Mr. & Mrs. Ted Yeager

My cousin Christine "Teener" and Ted got married in the Portland Oregon Temple on Friday, July 8, 2011. It was a beautiful day, an absolutely gorgeous bride, and such a fun time with family!

Almost all of the cousins thought they were the photographer, including me, and wouldn't stop taking pictures. It was borderline hilarious. But what was actually hilarious was that my brother Adam got ahold of Natalie's iPhone and was secretly taking pictures of people and distorting them with some special app. He was cracking himself up! I'm excited to see those pictures.

FYI - The proper pronunciation of 'photographer' is actually 'fer-tah-grapher' . . . just thought you'd like to know. Also on the list of mis-pronounced words is 'miker-wave' and 'chester drawers.' Consensus among the Anderson/McAllister cousins.

Uncle Ron, Uncle Steve, my Mom Jeanette, Uncle Reed, Uncle David, and Grandmother Louise McAllister

Keith and Lindsay taking more perfect pictures.

Keith & Lindsay, me . . . apparently smuggling something out of the temple (yes, someone actually asked me), Daddy-O Marc, Mumma Jeanette, Jenny & Adam, Natalie & Ian

Whitney Dibble, Louise McAllister, Jeanette Anderson - 3 generation (that's one reason I wish Stella was there!)

Lindsay Bangart, Louise McAllister, Jeanette Anderson - 3 generation

Lindsay being generally weird with her new BFF Emily, Ted's sister-in-law . . . I think they're both equally and admittedly high maintenance which is why they hit it off so well.

I totally and completely regret Elliot not coming with me to Portland (he would have had a great time) and sort of wish that Stella would have been able to come too :( . . . but honestly it was really nice not to have to worry about getting a babysitter while I was playing with my cousins. She was totally fine though because she got to extend her play time with cousins while she was at home with Aunt Xan!

We went out to lunch with cousins after the wedding, I took a little nap at Rachelle's, then we headed to the reception for the evening, then stayed up really, really late again playing Name That Tune on Natalie's phone. One thing I told Teener that isn't quite fair about your own wedding is that you don't really get to participate with in the fun with the family because you're off doing other new fun things. Somehow I don't think she minded.

Teener's Bridal Shower

My cousin Christine "Teener" just got married last weekend to Ted Yeager in the Portland Temple. I'm so happy I got to go because I'm totally at my cut-off date of being able to travel. My Mom, sister Lindsay and I threw her a family bridal shower and had so much fun!

We had a beautiful spread of food (which I didn't get a picture of) and these cute mini cupcakes with wedding rings! Lindsay and Teener did a contest to see how many they could shove in their mouth at the same time. It was a poor showing with each getting a measly 2 cakes.

We took a break from eating for the moment (I say break because we made everyone eat again) to play Wedding Night Olympics. Get your mind in the gutter, because that's where we were headed.

We started out with Wedding Night Calisthenics. Put an orange in one leg of nylons. Tie the other leg of the nylons around your waist. Put another orange on the floor and thrust your nyloned orange into the other orange until you reach your desired destination. There was quite a bit of thrusting.

Lindsay stuffed her belly with a pillow so even things up against a totally pregnant woman.

Mom and Aunt Sandra both had 7+ children. They should have been pros at this game.

We moved on to Wedding Night Midnight Maneuver. Put an Oreo on your forehead. Without using your hands, somehow get that Oreo into your mouth. Hilarious. Also, harder than you think.

Savanna almost had it.

I did terrible.

I think Aunt Lora may have hurt herself.

Mom is funny.

Lindsay is the only one who got it in.

We went into the last round of Wedding Night Olympics with an eye's closed Pin the Kiss on Ted. Teener was pretty close and I promise I've never kissed Ted, but somehow I got him right on the smacker.

We finished up with Teener opening her scandalous and not so scandalous gifts and teaching her what a NOONER was. She'll appreciate that one.

The Triathlon

This is a long one, not because I'm going to be my usual wordy, but because I had the PAPARAZZI as my cheerleading squad. I love them.

