Vacation Week - Part 1

The one year olds enjoying the TV

Brandon is DONE with his family med rotation....which means we are no longer living in two different places.    Family med was the final rotation of Brandon's abbreviated M3 year of med school.  Which means he's on to his M4 year - the LAST year of med school!  All students get a one week break in between the end of M3 and the beginning of M4.  It was a great way to welcome Brandon back after four weeks away...but it was also a bit exhausting, as we crammed in a ton of family and friends (and driving).

First stop on our agenda was my baby brother's wedding!!  We headed up to McGregor Friday afternoon to meet up with my sisters and their kids before the rehearsal at the church.  My mom found a great place for  Brandon and me, Katie and Joe and Jon and Jaclyn to stay for the weekend.  Each family had their own room, and after the kids were in bed each night, we all got to hang out in the living room.  Since I don't get to see my siblings very often, it's nice when we can all spend time together.

On Saturday, everyone got all dressed up for the big event.  It was HOT, and the church had no A/C.  But it was a beautiful ceremony with lots of personal touches that were very Robert and Whitney.  Brandon, as well as my older brother and our two brothers-in-law were all groomsmen in the wedding, which left me, Jenny, Katie and Jaclyn on our own to wrangle our collective seven children during the ceremony - Jenny's two-month old twins, three 1 year olds, and Katie's 4 and 7 year olds.  The kids did pretty well - save one incident involving sharing cheese puffs, unwanted fingers in someone's mouth,and some tears.

Mom and Dad with the bride and groom

The Weldons

 The Allemans

 The Vargas'

 (Didn't get a picture of my brother's family)

Grandma and Grandpa and ALL of the their grandkids

Jonah, Daniel, Grandpa with Carly, Grandma with Layla, Peyton, Josh and Patrick

At the reception we got to take the final installment of the Strutt siblings official wedding pose...a picture ten years in the making.

And the 2013 edition...

A few more shots from the reception:

My Grandma and Grandpa Henkes have two daughters, my mom and her sister, Kari - and they each have a daughter (or daughter-in-law) who has twin daughters!

After the wedding, everyone hung around in McGregor for a few days.  So fun to spend some time with family.  On Sunday, we took a picture with my Grandma and Grandpa Strutt and all of their great-grandkids that were still around.  Hard to believe we were missing SEVEN great-grandkids in this picture.

Layla, Daniel, Jonah, Trace, Josh, Patrick, Mariah, Peyton, Taryn, Lynnie, and Carly

Jonah enjoyed lots of time playing with his cousins from Colorado, Texas and Minnesota

On Tuesday, we headed home to regroup and do some laundry before we took off for the second leg of our vacation week.

Congrats to Rob and Whitney! Excited to have another sister join the family.  Thanks for an excuse to get everyone together.