Rachel & Justin...Family Celebration

Rachel & Justin were high school sweethearts in Phoenix before heading to college together in Chicago, where they currently reside and were recently married. They just returned from their trip to Italy! Very nice! Yesterday, they gathered with some of their family here in the Kansas City area to celebrate their newlywedhood. (If that's not a word, it should be. ;-)

They met at the beautiful Hawthorn House Bed & Breakfast in Independence...



I was fascinated by the address. 1. I don't believe I have ever seen an address quite so simple before.



It was a gorgeous day - quite pleasant in the shade. Rachel decorated the tables with some beautiful peonies.



It turns out that Rachel & Justin have been together all these years...and yet they don't really have any pictures of the two of them! So we snuck off for a few minutes to grab some portraits of just the two of them...





LOVE this one...







And the rest of the time I just hung out with the family, documenting the afternoon as guests arrived and mingled.



Rachel's brother Forrest spent some time playing video games...



All of the kids were so cute! Two of the younger ones found some strawberries and enjoyed showing them off...

Cody showing me a strawberry (though I thought Cody was more interesting ;-)



And Leah with her strawberry...



For some reason I can't resist taking pictures of people taking pictures. It may borderline on OCD. I have quite a collection. ;-)



Forrest definitely enjoyed hanging out with (and behind ;-) Tanner...



I can understand why - that Tanner was a pretty entertaining guy!



Another great Forrest moment...some sort of covert cracker eating. He was running around with crackers, hiding behind tables and trees. ??? :-)





Cody also enjoyed hiding behind trees. Popular childhood activity I suppose.



Speaking of childhood...this shot brings back memories. I was always barefoot when I was a kid. When and why do we stop with the barefeet? I guess that's why I love flip flops so much. It's the next best thing. :-)



Rachel with the parental units...





I sincerely thought this couple was either engaged or newlyweds. Turns out they have been married 10 years! I love that!



Here they are with a couple that are newlyweds!





I spent a lot of time with Cody and Leah - we became pretty good pals. Thus there are gazillions of photos of the two of them. They enjoyed seeing their pictures on my LCD. So I had a tough time picking a select few for the blog!







So cute!
Mackenzie was a little more shy...but I snuck a couple here and there.





There are so many other great pics from the day but this post is already quite long! So I will stop for now and just say...
Congratulations Rachel & Justin!