Summer of Love

It's August, and we're finally finished with all of our summer trips. I don't mean to make it sound like we didn't enjoy the trips, but we're still trying to earn back all the money we spent. 

Summer 2008 will forever go into the Addis Family history books as the "summer of love." We had the pleasure of attending 3 weddings followed by a gilmpse of what is to come for those three couples -- a rockin' 50th wedding anniversary celebration for Broc's grandparents.

Our first trip was in June. We rented an awesome car and drove through the night to Denver for Beth and Marcus's wedding. Seriously -- I think an airplane almost landed on the freeway :)

The top picture was Janelle killing time in the car during the 12-hour sleep-depriving drive. It was all downhill from there.

Regardless, we made it, and had a spectacular weekend celebrating Marcus and Beth. Somehow between the hours of nap-tacular sleeping, we managed to get cleaned up and take a few photos...

Us at the wedding and in the car after the wedding...

Megan and Adam after the wedding.

Megan and her lovely then-future-groom Mikey.

The only picture of the Bride and Groom we managed to get from the entire thing... It's okay though -- they both have very nice ba-donk-a-donks...

Our next trip was again to Denver for Mike and Megan's wedding in July. We only managed to take a few photos before our camera battery died at the reception -- we probably should have charged it before we went... 

Grandma Bethmussen in her curlers getting ready for the wedding.

The bride and her mom. This was moments before we departed for the church, blaring "Going to the Chapel" in Beth's car with all the windows down. It rocked :)

One of the most beautiful brides ever.

The bridetacular in the hallway at the church... I swear -- she has nerves of steel...

Mikey and Tyler before the wedding.

Our final trip was to GORGEOUS Sun River, Oregon where we spent 5 days hanging out with Broc's family to celebrate his grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. It was an amazing experience for both of us and we had so much fun being outside, hanging out, dancing, and driving in circles...

We stayed in Portland at Casa Niles before everyone drove up to Sun River on Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure you'd have to actually be in Ireland to find that many Sullivans in one place.

The kids all slept in a giant tent in the back yard. 

We were tired since our flight was late the night before, so we decided it would be best if Durand drove us up to Sun River.

We left for Sun River the next morning and, 4 hours, 5 cars, and 23 people later we were in paradise. Well, wilderness paradise anyway... We hung out for the night and just settled in for the week.

Broc's cousin Sara was greeted by a deer on her bike ride.

Emily Ann and KP on our first night.

Us at the house. It was an AMAZING house.

Bapa showing us some of the moves that won Gaga over 50 years ago :)

We spent the second day of our trip on the "Paulina Plunge," a downhill bike ride along the Paulina river. We stopped three times along the river and hiked down to natural water slides. The water was cold and the rocks were slippery but it was an awesome experience.

The beautiful Oregon scenery 10 years after a wild fire.

Pictures from the bike ride - Broc's parents, his brother Connor.

We painted our faces with charcoal from the burned down trees to protect ourselves from the river stealing our swimsuits... Hey -- I hear it can happen.

Janelle was Lightning.

Broc was rain.

Connor slapped a mosquito on his face.

The last waterfall was huge!

All the boys under the last waterfall.

It was pretty cool, and we were excited.

Connor took Broc down! It was awesome! Janelle watched from the sidelines and made ridiculous faces-- she was freezing.

Before heading back to Portland we kayaked down a 6 mile stretch of the Deschutes River. It was a great end to such a spectacular trip. We were really sad to leave.

I don't think Armand was ready for the picture :)

Broc was the leader -- that's because the strongest paddler goes in the back.

We were pretty much paddling champions of the world!