FINALLY!!!!

My older brother, Kevin, got married on Friday Oct 17th in the Salt Lake Temple to Amy. This was kinda a big deal. No, not kinda. It was pretty much a huge deal! Kevin had been my hero for the..., well for about the past 5 years. As you all should probably know by now, I had moved back to Kansas and lived with him for the past year in Lawrence. I loved my time with him! I love my brother. I miss my brother. He introduced me to so many things- Trainman (If you haven't seen it-ask him), Tron, his love of India, Ice sheets, Bazmati rice, the beauty of the bidet, how to sadly catch (and pretty much torture) the mice in our house, his philosophies on so many random things, not to mention some rather amazing gospel conversations. I loved our Sunday afternoon chats we'd have at the kitchen table, right when we got home from church. Sometimes they would last for hours. I loved waking up and finding the snow on my car was already scraped off by him, or us waiting for each other, so we could watch Heroes, the Office and American Idol together on the DVR. I loved back when we used to talk about "wandering in the wilderness" of life--wondering when we would reach the "Promised Land" as we would discuss our "learning experiences" in relationships (or failed attempts-however you want to look at it). We'd try to give the guy or girl perspective to help the other out. HA! Well it appears that my advice was better, because things worked out for him.Kevin and Amy actually have known each other for years! I won't go into the details of how they FINALLY ended up together, because it's complicated (and ridiculous on his part if you ask me) but she was amazingly patient and it all worked out in the end. I'm so glad I moved to Lawrence last fall and became fast friends with her. I'm even happier that I get to be friends with her forever. (There was a part of me that always knew it would happen). Good for Kevin for finally being willing to go "cliff jumping" and to allow himself to fall in love! Here are some pictures from the festivities:

Some of the Player family gathered outside the Salt Lake temple...

The California nieces

Krista, the 1st Player sister-in-law!

the Player siblings (almost normal)

The classic "pulling a face," that Mom loves so much. (not really)
(Wow! How do I do that?!-scary)

Player sibling table at the luncheon. (I was originally assigned to sit at another table...huh??!?! Yeah, none of us really understood that one either. My brother, Martin, switched the name cards so I could sit with my brothers) Shh! Don't tell. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the wedding day! It's not often all 5 of us Player kids (well I guess with wives there are 9 of us total now) but we don't get to be together very often, so we had a blast that day! We laughed A LOT. It was also an extra special day because for the first time all of us were able to be in the temple together to witness a sibling's sealing. (When James & Martin were married, we were too young, and when Jonathan was married-Kevin was on his mission). In fact, the extra special bonus was that his own sealing was the first time Kevin had EVER been to a sealing at all.

The parents

The open house in Kansas was what you would call "Non-traditional" but TOTALLY Player-style!! We are a family that loves to play games. Every family meal, Mom usually has random games & prizes for us. So Kevin & Amy continued the tradition. They rang a bell every 30 minutes and would draw for prizes or announce winners of the games in which people had participated while waiting in line. It was classic! Oh! and it's true...there was Rock Band!
Kevin & Amy had changed out of their wedding clothes by then, which is too bad because I loved the site of Amy rocking out in her wedding dress. I wish I had a picture. Yeah my family is pretty much awesome!

Welcome to the family, Amy!

(Is it funny to anyone else that there seems to be a rather distinct gap in this family picture in the area up by me...like someone is missing? Hmmm?..someday, I guess)