All year I had planned on participating in the Desert Grande Triathlon again, but was seriously lacking the training department. You'll remember my Pilates tantrum (which is still not over) which resulted in a gym hiatus and then I also had 2 miscarriages between May and October. I actually found out I was pregnant days after I decided to start training in September, so then I backed off again for a while. So really, I only gave myself 2 weeks to train for this triathlon.

(one of these days I'll stop carrying around my 6-year-old)

I still don't know how to swim, but since I remembered the swim being the least of my problems last year, I only practiced the swim once and surprisingly did it in a good time. This was not a good representative of how I would do in the triathlon.

Elliot, Stella, my parents AND all of my siblings, and my cousin Teener came to support me for my triathlon! They are the best! I'm not sure how happy they were about the early morning in Casa Grande, but they all made it and won the award for best cheerleading squad!

I was able to train a little bit with my friend Melinda and then met up with my friend Corissa. They were nervous about the swim, but ended up kicking my trash. There were also several other friends participating in the triathlon this year.

My family had to wait around for me to start the swim (I'm slow, so I had to wait at the back of the line), but it's OK because they had this guy standing in front of me for entertainment. As a side note, he also wore just his speedo and a shirt during the bicycle portion of the event, but I'll withhold the picture on that one. You're welcome.

So I did my stretches and little warm up and then, yes, I plugged my nose and jumped in. I'm telling you, I really don't know how to swim.

I'd like to say I have a nice backstroke that I did the entire time. But my Father finally put a name to whatever it is I do in the pool. It looks a little something like this . . .

. . . and it's called "the lazy man's swim." Thanks for identifying that one for me Dad.

My Squad. I could hear them cheering me (and others) on the entire time. They say I was smiling the entire time, but really it's because my teeth are too big for my mouth and I was laughing that I was going so slow.

Shhh. She doesn't know what it means and I don't think my Mom get's it either.

I cannot tell you how happy I was to finally be done swimming. It took much longer than I remembered it from last year, but it was really just 14 seconds longer. I finished the swim in 15 minutes 9 seconds.

It was very difficult to get out of the pool. My review of the event will include a suggestion for a pool stool. Not stool as in what is on the sign Stella is holding, but more of a step.

My transition time was very long. I should have hurried, but I also didn't want to barf.

My squad followed me right to the road with all of their signs and yelling and energy to send me off to my 10-mile bike ride. I was sure they were going to go out to brunch while I was gone. I'm glad they didn't though because I improved FANTASTICALLY during the bike portion.

I had a better bike, for one thing, but I also knew the course and made little goals for myself to sprint. Plus, I was passing people which also helped my head to be in the right place to work harder. I finished the bike in 55 minutes 41 seconds (really it was like 48 minutes, but my transition time was so slow), which is an 11 minute improvement from last year.

By this time, I realized how incredibly important it is to practice bricks (the transfer from swim to bike or bike to run). There was no way my legs were letting me run.

Good thing the paparrazzi was still around and I also had Teener to run with me for a minute and give me a good luck spank.

I had planned on running the entire 5K, but without that practice of transitions, my legs were just so tired and wouldn't continue running. I ran as often as I could though. According to this sign, they weren't sure I was going to make it either.

My squad was so spread out that I heard cheering for the whole last part of my run to the finish line.

Their cheers made me fun faster!

Stella and Adam even started chasing me in . . . they eventually passed me . . .

. . . but still I MADE IT TO THE FINISH LINE! I improved on the run this year as well, finishing in 38 minutes 30 seconds (3 minute improvement . . . every minute counts). So my total time for the whole triathlon was 1 hour 49 minutes and 20 seconds which was 40 seconds faster than my goal! :)

And I knew if I stopped running before I found Elliot, I'd just sit down on the ground. So I kept running.

I got loves all around from everyone on the BEST CHEERLEADING SQUAD EVER!

After swimming, biking, and running, it's my face that hurts from smiling.

I'm still amazed at how emotional I get after finishing. I remember last year just breaking down and crying because I had accomplished something I never in my life thought I'd ever do. But this year I think it was because of the overwhelming love and support I received from my lunatic family. And I use lunatic in the most loving way possible. I love them so much!

And they love me too.