Quotes of the Week

Learn for yourselves who you really are. Ask your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, how He feels about you and your mission here on earth. If you ask with real intent, over time the Spirit will whisper the life changing truth to you.
--Russell M. Nelson

What does He see in us? ...I testify He can look beyond our faults, our sins, our insecurities, and our weaknesses. He sees us as children of a loving Heavenly Father. He sees our potential for exaltation. He sees us as souls worth saving.
--Vern P. Stanfill

Jesus Christ loves us. He came to this world to show us the way and then gave His live voluntarily to give us hope.
--Juan Pablo Villar

Quotes of the Week

Come to the Lord's house when you are happy and all seems well. Come without being asked. Come when you are not in a hurry. Come having forgiven those who have offended you. Come believing. ...the Lord's Spirit will be here with you and you will discover the beauties of eternity.
--Neil L. Andersen

Come to the house of the Lord when you are troubled with the challenges in your family. Come when decisions confront you, when the world seems burdensome and you are seeking peace and comfort. Come to the house of the Lord when you seem overwhelmed and need added power.
--Neil L. Andersen

God also gives immediate hope for eventful deliverance. No matter what, no matter where, in Christ and through Christ there is always hope smiling brightly before us. Immediately before us. Moreover, He has promised, My kindness shall not depart from thee.
--Kyle S. McKay

Maggie's Wedding; Natalie In Town

The day of Maggie's wedding arrived. The event was being held in their backyard.

Andy and Amanda had been working hard getting their yard ready for the big event.

They had a few glitches along the way. No one would have known by the looks of how lovely everything was that day.

There had been a leak in their sprinkler system that had to be dug up to repair.
There had been a huge windstorm that blew down the wedding decorations during the night.
There had been a glitch in the reception cookie catering order.

Despite everything, when the guests arrived at their backyard for the morning wedding, everything looked in pristine order.

Andy and Amanda even appeared calm and collected after their early-morning rushing around fixing everything the wind had damaged.

I had been looking forward to the wedding for two reasons--to see Maggie and Gabe get married and to see Natalie, who had flown in from Omaha for the event and to spend the week with Rachel.

Natalie got a photo with her grandparents and with her great-grandparents.

Maggie did the flowers for Preston's wedding and also the flowers for her own wedding. I loved the brown wrap on my Dad's boutonniere. Usually it is green, but I loved the look of the brown.

Let the wedding begin!! Here comes Rachel, sister of the bride.

Here comes Austin and Lindsey, brother and sister-in-law of the bride.

Here comes Preston and Danielle, brother and sister-in-law of the bride. (There were others from the groom's side walking down the aisle as well.)

And then...here comes the bride!!

Andy and Amanda live right across the street from their church, which has a bowery. It was the perfect location to have the wedding brunch. It was a delicious meal of crepes, eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit. I was impressed with how efficient they were using three camp stoves.

Amanda sent us home with two huge chocolate chip cookies. She had burnt them and thought of Glen who loves burnt cookies. I asked her why nobody ever thinks of giving me raw cookie dough like I love. They only think of Glen when they burn the cookies. 

Glen ate a whole one when we got home. He ate the other one with his dinner. He said they were perfectly burnt to his liking. For a guy who always turns down desserts and says he's not a sweets kind of guy, I would beg to differ with him now.

Glen's foot is feeling a whole lot better, but his back and hip have been killing him. He was glad a work Zoom meeting got scheduled for that evening so he could stay home from the reception.

Jeff had gone to Las Vegas to work for a few days and had returned back here just in time for Sarah, Rebecca and me to have a girls' night out. Hurrah!!

Off to the reception we went. We stood in front of the photo backdrop for our Polaroid photo to put in Maggie and Gabe's guest book. I was glad Nani was there to take a photo of us at the same time.

We took the opportunity to get our photo taken with our parents since we were all dressed up.

Maggie and Gabe LOVE cookies! Amanda made them a cookie wedding cake. She said it was the easiest wedding cake she's ever made--with just the little problem of burning two layers of the cake which she had sent home with Glen.

