Wedding day!

October 23rd was a special day!  Amanda and Nate were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos temple!  It was a beautiful ceremony and the sealer gave a beautiful message about our path through the ordinances starting with baptism up to the sealing ordinance.  It was really good for ME to hear as well as the beautiful couple being sealed!  Katy and Kirsten (our nieces) were our photographers and did a beautiful job!  I loved the picture of the kids looking into the doors of the temple watching for their parents.  So cute!  Everyone looked beautiful/handsome and the weather was perfect for the occasion.  I will take a couple of posts to add pictures as there are so many good ones!  These are from the temple grounds, group and family pictures.  We were grateful that Barbara was here with us, and Clif and Lindsay, Ashley, and Joel.  We were missing Clark and wishing so badly he could have been here.  4 out of 6 of Amanda's best friends were here.  Those girls are like family and we loved having them here.  Randa was here too, we missed Eric and the kids.  We know it was a school/work day and hard for a lot of people to come.  Most of Nate's family was there as well.  And of course April and her girls (our photographers). We wish John could have been here too.  The Stewarts flew out from Georgia again, bless their hearts!  They were just here 2 weeks before for their son's wedding.  It was fun to have so many Stewarts there. I was holding it together pretty well during the sealing until...after he was done the sealer asked the parents to sit and wait to hug the couple last...so we watched everyone else in the room take their turns to hug them...as Greg and Janice came up, I could see the tears rolling down Greg's face and I just lost it.  Such a bittersweet day for them.  They are so happy for Amanda and so sad that their son made the choices he did.  We know their feelings and it was a very touching moment.  I heard Janice tell Nate, "You take good care of her."  We love those Stewarts like family.  Janice had actually asked me if we minded them being there.  Of course not!  All in all it was a beautiful day and a great group of family and friends.  We are so excited for Amanda and Nate to be so happy and to start their new life together.

 

My favorite guy...

 Jumping for joy...and for fun!

Happy Birthday Barbara!

April and Barbara drove to town to be here for the wedding.  YAY!  AND, it's Barbara's birthday!  We had all of Katy and Kirsten's families here (April's daughters that live close by us) plus our family.  It was a big crowd for dinner but it was fun!  And of course we had cupcakes and sang happy birthday. I simply cannot believe that Barbara is 84!  She looks so much younger!  Maybe because she is not having to work at that balloon store anymore.  Anyway, we loved celebrating her even with all the chaos of kids.  Katy has 4 and Kirsten has 3, plus our 3 here...yep...fun evening!!  April did everything since we are busy with wedding.  I did put pulled pork in the crock pot.  It was the least I could do.  Happy Birthday Barbara!  We sure love you!  My picture is a little blurry, we hurried to take it and you can see April frantically digging through her purse to find her camera!  Everything happened so fast...

This is also the 10th anniversary of my dad's passing.  I cannot believe it has been 10 years!  Seems like yesterday to me!  I miss him and his laugh so much.  He would love to be up here visiting in Utah...going on hikes with us...well maybe not if he was still alive because he would be 84 also!  But I do love and miss him and hope he feels my love up in heaven!!

Clovis for us, Disneyland day 3 for the others...

