Joni and Aaron Hawks Reception

Remember when I said I love weddings?  You know what I love even more than weddings?  Wedding receptions!  What's not to like?  Good food (of course I said food first).  Visiting and reminiscing with family and friends.  Dancing.  Funny picture taking.  Toasts celebrating a union of love.  Jokes.  Laughter.  It's awesomeness smothered with sentimental sauce!  The Jacobs-Hawks wedding reception was all the above!

Below are some pictures and stories to prove my point (not that it needs proving).

  

Joni and her Aunts, Tamara and Jenny.  They were checking out the dress

Ross and his oldest granddaughter Tandra.  I can't believe that Tandra is 16.  I will forever and always see her as a three-year-old singing at my wedding reception 

Baby Zayah in her own little world playing with the flower petals

Ade and her girls, Cassi and Tandra.  I love these three women so very very much.

Jim and his nieces

Our little family

Tandra and Cassi performing during the family dinner.  They have such pretty voices, and Cassi played the piano like an all-star and she's only been playing for a year now!  Seriously, amazing!

The beautiful bride singing to her man.  If you've never heard Joni sing, you're missing out.  She has a blow-your-pants-off-your-butt-because-she's-so-amazing kind of voice.  

During the dinner Brody came and showed me his super-duper loose tooth.  It came out during the reception.

Tralee and myself making crazy faces. . . I don't want to brag, but we're really amazing at it.

So, at one point during the reception Joni and Ross were doing their father-daughter dance.  I looked over in the far corner to see Jim and Tralee having their own little moment.  I snapped some pics, because, come on!  It was adorable!

I love how she's looking up at him

They love each other so much!

Tralee has this man wrapped around her finger

Jim also stole a dance with Tandra. . . 

. . . and Cassi

He dipped her!

After dancing for a bit, we took the kids outside to do some exploring.  The wedding and reception all took place in an awesome building called The Machine Shop.  It's by, or part of, an old train yard.  So, there are a few abandon trains and train tracks all around the building.  It was an awesome place for restless kids to do some exploring and climbing.  

Zayah on a train

Brynli doing a little train exploring

Hunter can't go anywhere without finding some "treasures."  In his hands you can see some of the treasures he hoarded during out walk by the abandon trains.  One man's junk. . .  

My kids. . . like I said, I can' t get my girl to just smile.  She's always gotta be posing in some sort of way while making various facial expressions.  I kind of love it.  But sometimes,  a nice, normal, cheesy smile would be okay.  

I managed to capture this cute pic. . .

. . . this one too.  Also, do you like Tralee's dress?  I made it!  I KNOW!  I'm all like, a seamstress now.  

Chase and Zayah walking back to The Machine Shop after Zayah's wardrobe change

Cute Lexi!

At one point during the reception Tralee and Lexi got up on a table outside and started dancing.  Zayah joined them.  I got a hilarious video of the three of them showing off their moves.  Later on Brynli joined the fun.  

Tralee and Lexi on the table

Brynli

Later on, we went back inside to have a little wedding cake.

Joni and Aaron cutting the cake.  Aaron's mom made it, and it was so yummy!!

So guys, Uncle John (Jim's brother) started telling the kids all about the haunted building behind The Machine Shop.  I guess it's haunted by Chinese workers who died while working on the railroad.  You can sometimes see their ghosts at night, sticking their faces out the broken glass saying, "Ni Hao" (they might be saying "hello" because that's the only Chinese word any of us knew--thanks Kilan).  Anyway, at one point during the reception Uncle John gathered up the kids, and told them they were all going to knock on the door of the building to see what would happen.  Tralee was gung-ho at first, but about half-way there she FREAKED right out, and ran away crying.  Lexi followed her.  The only kids left with us were the youngest ones!  Go figure!  Guess who was the only one brave enough to knock?  ZAYAH!!  Her reaction was priceless.  Check out the picture below.      

When everyone first started walking to the haunted building

Zayah at the door, right before she knocked

Right after Zayah knocked, she turned around and ran away screaming.  I don't think she really knew what was going on, just that it was exciting.  The adults, being the mature people that we are, all laughed.

Uncle John even tried knocking.  This was his reaction running away!

Later at night we danced our fannies off.  I mean, several of us had some AMAZING new moves. . . that involved jelly beans!!  Check it out below:

Here I am dancing with two of my favorite people:  Cassi and Nikki.  Lexi and Tralee were our back-up dancers (also two of my favorite peeps).  We were doing our latest made-up dance move. . . it involved jelly beans.  We were being super silly and enjoying every second of it.  Guys, I laughed so hard I couldn't breath during this dance-off.  I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt the next day.  I love my sisters-in-law.  I was totally meant to be in this family! 

We're awesome!

For reals, dancing with the family--inside and out of The Machine Shop--was one of the highlights of the evening.  Even some of the parents got up and grooved with us.  We were rockin' to some Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson like nobody's business!  Good times!  

Towards the end of the reception we had all about had it!  Too much sparkling apple cider for us religious folks. . . as well as another bubbling beverage for the others!   

Chase, Nikki, Jim, and Channing after the party

Over all, the entire wedding day was filled with so much love and laughter, it will be a day to look back upon with much fondness.

To wrap it all up, here's a video of Cammi and Ross performing "I Won't Give Up" to Joni and Aaron during the family dinner.  At the very end, Ross sang some lyrics he and Cammi wrote for this event.  Joni didn't know it was coming, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house!  Also, Cammi has an amazing voice. . . and how cool is my father-in-law?  He was in a band, ya'll!  For reals!