Bachelorette party

Before I jump into wedding photos

I needed to share these ones.

Nora had a fabulous bachelorette party

2 nights before the big day at Applebees.

{ the group }

There was gift opening, words of wisdom, singing, and lots of laughs!

I think Nora had a really fun time.

* *

I was able to snap a few shots of her dress the morning of the big day.

Nora was married in the Mesa Arizona Temple

and my mom accidentally grabbed Julie's wedding dress instead of Nora's.

Ooops! Good thing they checked when they got there

so we were able to make a quick switch.

The question is: why isn't Julie's dress at her house?

I just love the simple elegance of her gown.

It's so Nora.

Can you believe she bought it sleeveless?

Yea, someone added sleeves to it.

* *

I had to share these pictures of me

and my precious little niece, Josie.

What a little sweet heart.

happyness

My sister, Nora, got married yesterday

to Garrett, her sweetie.

(wedding count down chain above)

They are very happy and we're very happy for them

so stay tuned for my pictures soon!

6th, 7th, and 8th days of Florida. the end.

Here it is! The final three days of our fabulous Florida trip.

On Monday went to Epcot and we went for

a swim in the afternoon before

heading over to down town Disney at night.

Epcot was great but I feel like we

hardly had time to see anything.

Something memorable we did was

have fish and chips in "England".

I also got a lovely burn on my back.

Elliot and Avery met Daisy Duck,

Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Stitch .

Good times, good times.

* *

Day seven we went to Aquatica,

a water park owned my Sea World

and then we went into Orlando

and took some old time photos and went out to eat.

I picked up a magnet for our fridge.

Does anyone else do that?

* *

On our last day there were two places near the villa

Andrew and I had to go to before heading home.

I wanted to try some Goats Milk fudge

from a small family owned shop

and Andrew wanted to get a pasty

at a British pastry shop.

Yum.

We couldn't go home until we saw my brand new niece.

Josie Eleanor Manning was born while we were in Florida.

She was one week early.

Such a darling little girl!

Florida is an amazing place for a family vacation,

although a little humid.

Andrew's auntie Di is talking about

buying a house there

for us to vacation every now and again.

Now that would be ideal!

4th and 5th day of vacation: Sea World and Orlando Temple

Life has been very busy

(and that's an understatement)

but good.

I love being busy going on family vacations,

spending time with my new niece,

doing another triathlon,

making Easter memories,

visiting a new state (Texas),

helping out at my sister's bridal shower,

performing in my orchestra concert.

Those are the main high lights of the last few weeks.

More about some of those things later.

For now, here are some more vacation photos.

For the fourth day of vacation we went to Sea World again.

We saw three shows as well as many other attractions.

We all saw many animals and things we had never seen before.

I got to touch a sting ray,

Elliot and Avery got to meet and hug Elmo,

we saw sharks, flamingos, penguins, aligators, turtles, and more.

It was amazing!

After everything we had a lovely swim in our back yard.

Elliot has gotten so confident in the water, thanks to Rich.

* *

On Sunday after church we visited the Orlando, Florida Temple.

My mom keeps track of which temples

all her children and grandchildren have been to and/or done temple work in

and I have been to the least out of all her children.

It's nice to add another one on the list.

There was no visitor's center so there wasn't

much to do but walk around and take pictures

so that's just what we did.

What better place to take pictures of your family

than at a temple?

third day of vacation: Magic Kingdom

Officially we have been back from our Florida trip for 24 hours

but I have to take the time to post some of the photos I took.

Expect more in the next few days to come.

Day 3 consisted of Disney World Magic Kingdom.

Don't be too surprised to hear that it was Andrew's 5th or 6th

time at Disney World when it was my first.

A little odd considering I'm the American!

I have gone to CA Disneyland multiple times though.

It's hard to say how much Elliot and Avery will remember

as they grow up but we had a lot of fun.

They didn't really know what Disney was

but they made some great memories

so next time they'll really look forward to it - kind of like Christmas.

That reminds me - the other day Elliot was singing

a Christmas song and Andrew said how he

shouldn't sing it until Christmas next year

and Elliot couldn't believe Christmas was next year too.

Avery absolutely loved that little bubble gun.

It's a keeper!

Elliot missed the parade since he was with Andrew

meeting Mickey Mouse but Avery saw it and

you can see in her face that she didn't know what to think.

Against Andrew's wished we went on It's a Small World.

Fortunately, the song wasn't as bad as he remembered.

It's a classic Disney ride so I was not about to deprive my children from it.

We went to Magic Kingdom on the train so we left on the boat.

The train and the boat were Elliot's

favorite parts of the day and they weren't

even park rides. Ha ha!

After putting the kiddos to sleep we were able to

go back and catch a few rides.

We wore the 3-D glasses for Philharmagic.

I absolutely loved it!

Too bad CA Disneyland doesn't have it.

We were able to catch the end of the lights parade

and purchase an umbrella for Claire and Avery -

a Freeman family tradition.

I only wish we had more time to spend.

One day just isn't enough.

second day of vacation: {continued}

I wanted to take some time to sort of

scrapbook these pictures while I had a chance.

We had a blast at SeaWorld.

It was a great way to spend our anniversary

and Avery's birthday.

Elliot got to experience his first roller coaster

and Avery her first ride - the teacups.

They both thoroughly enjoyed it!

Below was the famous Shamu show.

It's amazing how intelligent killer whales are.

We sat in the "splash" seats so we got a little wet.

The best way to cool down after walking

all over SeaWorld was to swim.

Good thing we have a pool in the backyard!

Rich taught Elliot how to swim.

It's a big deal because he used to not even get in the

water and now he's swimming unaccompanied and he loves it!

In celebration on our 5 years together

Andrew and I went out for dinner.

Unfortunately, there weren't many resturants

where we stayed so we had to settle

for Cracker Barrel. We both have bad memories

there but this dinner made up for it a little.

Dinner became a wonderful end

to a wonderful day.

second day of vacation: b-day girl

Avery is two today!

The picture below is from today but the rest

are in no particular order.

Here are some of my favorites.

Happy Birthday Avery!

I love you!

{ baby photos by Betty Photography,

family photos by Jessica Drew Photography,

the rest by me }