At the temple for Jason's Wedding

THE TEMPLE....

The reason we went to Portland, OR over this last weekend was for my cousin Jason's wedding. He was sealed to his fiance Carissa and her daughter (sorry, I forgot her name) on Saturday Aug. 18th. It was a beautiful sealing in a gorgeous temple.

INSIDE THE TEMPLE....

These were taken inside the temple. Yes, I said "inside". The Portland temple has a beautiful atrium filled with plants/flowers. It did smell a little musty, but once you were in there a few minutes you got used to the smell.


(This is my mom's sister, my Aunty Shauna and her husband Michael. They live in Orem, UT).





WAITING FOR THE BRIDE AND GROOM....

I know, you are all wondering why I have this picture. This is the real deal, we didn't stage this. I was going to take a picture of my Aunty Julie, Jason's mom, and she was going to take a picture of me. When I looked through my camera, I saw her with hers up. So I seized the moment and snapped the shot. I know what some of you are thinking, and NO, this is NOT "Haywood Syndrome".

We dressed our girls in their nicest dresses so we could get some good pictures at the temple. Well, we forgot one thing....they would have to smile at the SAME time! This was the best we got! I still think it's adorable.

This picture was even harder to get all 3 of us to smile at the same time! This, again, was the best we got! At least I can say my eyes are open! :)

Princess Napualokelani (do I need to say more?)

This is us, at the temple. We had to take several pictures
in order to get a half-way descent one.
Yes, it was because my eyes were always closed!

TAKING PICTURES ....

The mother and father of the groom.....my Aunty Julie and Uncle Rob Chong






The groom's family... Aunty Julie, Rainy, Terrance (He is serving a mission in Hillsboro, OR and was able to attend his brother's sealing.)




The groom's oldest sister Chelsea and her family...the Coburns







Sisters...my Aunty Julie and Aunty Shauna








INTRODUCING THE BRIDE AND GROOM.....

The Jason Chong Family.

Jason, struttin' down the sidewalk. "Who's the man?" (He didn't really say that, but it looks like that's what he's thinking.....)

Parents of Jason, the groom.














This is now the entire Rob and Julie Chong family! Congratulations Jason and Carissa! (Sorry Rainy, I didn't realize my camera was zoomed up that far. I didn't mean to cut off half your face!)

best part of a reception.....the cake!

First of all, I know, I should have taken more pictures at the reception. But for anyone who was there, which was almost NONE of you reading this, it was really laid back and casual. So I spent most of my time talking with my Aunties/Uncles and Cousins. It was nice to see everybody. But hey, I did snap a shot of the best part of the reception.....the cake! (J/K)

the best part of a hotel......the pool!

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inns right across from the temple in Portland. It was a great hotel, and we all appreciate the fact that Matt booked a nice room! (Thanks honey...) There was only one thing the kids wanted to do......SWIM! They spent every second possible in the pool.

Playing with the Strawberry Shortcake tube was a favorite among the girls. Matt would put both of them in it at the same time then push them all around the pool. They loved it.

If Leah got the tube all to herself she never let it go! In fact, she was quite the dare-devil. She'd swim, with the tube, all the way across the pool by herself. It made me quite nervous, but then again, water makes me nervous. She loved it.


Back in Kansas Hailey took about 2 years of swimming lessons. She kind of forgot how to swim since we've moved, but she tried, and she did good. Swimming is her favorite thing to do.

Matt was the one in the pool with the girls, since I have an unexplainable phobia of water. He had fun, but they did wear him out. Isn't that how it goes when you're the parent?

However, he did find several ways to entertain himself!

take time to smell the roses

Before we left Portland, we wanted to go somewhere "cultural". So we found this place, the International Rose Test Garden. I'll admit, our primary motivation for going here was because it was free! But it turned out to be kind of fun! Here there are planted every kind of rose you can imagine. There are nearly 5 acres! All roses! I never knew there were that many different kinds!









The girls ran almost the whole time. I think we were the "rowdiest" family there. "Where in the World is....Leah Maile?"

We had fun smelling the roses and trying to take a decent picture. This one of Leah is cute. She isn't smiling because inside the rose were bugs, so she was looking at the bugs. But still, cute picture anyway, right?!



We tried for 5 minutes to get the girls to look at us instead of the fountain. It didn't work. They always looked at the water. Maybe we should have tried longer, eh?











Matt and I tried to take this opportunity to take a good picture of us. It didn't work too well since our photographer was Napua. We did do the typical "hold your arm out and take a picture" picture. And we were staring in the sun quite a bit, so that is guaranteed to make you look goofy! Oh well, we tried.







Our trip ended about 20 minutes after we arrived. The girls decided to run through the mud. Hailey didn't get as dirty as Leah. We had to do the "white trash" thing and wash our kids off in the drinking fountain! I tried to be discrete, but how can you be when you have a child's muddy foot in the drinking fountain and she's crying because she's all dirty?! And do you know the worst part of the whole ordeal? We didn't get any pictures! What were we thinking?! Oh well, at least it was free, so we don't feel like we wasted any money! :)