Lake, party of five: Friends+Family+Summer+California= Awesome

I've been meaning to photographically document my summer for awhile now. Since it's Conference and the rain is making me want to stay in bed, I figured I'd do it today (or at least start). Summer was great. We got to see so many wonderful friends and family members. We did so much with Jeff's family and mine. We missed Tahoe this year but hope to make it there soon. There were so many more people we wanted to see, but time ran out. Jeff's parents paid for our tickets out there (which we were grateful for). Last summer was the only break Jeff gets for the next 3 years (minus a 2 week one at Christmas). So, we stayed here for the first half while I nannied and saved up and then booked it on home to Cali. I have a ton of pictures so I am going to do my best to be selective. There were also some things I didn't get pictures of but I guess that's life. Here goes:

Desi and Seth's Wedding

Her wedding was in the San Diego Temple. So pretty!

Another bridesmaid, my good friend Alex.

Cousins!! Suga and Sadie!

The happy couple: Mr. and Mrs. Seth McCarthy :)


Life goldfish and roses as the center piece.


We visited her and Seth at their apartment in Bel Air a few weeks after the wedding. We had a delicious breakfast thanks to Seth. Jeff and I decided we did the Fresh Prince journey this summer (Philadelphia-Bel Air), we even listened to the theme song from his iPod to make it complete.

Kevin and Sarah's wedding

Cute sign directing us to the wedding.

Syndey and Kevin did a father-daughter dance. It was so sweet. It was cute-Kevin kept looking at Syndey to ask if the song was done (he's deaf), she'd remove her head from his side (she nozzled it into him because she was shy), and shake her head no.

The happy couple.

They had the best dinner!!

Everything was so pretty. I loved the cake. They also seemed to really embrace his deafness.

Emma loved the kid activities they had (very smart idea).

I thought this was cute.

Kevin and Sydneys "father-daughter" dance. It was very sweet.

Kevin's boys love to dance. Here's Zek:

"Stistas." Don't we look alike?

Jeff was so tired from driving from San Diego to Cambria in 2 days.

St. George

Everyone from Utah talks about Cafe Rio. And I decided instead of being my usual self of not wanting to have it because everyone loves it, I decided to try it. Mandy took me out to eat. It was sooo good. Have to agree with everyone else!

I made Mandy take sneak a picture of me in front of the Cafe Rio sign. This is what I love about Mandy- I said to her to sneak a picture so I don't look dumb. We decided to do it on her phone instead of my camera to make it look less obvious. So she's holding the phone like you would a camera and pretending to text. I said to her that looks way obvious- I mean who texts in while holding their phone in mid air? We laughed and just took the picture.

Our food. Good choice Mandy!


Another top secret picture. We ditched the pretend texting this time. I saw a random acquaintance that I knew from a few years ago. He this past summer on July 9th~ our wedding date.

Late night snack for our chick flick. She makes AWESOME cookies!

Picture of me, very satisfied with my pazookie.

Just thought this giant bin of flour was funny so I took a picture.

And of course, what Mandy adventure wouldn't be complete without shopping, especially shoe shopping?


So we did start out with a need: Mandy needed a pair of black flats for school. In our diligent search for her need, we found a few wants along the way. She found this way cute pair of shoes. I was torn between these and another pair I immediately fell in love with. I ended up getting the other pair-figuring Mandy buying this pair was like I owned it too. Right?

One thing I love about Mandy-it's always fun taking picture with her! And she's one of the few people I know who loves it as much as I do. This pic took forever! We couldn't stop laughing. You can't really see my shoes too well, but that's ok. Just know they're awesome.