little bean sprouting: happy wedding john & angela!

A couple weeks back we took a road trip down to Texas for my brother John (Uncle Johnny to Roan) and his now wife (!) Angela. We took our time and did some camping in Colorado and New Mexico along the way. Jen and Micah caravaned with us for the first few days.

Here are some photos from Part I: The Road Trip

We spent the first night and next day at Great Sand Dunes National Monument. That's a lot of sand!

Breakfast together, my favorite camping meal of the day. Sausage, eggs, cheese, hashbrowns, yum!

Here's Arwen being Mr. Mom wrangling both kids

Logan was ridiculously adorable in his swim outfit!

A closeup of Logan's adorable feet.

Some photos of us playing around in the creek there...

Then we headed to Taos. On the way we saw this kooky house in the middle of nowhere.

Arwen went for a run and the rest of us went for a walk by the Royal Gorge Bridge. Gorge-ous!!

The Longs are so stinkin cute

We stayed at our friends' Conrad & Jennifer's earthship in Taos. We love that place. Here are a couple photos of some earthships.

Then we went our own way and did some camping outside of Taos. It was so picturesque.

This was on Father's Day. I really can't think of a better way to spend it with Arwen than out in a beautiful spot camping in the Little Guy.

Roan and Sasha were both in heaven. Thank goodness they love camping as much as we do.

The big highlight of the evening for Roan was making a fire with her Daddy. She helped collect kindling and rocks for the fire ring. She watched, rapt, while he got the fire going. Cooking up hot dogs and s'mores was icing on the cake.

We arrived in the DFW area on the Tuesday before John & Angela's wedding. We got to enjoy a few days hanging around the house with them, swimming in the pool, and eating at their favorite Mexican restaurant. And then the wedding festivities got cranking.

Here are photos from Part II: The Wedding

John and Angela have such a beautiful home, and they were so gracious to share it with so many of us.

We took some time out and did a girls' spa day. Fun!

We relocated to the Sheraton downtown, where the reception would be held. It was an awesome hotel, and quite a step up from camping in the Little Guy! Roan was excited to have a queen bed all to herself.

Before we knew it, it was time for the rehearsal.

Roan had a blast getting to know her fellow flower girls and ring bearer. They were all so cute!

The rehearsal dinner was so gorgeous. I can't believe I don't have a single picture from that night! It was at this incredible restaurant in a room surrounded by glass, with fountains everywhere you looked, all lit up in the night.

Here are a couple shots of us getting ready for the wedding. Angela has such a fun group of girlfriends.

Roan was *REALLY* into being a flower girl. And I guess who could blame her? She got a pretty new dress, fancy new shoes, she got her hair done special for the day, her toenails painted to match Mommy's, and Aunt Angela gave her a beautiful rhinestone "R" necklace to wear. She was pretty much in heaven.

Here she is with Logan, the ring bearer.

Unfortunately I have no photos from the beautiful wedding ceremony. Since I was a bridesmaid and Roan was a flower girl we had places to be and jobs to do. Even Arwen had a role: he was an usher. Wish I had a picture to throw in of him. He resurrected the tux jacket he wore when he took me to senior prom, velvet collar and all! The ceremony was in a gorgeous Methodist church in downtown Dallas filled with light filtering in through huge stained glass windows.

I did tear up a few times-- it was so hard not to cry! For so long Angela has felt like a part of our family. It made me so happy for my brother and so happy for all of us to be making it official. It's funny. A lot of times with young couples getting married the "older and wiser" people around them offer a lot of advice on how to make a marriage work over the long haul. In John & Angela's case, honestly I think even as young as they are, they have things to teach the rest of us. There is a wisdom and a beauty in the way they are to each other. I hope that stays with them always.

And then the party began! Here is the Long Family. Logan was so cute in his tux with wing tip shoes!