Seattle Open House

So I discovered that I poke kids in the head. I had no idea that I was doing this. :)

(I'm poking my nephew Max in the head.)

The Merrill family went down to Carkeek park the next day. You can see all the kids on the bridge. I like to pretend I'm running on top of the train while it's running under me.

Then the Merrills went to Dicks for lunch. This is my grandma enjoying her burger and shake before coming to our open house.

I was kind of sad that I missed all those fun activities, but I was otherwise occupied.

At our open house, we had a waffle tower instead of a wedding cake. Hollis spent a couple of days drying out the waffles and buying the topper. It turned out AMAZING!

My dad and I started off the dancing with the daddy-daughter dance. He had requested "Butterfly Kisses" and we cried almost the entire dance. I don't know if you can see, but I'm actually laughing through my tears.

Then Hollis and I danced, and then we started a dance party! Hollis really pulled out some awesome moves (he always does).

And then there was the traditional Crapo brother muscle-arm pose. They all have quite the guns :)

(L to R: Kevin, Jay, Ammon, Hollis, and Marc)

Wedding Day Pictures

The first set of pictures are the large group pictures. I realized after I made this collage that I included the Crapo sibling pictures in the "large group" instead of "siblings" category, but that's just because there are so many! I love it.

Top to bottom, L to R: extended Merrill guests, Crapo siblings and spouses, entire family and friends, both sides, friends and family waiting to greet us outside the temple (B&W), and Crapo siblings.

These are some of our favorite sibling pictures.

Top to bottom, Left column first: Crapo brothers, Hollis and Brian (my brother), Brian and me, the Merrill siblings, Merrill siblings and Hollis, Crapo brothers.

And now for some adorable parent pictures:

And then came a very long and hot period of time where the photographer followed Hollis and I around. My mom and sisters stayed to help.

All of these beautiful pictures were taken by Angie Penrose.

Fireworks!

Friday morning, I send Hollis to the store to get milk. When he returned, he immediately called my name. "Michelle... you know what happens when you send your husband to the store to get milk and we're in Utah and it's the day before pioneer day?" I knew that he had purchased something besides milk, and I might have guessed it. Fireworks! He was so excited that they were sold right there in the grocery store. So he spent 2 dollars and purchased 24 fireworks. We set them off that night outside his parent's condo. We had fun, and so a lady who also watched from her balcony.

"Red Rock" Park

On Thursday Hollis and I spent the day going around St. George. We hung out with my cousins in the morning, and then we went to "Red Rock" park where I have always loved going. It's like a giant rock playground. It's technically called Pioneer Park, but I think about 30% of the parks in Utah have this name. It's just up on the red hill on the north side of St. George.

Hollis, of course, loved it. He's part mountain goat, or so he tells me. Apparently when he was in scouts the boys called him gunky or something - it's a cross between goat and monkey. He ran and jumped and climbed. It was awesome to watch.

I also took Hollis through my favorite tiny canyon narrows. We got about halfway through and Hollis thought it was the end - he started hiking back down. I informed him that it continued up. He wondered how we could fit. It's so narrow that you can't easily turn your head around. You can face one direction - sideways - and you have to stay that way for extended hiking periods (okay, so like 25 or 50 feet - not like miles or anything). Hollis didn't know if he'd fit, but I thought he would. And he did. It was magical :)

We found this bright yellow and white golf ball. Hollis and I entertained ourselves for at least 15 minutes by trying to toss the ball into a hole and get it to stay there. Finally Hollis just climbed up the wall and placed it in a hole.

You can see how awesome the wall is. Hollis just wanted to climb everything. I won't be surprised if we return sometime with climbing gear.

Hullinger Haven

Hollis and I began our first married adventure by driving to Utah. On our first day driving, we drove through bugs so thick that it sounded like it was raining. You can see how the front of Smurf (the car) grew a fuzzy beard... of bugs.

It's pretty gross. We got some of it off at various rest stops along the way, but we need to do a good cleaning when we get home.

And this is where Hollis and I spent our honeymoon:

It's actually on Hollis's grandpa's property near Hannah, UT. Hollis's Grandpa (named Hollis Hullinger) bought some property a good while ago, and the family uses it to come hang out and play. Hollis's aunt and uncle weren't able to make it during the reunion, so Hollis and I
got to use their camper.

On Friday, we played in the river, going tubing down with the Bohon kids.

(Top L to Bottom R: Max, Ruben, Henry, Jonathan, me, Daisy, Hollis sitting in a chair with Oscar and Henry in a boat, Henry, Max posing with a random second cousin walking in the background, Hollis (a hottie :) and finally Hollis pulling Daisy, Oscar, and Ruben to shore at the end of a tubing run)

Henry was very cute, playing with the water. I also enjoyed my camera's waterproof feature, and took this picture of Henry by partially submerging the camera.

Now my husband is quite hilarious. I took several pictures of him jumping into the river and below are my favorites:

"Michelle, I'm posing!"

This might hurt...

Oh! Cold? Pain?

Wet.

And cold. Definitely cold.

I had a ton of fun, and I didn't even have to use bug repellent. There weren't any bugs!

Hat?

We were sorting through our wedding presents, and we got this awesome collapsible colander. However, it also happens to look like an awesome warrior hat when you wear it on your head! My lovely husband is modeling it below:

Hiking with the fam

I went hiking with Dad, Heather, Simon, Brian, Melinda, Uncle Rick, and Grandpa. It was fun because I got to use the new camera that Hollis and I got from my parents. Oh, and the hiking was fun too.

(L to R: Melinda, Heather, Simon, Brian's leg, Dad)

There was also this nifty feature - taking panoramic photos! I've never had a camera that did that before. Here are some of my favorites:

Oh look! Suddenly Mel has a twin!

And we all know what would happen if suddenly there were two Brians to tease us new couples:

Oh, but what if there were THREE Brians?

Hiking was fun. I only got three mosquito bites. One was on my face, so I put a band aid on it so that the swelling could go down by my wedding day. I don't want a swelling on my face for all those pictures!