Happy Birthday Shauna!!!

Adorable Zoey

 While I was in Utah I wanted to get some cute photos of Zoey, so my BFF did some. :) Zoey was a little fussy the day we did these but she still got quite a few that turned out super cute! 
*Taken July 25th, 2011. Zoey is about 3 & 1/2 months. 

Traditions of July 24th

Well we weren't able to be with fam for the 4th of July so the 24th is second best! :) We still got to fling around those traditional sparklers and light up a bunch of fireworks.

And what do you know, Utah legalized bottle rockets too. Well Jake and everyone were showing me how you just light them and shoot them into the sky straight from your hand! And I thought, "what do you know? That's pretty darn cool." Unbeknown to me, some of it shoots back as the rest shoots foreward, it's like a little kick if you will! Well that little kick of sparks landed right in my hair and caught it right on fire!!! Jake ran straight over to me and starts hitting me trying to put it out. I barely even had time to realize what was happening :) Ha ha. My hair didn't get scortched too bad, just one little section! Thanks to Jakes quick reflexes! (Jake, I owe you my life) :) And that's probably why bottle rockets have been illegal for so long. It was only after that, that they explained the name of the firework. They are meant to be fired from a bottle for that very reason. Ha, who knew? :) Well now I definitely do!!! And though my life almost flashed before my eyes, all is well! :) ha ha. Just another one of those "close calls" to add to the list! But really, we had a real good time, doesn't it sound like it? :) Plus it was Zoey's first time participating in this family tradition! And she didn't want to miss a thing!!! (See pic below) The brightness was too much for most to handle, but not for Zoey she stayed glued to the brightness of it ALL!!! Boy that was fun! 

 

 

See look at those eyes, you'd swear they were glued open! :)

Once again, she wouldn't look away from the bright fireworks for a second! :)

 
Sparkler tradition time! 

 

Yes that is Zoey on my hip. I know!!! I am teaching her young all about fire safety! Cause obviously I am the pro! The one who caught herself on fire! Hey, just call me Lord of the Flame :)

SKYDIVING!!!

So this morning I woke up and thought to myself, "I can't believe JOSH and my DAD are going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane today." :) (That's my dad's joke, I can't take credit!)  So we knew their landing time and thought we'd be there to catch all the excitement. Well if you know me, you know I like excitement. So we pull up and they hadn't even taken off yet and they still had like 30 minutes before they were going up. So guess what happened next... YUP! I'm standing at the desk asking if there is any way that I can add myself to that list and go with them :) Then I call Jake and Bre who are on their way as well and can you guess what happened next... YUP! They did the same exact thing! :) So what started off as just 2 Booher's headed up to do something crazy ended up being 5 Booher's! And boy what a RUSH!!! 

So we got all ready

 

Zoey and Alaina discussed the dangers of skydiving and how crazy their moms were! Looks like it was a real heart to heart!  

 

Here I am, contemplating........well you know what I'm contemplating! 

Hopped on the plane

Jake, Bre, and I (totally calm, HA!) Josh and dad had already gotten in the plane

This is when you really start thinking...."What the heck am I doing?"

Hopped off the plane....literally :) Some of us actually tried aerials and flips off the plane and stuff. To be honest, I don't really remember :) I think the guy I was strapped to just pretty much did his own thing, cause I definitely wasn't going to take the lead on that one!

 

And Landed, or slid on our butts... either one worked for me! As long as it didn't end with a splat! 

That's right! We conquered that bucket list item! WAHOOO!!! (Never doing that again!) 

The 5 insanely crazy (crazy awesome, that is) BOOHER'S!

 

The Proof: They gave us all certificates! Now that's pretty legit!
 

