Steph and Kev's wedding

After our visit to Redding, the four of us flew down to Arizona for a great week of post-Christmas and pre-wedding festivities. On January 2nd, Matt's sister Stephanie finally married Kevin! It was beautiful. They are beautiful. Beauty beauty everywhere, even in the beautiful cactus background.

Mr. and Mrs. Steed

Kissing on the Mesa Temple steps

The extended Snow/Smock family

The Sibs:  Matt, Michelle, Stephanie, and Andrew

A more true-to-life picture of the sibs:

Our Stepford family photo, because we look like robots

Bridesmaids (and matron, if you count dumpy old married me)

Hurrying back from a little-boy-emergency-bathroom-stop just in time for group photos

Playing during pictures, enjoying the amazing sunshine

The lovely mother of the bride -- so calm, composed, and dreamy-eyed as she remembers the day she sat on that very bench on her own wedding day

Later that night...the reception!

  

On the right, Matt's dad and his Grandma Snow

At the end of the night, my boys were still dressed to the nines! I was so proud of them for keeping their handsome wedding clothes on, and reasonably clean, considering the amount of cake and cookies they consumed that night. 

 And you should know, there was a fair amount of break dancing going on at this party. Word is, it looked like the Snow grandsons and Steed grandsons were about to start a little capoeira ring right there on the dance floor. It's a good thing we held them back!

We sent the happy couple off through a gauntlet of sparklers. Don't they look excited?! I love it!

And that was that. It was a very fun night, filled with good food, wonderful people, semi-pro dancing, and lots of purple.

In case you're interested in how we spent the rest of our week, I'll give you a quick summary: 

Playing on the swing set, picking oranges with Grandpa, listening to GG's stories,

trips to Dairy Queen, card games on the floor, Christmas gift exchanges, several attempts to see The Hobbit, lots of Mexican food,

 prep for and execution of the family luncheon, shish-kabobbing, baking a zillion chocolate chip cookies, and creating this little gem:

It was a zombie cake to surprise the groom. (He just likes zombies. As far as we know, he isn't one himself.)  I'm sad we didn't get a better picture, but it was really a whirlwind of a day. 

A most wonderful trip, indeed. We couldn't be happier for our teeny tiny little twelve-foot-ten-inch Kephanie!