Dad and Lenore get hitched!

So, I don't have many pictures from the wedding. (In fact, I only took the two pictures of Ashton, Shane took all others)  I'm hoping that we'll get a crack at the professional photo's and perhaps some of the other family members will share some of theirs, too.

Saturday, November 30th was the big day.  The ceremony began at 9:20 a.m. in the St. George Temple.  Dad and Lenore were married for time by a very nice sealer.  Shane and Lenore's oldest son Jared were the witnesses.  Miriam and I (the oldest daughters) were seated where the Mother is traditionally seated.   The group was small.  Lenore's five kids and spouses (one is away in Germany) and then Shane and I.  Also Uncle Ed and Aunt Mindy attended along with Myrle and Kevin Watts, I think they were awesome for coming!!  Keven made the joke that he and Myrle were Dad's Grandparents.  It was funny. 

The ceremony was short, sweet and to the point.  Afterwards we met more of the crew and kiddos outside.  We waited a while for pictures.  I joked that we were waiting for the nice set of stairs for our picture and that no one wanted to be seen sitting on the 'white trashy' set of stairs. This gave Uncle Ed a chuckle.  Really, the shadow across the set of stairs is why the photographer didn't put us on the 'less desirable' set of steps.  

The Petty family made it in a few pictures. Ashton was NOT agreeable to the whole idea, and we'll be lucky if there are ANY with him.  It's good I had the foresight to snap a few candid shots as we waited for the couple to come out of the temple. 

I, as mentioned in my earlier post, did the cake, and it was lovely.  The luncheon at the Alumni House was very nice.  It was catered by Kneaders.  And Charity (Lenore's daughter) provided a hot chocolate bar with marshmallows, peppermint bits, whipped cream, and Pirouette cookies to enjoy.  Unfortunately the hot chocolate warmer was a little slow in warming the hot chocolate. 

Miriam and Charity sang "Fools Rush In" and Nolan (a son in law) sang "Let's Fly Away" they did a great, great job!  Then Dad and Lenore did their first dance. Nathan covered his eyes and groaned as the Bride and Groom smooched on the dance floor. The couple cut the cake, they changed into their Honey Moon clothes, and then they took off towards Vegas. 

Or, to my house, we saw as we pulled into the driveway, to pick up a few things before heading to Vegas.

Brooke and Wes left from the lunch to go North for the LOOOONG drive home.

The rest of the day, I lounged.  I did nothing at all!  I was free of the holiday!  I was free of wedding worries!!  I was sad to have the family gone, but felt so relieved to have the weekend over!!  (Nathan did have sad little tear when we came home.  He was sad that everyone was gone.  And, no offense to the humans, but I'm betting he was missing Stirling most of all)

As I get more pictures, I will try to post them.  But for now, I hope you enjoy the VERY few we were able to capture.

Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Tree

The Splendid Holiday, Thanksgiving.  Thoughts of family, naps, turkey bowl, games, feasting, and all the time in the world to get it done, right?  HAHAHA!  That evil little thing we call time.  There's just never quite enough of it.  Even when you get started a week a head of time!  Of course, this year we did tack a WEDDING at the end of Thanksgiving - so I guess that DOES put a bit of frenzy into the weekend. 


Brooke and Wes BARELY made it out of Sheridan, as their boiler system went completely out as they prepared to leave!  Aghhghghgh!!!  Thank the sweet heavens for Wes's Dad who volunteered himself to oversee that the repairs were made!! He win's the best father award!

TWO Thanksgiving miracles occurred.  The first is that ASHTON POOPS ON A TOILET!!!   A real, true and beautiful miracle.  The second was the SHANE DID NOT HAVE TO WORK!!! Only one tech was called out on Thanksgiving day - and he only had two jobs.  AMAZING!!


So, a week ahead of time I made a stunningly beautiful wedding cake.  Because there was NO WAY I was going to squeeze that between Thursday after dinner and Saturday morning.  Thanks again to Thanksgiving miracle number 3 - THANK YOU KRISTAL for letting me store the cake in your freezer.  Our drop freezer went out.  I had it plugged in for three days, and no chill.  Good neighbors are the best!

Wes especially likes the 'poous' which is snood upside down.

Also ahead of time I made Grape Sparkle (Grandma Shepherd's slush recipe) and Grandma's English Toffee.  Hooray!

