Raleigh, Raleigh Doodle All The Day

There are certain smells I associate with airports: Damp dirt, a wide variety of perfumes & colognes, stale pizza, the oh so faint scent of feet (this one seems to serve as a backdrop to all other smells), plane fuel, and the smell of old carpet, to name just a few. I shall explain later on, why this happens to be the first thing that comes to mind, when blogging about my latest little adventure.
A couple of months ago, I got off the phone with Rachel, and immediately told Glenn that I thought it might be fun to just take off and visit this friend of mine. As the time got nearer, it was easy to find excuses to put it off (Stella, stuff at home, etc...). Glenn was very insistent that I needed to get away and visit a girlfriend who didn't have any kids, so I could really get a break. I am so glad he practically kicked me out of our place for a long weekend.
Rachel and Jonas were so great about having me stay with them. It was fun to catch up with one of my favorite mission companions, and reminisce about our mission experience. As I have stated before, we were together for about six months, so we had some crazy times. As it turned out, I also had the opportunity to get to know Jonas a bit better, as well. What a darling little family these two are. Rachel is expecting a baby in September, so there will soon be three of them.

Also that weekend, my brother, Rob, got married. He married a beautiful girl named Sommer. Since their wedding was only about an hour away, I was able to make it out to visit with them, as well as my adorable, sweet little nephew, Josh. I hadn't seen this kid, since he was about nine months old. Now he is about nine, I think. As the ring bearer, he looked quite dapper in his tails.

Speaking of dapper, my Brother Scott flew out as Best Man. Words cannot express how much I love this brother of mine. We have been through a lot together, and, being only a year apart, we were always pretty close growing up. We only have time to catch up with each other about once a month, but I truly appreciate the great man, husband, and father my brother Scott has become. He has always had my back, and I know that he always will. I hope he knows that about me as well.

My brother Robert is in the army, stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. He has been to Iraq, and Afghanistan, and has seen a lot. He, too, is such a great daddy to Little Man Josh. It is fun to see the cute relationship they have with one another. Rob found a great girl in Sommer, and I am so excited to have her as a part of our family. She is such a great mom to Josh, already.

So, here it is, right before the ceremony is supposed to start, and the three of us are catching up (we haven't been together in one room in a few years), when all of a sudden is seems a little too quiet in the halls. I didn't think much about it, until the Maid of Honor (she was pretty fun to have around, by the way) comes running in telling us to get our behinds into the chapel, as Sommer is already half way down the aisle. Yikes! How embarrassing! Everything went well despite that, and I so enjoyed catching up with these brothers of mine.


Coming home, I was delayed by about a day, as all flights from JFK to CA were cancelled. Lucky me, got to find this out after spending about six hours at the airport. Rachel and Jonas were kind enough to fetch me from the airport, so I could spend one more day with them. Thanks guys!!

PS - Thanks to my Amazing brother Zack (and of course my super-duper hubby), Stella had so much fun this past weekend that she didn't have much time to miss me. Thanks for taking such

great care of our girl!