We just had one day to spend in Clovis and let Joel visit as many people as he could. Scott and Terry were fun hosts.  They scattered our bed with candy and Saturday morning Terry made us a big breakfast.  We went to Smart and Final to get some things for the wedding and then we met our kids for lunch (except Clark who had to work and couldn't make time for us) and that was fun.  We went to Tahoe Joes.  Yum!  Megan and her son Caleb joined us. It was good for Joel to see his siblings after 2 plus years! We visited the Ryan Budge family and it was so fun to see their house (they bought Annette May's house and have transformed it beautifully!) and visit with them for a bit.  Joel went on to visit the Swinneys and his friend Nate came over to the Olsens that night to visit.  We saw Shawn Olsen and Tom and Melanie Martinez, also Kristi Call came by to see Joel as well.  It was so nice to see all of them.  The only one we didn't get to see was Bishop Winiecke (who was in L.A. for a bike ride).  We will have to catch them next time they come to Utah.  We played games that night at the Olsens and our kids came over for that too.  It was such a fun time and we were sad for it to end so quickly!  The kids had fun at Disneyland.  Amanda bought them each their own chapstick and they loved it!  She said Jacob had the softest lips all day in Disneyland!  The kids bought suckers with the money Grandpa Dibb had given them and licked on them while they waited for the parade.  They stayed late that night for the fireworks.  The kids all managed to stay awake!  Last time Jacob fell asleep before the fireworks started and slept through them!  We all left for home Sunday morning.  It was a long day for us as we had to go the northern route.  There had also been mudslides in Tehachapi and it was BAD.  The road was closed for DAYS.  So we went the "scenic as far as Tahoe" route then the boring nothingness of the rest of the way to the Salt Lake Valley.  Beautiful clouds and pine trees, then nothing after that.  It was raining pretty hard after Tahoe and we couldn't even listen to our book on CD because we couldn't hear it!  We were very glad to get home!  It was a whirlwind weekend and now it will be a whirlwind week getting ready for the wedding!  

 Tahoe Joes...with my cute kids!!

 We sat right under the moose!

Disneyland again...day two!

Day two started with buffet breakfast at our hotel.  Jacob put the food away!  Usually David is the big eater!  Then we drove to the parking garage and then waited for the tram to take us to Disneyland.  The kids looked so cute!  Everything was decorated for Halloween!  It was very cute!  We rode haunted mansion (can't believe I didn't get any pictures of that!) it was all decorated for the Nightmare Before Christmas!  Totally different ride!  It was amazing to see the transformation!  We only rode it twice - it was different but fun! The first ride of the day was the Matterhorn.  While the others rode it, Grandpa and I went and got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain.  We rode Star Tours (well, not all of us!) and the tea cups too!  Dave and Joel rode Thunder Mountain then Dave, Joel and I left in the afternoon to head for Clovis.  The others still rode Space mountain (again), Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain.  Maybe even more.  Before we left we visited Pooh Corner where I found the cutest little shop!  With the BEST goodies!  I was going to get a tiger tail, but saw the caramel covered, chocolate covered marshmallows and it won me over!  You can watch them making the goodies there...a very fun little shop!  Amanda, Nate and the kids rode the Pooh ride while I shopped.  We also bought some Mickey Benoits before we left which is tradition now!  They are so tasty!  It was a fun day and we were sad to leave but anxious to get to Clovis.  We knew we needed to leave early because the roads were bad with a mudslide a day or two before on the grapevine.  It was open, but it was still slow going.  All four lanes were open, but two lanes were all trucks!  They had been delayed with the mudslide.  The less than 4 hour drive became a 6 hour drive. Ugh.  We arrived in Clovis about 9 p.m. and we stayed with Scott and Terry Olsen.  Great hosts!  The kids stayed on at Disneyland and had fun until it was time for Mickey's Halloween Party (7 pm) which they didn't have tickets for.  They got great food because a kind stranger gave them her food tickets which she didn't have time to use.  They loved that!  They got a nice dinner and a funnel cake to share! They sent us the pictures and it was fun to see what they were doing while we were drudging along the highway...it was a fun but long day!  We told Nate when they arrived late that first night the this was a test to see if he still wanted to marry Amanda!  She is die hard about her very organized Disney trips and you do it her way no matter how tired you get!  He was a great sport and I think he might have even had some fun!  I hear the wedding will still take place! 

 Joel didn't want to be stuck with Grandma and Grandpa so he got his own tea cup!

 Space Mountain...David's favorite ride next to California Screamin'!

We had a double stroller and then rented a stroller each day to haul kids and all our food!  It's a great way to get around, and especially if you have Nate to do all the heavy pushing!

The yummy funnel cake...wish I would have been there for that!