The day of the wedding arrived

September 7th my little brother, Allen, married a lovely girl, Courtney Cluff.  She is sweet, intelligent, and beautiful and is just perfect for Allen.  They are a beautiful couple and it was such a blessing to share in their joy that day. 

 

Family started rolling into town on Wednesday, starting with Chery and her fiancé, Stephen Ross.  Since she will be getting married in a month, Chery was able to go through the temple for her own endowments on Thursday night. It was a wonderful feeling to be in the temple with (almost) all of my family!  I realized I hadn’t been in the temple with them since the day Scott and I were married. 

 

We had all the usual fun, rushing about, and chaos that comes when you cram a bunch of family into a house together for a big event.  Let’s just say it was nice that we got to go home and sleep in our own beds each night! 

 

Enough words, time for the pictures!

The day before…supposedly we went to help set up.  We were not any help at all!

 

It rained all morning but cleared up just as we went inside the temple.  When we came out at 3ish it was cloudy and humid but not too hot.  Then, suddenly the sun came out and it became unbearable!

 

My favorite picture of Allen and Courtney.  Just look at the joy on their faces!

 

Courtney is the first in her family and so she had no nieces or nephews until Friday.  Here she is with all the little ones.

 

Here are my shoes that used to be black.  I spray painted them pink and put glitter on the soles.  They were cute but were a one time wear.  The paint started cracking and flaking after a while.

 

The rest of these pictures were taken by Stephen and Anna.  I bring you, “Wedding Reception Through the Eyes of Five-Year-Olds.”

 

One of my personal favorites…notice their cute little toes in the picture!

“W” for wedding.

Stephen’s First Day of Kindergarten

Stephen started Kindergarten Wednesday, August 8th.  He is attending Franklin East Elementary and his teacher’s name is Mrs. Stradling.  She is just how you would imagine a Kindergarten teacher should be.  She is always dressed pretty and has a very sweet voice and kind manner with the children.  Stephen was, of course, very excited about starting school.

 

Scott and I grossly underestimated the absurd amount of traffic that would descend on the school that morning. We live about 3 minutes from the school but it took at least 20 until we got him where he needed to be. That time frame included Scott running half a mile while trying to catch up to the van (I didn’t know he was back there!), and leaving the van running on the curb at the school for about 5 minutes while we walked with Stephen to find his class. It all worked out in the end and Stephen was able to walk to the classroom with his teacher and the van was still there when we came back. I didn’t cry that day though I felt very out of sorts for the first week or so as I adjusted to not having my little Stephen around all day. He is in half day Kindergarten so it isn’t too much different from when he was in preschool last year.

 

Boston wasn’t very happy about Stephen leaving….

 

With school starting we have been aiming for a much earlier bedtime and so Boston hasn’t been taking naps during the day…well, usually…