a paradiso wherever we are: if you want to see beautiful,

just look at the pictures i'm going to completely photo-bomb in this post. i spent the most amazing and quick weekend with my family in landrum, south carolina, celebrating kate and justin's wedding---congratulations, mr. and mrs. schultz! or should i say felicidades, the language of your costa rican honeymoon ;)

a few things:

1. when i got home yesterday, mark asked if it made me sad how much bigger kyler has gotten since we last saw him. i said well, kind of, except he still says funny dumb things, so it's not like he's matured into adulthood since june. for example: what kind of kid starts saying a word incorrectly, that he used to say correctly?! kyler now says "nuse" instead of "use." as in, "alaina, i'm nusing that crayon." or "chels is gonna nuse that ball and you nuse that one." so funny! i also loved his combination of "settle down" and "chill out," which becomes the rather handy: "chill down." he is also prone to make very sudden, important announcements, such as: "kool-aid makes my mouth soggy." but he might also sit on the couch and cry because his last airplane broke (styrofoam airplanes can only crash so many times).

2. landrum is a beautiful little town. it's right in the middle of the blue ridge, so you'll all of a sudden be driving along this windy little road trying not to crash off the side and hoping your transmission can make it up one more hill, and you'll just come around a corner and right there stretching out beside you are blue peaks, mist, clouds beneath you, and the first tinges of autumn in the trees. absolutely breathtaking.

3. my extended family is amazing. they are such great conversationalists. i laughed a lot, got to eat some of josh's culinary creations which are basically the anti-calorie, given the amount of heavy whipping cream he used, and i got to hold a few sweet marshall babies ;)

4. i missed my husband a lot and i came home to quite a few surprises, but i'll save those for another post! here are some photos from the weekend. i kind of did a bad job getting photos of people (or even the bride), but i was just too busy socializing during the wedding and reception to remember to take photos. i'll collaborate with marissa for a later post because i know she got some good ones. enjoy!