Brooke and Wes didn't get out of Provo when they thought they would, so they showed up at about 11:00 a.m. Thanksgiving day.  No sweat.  I had the turkey stuffed with pine nut stuffing and in the oven, the rolls I baked the day before, along with making the pomegranate jello (sugar full and sugar free) and  whole cranberry sauce.  So the only things left were the potatoes and gravy and the grilled asparagus and whipped cream for the pies. (We bought pies this year, for shame.) Brooke and Wes provided some Welches sparkling juices that were tingly and fun to drink. However, its' still just amazing how many dishes you go through to get it all on the table!!  Dad and Lenore came early and we all ate lunch at about 1:00.  YEA for early Thanksgiving dinner.    The Grandparents took off to help Lenore's family get their dinner going, it was an evening meal.  We went on a Thanksgiving family walk with Stirling and sat outside to enjoy the warm weather.  The kids and dog ran around like crazy!


At about 5 we headed over to Natalie Berquist's (Lenore's Daughter in Law) house.  We had pie and visited some more.  The kids played outside and dressed up and enjoyed the swing set.  Ashton came out with a construction hat on and said, "Look!  I look like a cool guy!"  He loved dressing up.  One of the other grand kids latched onto Nathan.  He told Shane that Nathan was his new "Best Friend."  Cute little midgets!!  Brooke, Wes and left at about 7 to hit the movie.  But we missed it and purchased tickets for the next night.

Friday Wes, Dad, Uncle Ed and Austin went bird hunting.  Brooke and I took the boys to the Russ and Diane Watts brunch out in Coral Canyon at 11:30.  Lenore and Miriam were there with Miriam's three kidlets.  Plus Melissa and her kids were there and Diane's Daughter and her girls were there.  The kids jumped in the pool and had a fabulous time.  The brunch was tasty and it was good to see Merle and Kevin and relatives that I see on rare occasion.  After the brunch we went to visit Aunt Mindy and Summer and Sarah Shepherd.  We chilled on the couch and giggled and visited for a length of time.  The little boys were very happy playing dress up once again in the Shepherd basement.  The girls are so fun and I love seeing them!!

Later we took the kids and Stirling to the Dog Park to play and run and dash about.

I got a hold of a babysitter for the evening and we hit Catching Fire.  We didn't get home until almost 10:00 p.m.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Saturday the 23rd of November, Nathan had a Primary Program practice at the church.  After he finished up we traveled to the Dixie Center to visit the Jubilee of Tree's.  This is one of my favorite holiday events to attend.  I love the different glittering trees. They are so beautiful to look at.  Nathan, Ashton and I headed in  at about 10 to noon, when we noticed a large event happening in the center of the room.  Tables were roped off, an MC was announcing and hundreds of little kids were anticipating some sort of program.  We found out it was called the "Teddy Bear Picnic" and that there were a few tickets available, as the people who had purchased them had not shown up!  I asked the kids if they were interested in getting tickets - there was an exuberant YES from them both. We snatched up three tickets and rushed to our table as the program was just starting.

It was charming!!  The Dixie State University dance students preformed for almost an hour and a half.  They sang, the danced, there were some dressed up in animal costumes (giraffe, bear, duck - etc) and they came right down into the crowd and right by our table to interact with the kids.  The 'message' of the program was to "stop the wrecks" in the car.  (The Jubilee is put on by the Hospital.)  So the kids were told to not be too loud in the car, "no monkey business" no applying makeup or talking on the phone or texting for the driver...etc.  But even with the message, the music that the students performed was contemporary with some classics, and the dancers were HIGH energy and very well rehearsed. Nathan was grooving to the music and Ashton up and danced a few times.

Our box lunch was just right.  A little turkey sandwich, carrots and celery with dip, a fresh fruit cup, home made snicker doodle cookies, and bottled water. 

At the end of the program everyone sang some Christmas Carols and Santa Clause came to the stage.  The we all picked up our new teddy bears and did a parade around all of the trees.  Santa greeted everyone on the way back to their tables.  There were also wrapped gifts for everyone at the tables full of little toys and candies.  The boys were very satisfied with the experience.  And I loved it, too.  On the way out - Santa provided all the participants with a Bubble Gun, which we cracked out the next day, after the rain had cleared up some. 

I didn't get any pictures of the Picnic, but I DID get fun Bubble pictures the next day.

Well worth the $10 dollar admission!  Glad we stumbled onto it.  And perhaps for a few more years we can make it a tradition.