 But seriously I'm glad we did it, and I don't ever foresee myself doing it ever again, although it was pretty cool! (Kinda made us sick) I love that adrenaline rush though, now I've got to find another way to get that same rush! I've got plenty on my bucket list, I'm sure that won't be a problem. Hey, I've never been bunjee jumping... maybe that's next! :)

Pine View

7/17

After all the hard fun and hard work of the wedding was over we all spent a nice relaxing day at Pine View! :) That seems to be where we gravitate to for a fun day is somewhere with water! Water babies! So here is the group about ready to jump in and get the party started swimming out to the booey (no idea how to spell that, even looked it up :) 

Ready, Set, Go :)

Then we brought the kids in!

Zoey had a lot of fun! :)

It was quite an adventure for her I'm sure!

Then warming up in the sun and snacking on the beach is the next best part.

Oh and this was the CUTEST! Changin the little girls. First Alaina wanted to run around with nothing on and we got the cutest lil picture of her and her parents in the water in the background!



Then Zoey had a 10 pound ghetto bootie, I swear :) Doesn't look like she minded it at all!  Probably should have used a swim diaper, but didn't have one... check how absorbent that thing is though! WOW!

 

Of course this is by far one of the best days of our visit out there! That's what we miss the most about being away,  are days like these! I'm glad we were able to go while we were in town. 

Jess's Wedding

The Epic Wedding/Baby Blessing/Family Togetherness Post

Written by: Shannon Booher.
Post borrowed from somuchhappyness.blogspot.com She wrote it so perfectly and I'm behind on blogging, plus my computer is busted and I somehow lost almost all my pictures from my trip to Utah. Blah! So without further adieu, her post:

Okay, you will need some popcorn and at least one box of hot tamales for this post. It's like those 3 hour movies that are very much worth watching, but need an intermission 90 minutes into it. There will be a pause for the necessary powder room run. And with that, we begin our chronological journey with:

Jessie's endowment. It was a beautiful afternoon, and a beautiful session in the Bountiful, UT LDS temple. Jess was all aglow and the sunset coming out of the temple was spectacular. Afterward, we picked Ryan up from the airport and headed to Robintino's for a dinner celebration:

The next few days were a blur of preparation for the wedding, the reception, and baby Z.'s blessing day. We were even able to squeeze in two major family dinners, and somehow rounded everyone up for a quick family portrait (think: total and utter chaos--in a good way).

Our first family dinner was to celebrate Neal's parents and sister, Dana, coming into town. Jen and Bryce and their cute boys came, too, and there was definitely a talent show involved, which probably would have knocked your socks off:


The BIG wedding day arrived and the happy couple beamed from ear to ear. Everything was absolutely beautiful and quite possibly even perfect:

We were doomed to have sore faces from all of the happyness floating around:

Brothers smiling

Sisters smiling


Babies and families smiling

Ryan making Shannon smile

Girls smiling whilst sporting hawt pinkness

It was just a bunch of smiling, happy people holding hands and the most perfect July 15th I've experienced to date.

.....................................................Intermission.....................................................................

July 16th 
The next morning, we all set up for the reception in the morning, and then got gussied up to celebrate baby Z. and her entrance into our very blessed family in the afternoon:

Look at her tiny cuteness. Matt gave Z. a beautiful blessing and both Shauna and Matt are so happy to have baby Z. in their lives. They are terrific parents with so much love to give. It was amazing to see how many people came together to celebrate this beautiful little miracle. She definitely won the crowd over with her baby blues and her sweetness.

We all had our second ginormous family dinner, and afterward, ran outside to snap some family pics (because you should always eat a hearty meal before taking pictures that pass your figure down to generations) before throwing on our hawt (I love spelling it like that...they were hawt) pink outfits and whisking ourselves away to the wonderland that was Jess and Jake's reception:

The happy couple receiving guests

The decorations and the goods (which were all phenomenal)

the fun people we got to spend three straight hours with (which wasn't enough)

And before we knew it, the cake was cut, the dances were danced, and the newlyweds were wished on their way via masses of sparklers. And we, well we took down shop in two hours flat and went to sleep with exhausted, happy hearts.