They served individually-wrapped Crumbl cookies for their refreshments.

This was a sweet moment to see my cute parents sitting on the swing. Still in love after 64 years of marriage.

What a nice feeling to mingle with family members--despite wearing a mask the whole evening (except for photos). What a beautiful day!!

Sarah's Family Arrives for the 4th of July; Canyon Hot Dog Roast; Pre-birthday Celebration for Ben

Jeff and Sarah's family arrived here on July 1st following their Lake Powell vacation with Jeff's side of the family.

Although their faces might say otherwise (they had the sun in their faces) Lincoln and Jonah were happy to be here to play with their cousins.

Rebecca taught Sarah the trick of free lunches while she was here. Their elementary school offers free lunch to anybody who stops by to pick them up. It seems Madison only likes to drink the chocolate milk from her lunch each day.

I spotted a huddle of boys at the bottom of the stairs.

The adults liked to gather around the kitchen table to play games whenever they got the chance.

I think Carson's demeanor represents how we all felt knowing there would be no fireworks show at the Eaglewood Golf Course on July 3rd this year due to COVID-19 as has been our family tradition to attend. 

Chef Sarah was in the house and she planned and fixed delicious meals for us all during their visit. 

We planned a fun excursion on the 4th of July. We went to Mueller Park Canyon for a hot dog/marshmallow roast. I love that place because it is so close to us, not requiring much travel time. It's close to the Bountiful Temple.

The park caretaker was so kind to us. The picnic sites were all full except one. He asked the small family who had set up camp in this larger picnic site to move to the empty smaller picnic site.

He also went against the park rules and let Glen hop in his golf cart to get him from the parking lot to the picnic area. Love that guy!!

The grandchildren love wading in the shallow river.

 Don't even think the fun (and the food) stopped when we left the great outdoors. We brought the fun (and the food) indoors. Dinner was a group effort.

Ben's family lit some sparklers when they got home.  

This is how the Floridians did fireworks.

Breakfast on Sunday morning.

 We had a nice home sacrament meeting with the Excell family.

They even let me participate by doing singing time using some of my Primary visual aids I made many years ago.

I was hoping to get a Sunday photo with the whole group, but the second the amen was said, the boys shot off like little rockets removing their Sunday shirts and shoes as quickly as they could. 

The boys had food and coloring on their minds.

Eli helped fix his bread specialty for the group that would be assembling for Sunday dinner.

But first, a matter of business had to be conducted. Dallas and Rebecca were having a Zoom call with their stake president who called Dallas to be the second counselor in the bishopric. (I was peeking out the window watching them get all set up for the call.)

Rebecca is pretty sure this will mean she will be getting released soon from her Relief Society President calling.

It is so entertaining watching the grandchildren playing. We especially loved this duo all dressed up and in character for whatever it was they were playing.

Especially cute was the walkie-talkie in Madison's back pocket and the glasses perched on the brim of Lincoln's cap.

 The older grandchildren enjoyed creating with legos.

 The next day the boys colored while waiting for their cousins to arrive.

Many hands make light work...when making meatballs for dinner.

We had to celebrate Ben's birthday a little early because Maggie planned her wedding on Ben's actual birthday--July 9th.

Sarah planned a delicious Cafe Rio-inspired meal. Ben came to dinner late after he got off work.

Before dishing up the food, I requested a group photo. Carson was front and center and with the paper sword from a previous Come Follow Me lesson, he was using it to his amusement.

After many clicks of the camera, and urging him to put the sword down, he made this metamorphosis.

  

With all the distraction with Carson up front, nobody noticed what was going on with Eli in the back. These kids make me laugh!!!!

Ben arrived, ate and then it was time to sing Happy Birthday to him and have some Oreo pie Haley had made for him and to share with everyone else.

 The trick candle Haley used provided many opportunities for Kade to help blow out the candle.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear Ben!!!!