"What Marriage Is" by Hannah

As we were discussing the meaning of the phrase "settling down" Hannah had some deep insight into marriage.

"When you get married, you don't 'settle down' - nothing changes. 

 You're just teaming up with somebody for the rest of your life."

Much laughter ensued!! haha

Hannah's shooting practice

Hannah's coach giving a long lecture/demonstration on some principal or practice, I don't really know since I wasn't there.  It is still weird to refer to Norris as Hannah's coach instead of Jacob's!! But she is loving the sport and doing very well at it too I might add! :):):)

Here are some of the best photos from the wedding yesterday that we took.  

 Bride's bouquet

 Bridesmaids and mother's bouquets

 Men's boutonnieres

 Beautiful cupcakes

 Head table looking absolutely magical out of a fairy tale

 Bride and her father, oh so sweet...

 Each of the flowers in these vases were sent down from Linda's own garden - each had a special meaning for the bouquet.  Loved the meaning that went into her flowers.

 Hannah working hard on the bouquets in the wee hours of the morning

 Maria helped us with the whole process including adding finish touches

 Gorgeous Liana with her gorgeous bouquet

A couple wedding shots

I will post the rest tomorrow since I am absolutely exhausted, but here are a couple shots from today's magical and wonderful wedding!

Hannah stayed up until the wee hours of the morning making all the bouquets, and this one was the final one - the masterpiece of them all!

Father of the bride goofing around with some at our table.  Love this guy!

Hannah held this bridal bouquet for 45 minutes all the way to the church to keep it from getting ruined.

Flowers, Flowers and more Flowers

The highlight of the day today was going to the flower wholesaler to pick up the flowers for the wedding this weekend.  I was in flower heaven!  It was a huge warehouse with tons of flowers arriving in shipments, being sorted and then going out in orders.

 Ribbon by the mile

 Even cactus and succulents

 Refrigerated storage

 Roses being piled up for an order

 A cart being driven past me while I waited

 Driving home with the wedding flowers in buckets

Flowers flowers flowers!!

What a fun couple!

Okay I hope they don't get mad at me for this, but this was left on Ryan's computer while we were away.  I totally cracked up! What a fun thing to do!  It's Matt and Maria... I THINK!!!! haha

Wedding Preparations

Hannah really cracks me up.  On our way up to meet with the bride and her mother (Liana and Linda) I was just driving along down the road and Hannah said "I really need to trim my flip flops."  I had NO idea what she meant.  Until I looked.

After we got back from our meeting Hannah began the preparations by making gum paste flowers for the cupcakes.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Starting to look like fall

Skyping with Jacob

Today we got to skype with Jacob.  It was the event of the day.  We all gathered around the computer at the appointed time, each in our appointed seat, waiting to hear the familiar crackle of a skype call coming in.  What a joy it was to see his face!  And hear his voice!  It was magic!  It was just like having him in the room with us! 

Notice the picture of his head on the skype camera is placed strategically over the picture of him on my computer.  Looks kinda cool!  Like he was just sitting in my computer and we could reach out and hug him!  :):)

Can't put this book down!!!

Back home again

Today we arrived back home and I really had a hard time coming home without Jacob. But THEN I was sooooo HAPPY to see MATT again!  He was so sweet and kind and drove to the airport to pick us up - all four of us with our five suitcases and dog crate and dog. He had done so much for us while we were gone and it made coming home easier.  The house was clean, the grass was mowed, the mail was in a pile... And I sure was glad that my kid count went back up to three!! Haha  

Farewell Prescott house and Jacob...

Today we left our sweet home in Arizona to travel back to Maryland. It was soooooo hard to say goodbye to Jacob and drive away from that campus. So hard. I miss my boy.