come june 21st

With my departure to the west coast the last weekend in September deemed "family weekend".  Sam and Laura came up from Evansville, picking up Josiah and Zachary from Purdue along the way.  Being that the whole tribe would be together Jason made the weekend really memorable and asked Alex to marry him.

I declared Saturday morning a "girls morning" and all the girls went out.  That's right - there are girls in my family now!  Laura, Alex, Sara, Rachel, Mom and I went to the Farmers Market.  After a good coffee and pastries from Rachel's Bread we circulated the market picking up produce for dinner.  

 Alex helped me pick out some beautiful flowers.

After the Farmers Market we went to the Antique Mall downtown Goshen.  That was fun.  It was so nice to spend time with all the lovely ladies my brothers have brought into my life.  We don't often get to spend time with just the girls so this was quite the treat.

 Rachel found a fetching mask and kindly modeled it for me.

 Me, Sara, Alex, Laura and Rachel.

We then got really girlie and hit up the nail salon.  This was part of the engagement day plan Jason and I had plotted out.  Get Alex's nails done...check!

 Alex and Rachel had manicures while Mom and I had pedicures.  Funny that our summer began with Sam & Laura getting married and us getting pedicures.  My mother, who had never had a pedicure in her whole life, ends up with two in one summer.  She's okay with that.

 Laura and Sara got to know one another a little bit more.  Yay!

After abusing her to help with family dinner preparations we managed to lure Alex out of the house to get ready for our big family photo that we had planned to take at the park in Mishawaka.

 J was pretty excited.  He had to think of where to hid the ring box and settled on his sock.  Then asked all of us to guess where it was.

Everyone got dressed up and ready to go.

 Mom and Dad

 Samuel and Laura

 Dapper Josiah

 Lewis and Rachel

 Sara and Zachary

Part of Jason's plan was to throw an little engagement party picnic in the park.  We had been prepping all day and the crew worked fast to set up.  Dad made funfetti cupcakes (Alex's favorite) with buttercream frosting.  Her folks brought tables and chairs.  I spread out the linens, hung some bunting, and placed the flowers we picked out that morning on the table. 

 We occupied a lovely gazebo at Battel Park.

As all the loved ones began to arrive I made the call.  Oh, no, we were all running late and blah, blah, blah.  Followed with a frustrating text about how we would be a while.

 Meanwhile, Jason took Alex on a well planned walk along the river.

Jason had Alex's best friend, Bailey, and his best man, Adam, waiting at a table in the spot where he took Alex for their first date.  When Alex saw Bailey she knew something was up.

 Then he took a knee and popped the question.

On the other bank of the river the families and close friends all cheered from behind the fifty foot long sign that said ALEX MARRY ME?

 So now they are getting married on June 21st.

 We couldn't be more excited to have a new sister.  Alex is an only child so come June 1st she'll have more siblings than she knows what to do with!

After our celebration, complete with a toast from Alex's Papa we all headed back to house for family dinner joined by our other brother, cousin George.

 Dad, Mom, Zachary, Sara, Samuel, Laura, Josiah, George, Lewis, Rachel, Jason, Alex, myself...boy was that a squeeze around the dinner table.

 We added one more surprise for the night, a white cake with chocolate frosting in celebration of Laura's birthday the next Saturday.

 We capped off the epic weekend with a big pile of pancakes.

When the family had departed, Sam & Laura with Josiah and Zachary back south, Jason & Alex to celebrate their engagement, Mom and I sat at the kitchen table enjoying the beauty of the weekend and these farmers market flowers.