside the dance floor!  

Everything about this wedding was wonderful...the two wonderful families coming together to celebrate the marriage of their kids, the quartet of cellos to start the ceremony (friends of Kathleen's that play together in the Tulare County symphony), the dresses, the flowers, the dinner, the dancing...but one special touch was the cakes!  They had a bride's and a groom's cake.  My cousin is an English teacher by profession (a teacher at El Diamante High as of Fall 2013), but LOVES his movies, especially Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or comic book heroes.  His part-time job through his young adult years was working in a movie theater.  This was Spencer's cake...hilarious!  Not to mention it was deeeee-licious inside, chocolate with peanut butter filling!  A family friend of theirs owns Goodies Cookies in Visalia and made their cakes (two flavors in the bride's cake, one in the groom's, as well as a table filled with little dessert goodies...macaroons, cake pops, brownies, mini fruit tarts, etc.) and they were all excellent (yes, I tried most of them).  

We all spent the night in the hotel and enjoyed more family time on Sunday!  We had brunch together at Kathleen's parents house (since so many family members flew in from far away we enjoyed on more time together and the bride and groom opened their gifts).  We headed over to my other grandma's home to say hi for a bit, then back to our house so the cousins could rest and play in the backyard!  We ended our weekend with a Father's Day dinner of steak, scallops, corn, salad and 3 kinds of ice cream, one for each of the fantastic dads we were celebrating that night...mint chip for my brother, rocky road for Randy, and chunky monkey for my dad! Having our three families living in 3 different states for so many years, I don't remember the last time that our family was all together to celebrate for Father's Day, so it was hopefully a great dinner for my dad!  

And one last picture I had to snap...our evening ended with the older two kids' first viewing of Jurassic Park.  I remember seeing this movie in the theater with my dad after I'd already seen it twice with friends, and I still jumped out of my seat during the kitchen scene!  Good memories!