Happy 16th Maddy!

Back from Utah, helping Maddy celebrate her big day

 

 

 

Happy 3rd Birthday!

 

 

Welcome home,

One of our last stops before heading back to MA was welcoming home one of our favorite missionaries that was serving in MA. We missed his farewell party in MA because we were in UT so welcoming home was the next best thing. Along with his family we were able to see some of his old companions that we knew as well. It was an awesome reunion!

Another awesome reunion was with our dear friends the Abernethy's

13th birthday

Josh turned 13!

Josh was so excited to turn 13 mainly because he could watch a PG13 movie. We set a rule back before Ben was 13 that you didn't watch a PG13 movie until you were 13. It wasn't that hard to achieve with Ben because all of his siblings were younger, with Luke it was a little trickier but with Josh it was much harder because everyone in the house could watch a PG13 movie except him. I (I can't speak for Mike) was ready to cave and let him watch PG13 movies but it was Josh that refused to watch a PG13 movie. I have never had so much respect for Josh as I have about Josh wanting to obey this rule.
He never complained nor did he ever question the rule. On many occasions of his own freewill he would quietly excuse himself of a gathering or party where a PG13 movie was being shown, or on family movie night he would go to bed if we were going to stay up for late night movie (Mike was pretty good to go to bed with him so he wasn't alone but that wouldn't have stopped Josh). I was shocked and admired his strong desire to achieve this goal despite the many opportunities to not.

In fact he wanted to wait to go to the movie until after 9:30pm which was the time he was born so he really officially 13 to see his first movie. You rock Josh.

First PG13 movie....Antman

Cemeteries and missionaries

We got up and went to church and then our week in Idaho was over. Such a bummer to have it come to an end so quickly.

 

 
After our goodbyes we stopped at the cemetery where Mike's Grandpa is burried and also Mike's uncle who just passed away in May.

When we made it to Utah we stopped at my mom and Grandma's headstone

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This is the back of her headstone

 

After the visit at the cemetery we stopped in to visit Jaden a missionary who served in Boston and just returned home a few weeks previously. As you can see from the pictures the boys adore him.

 Here is the crazy thing, we found out that our families are connected in so many ways
#1 Jaden's Grandpa, Mom's dad, was my dad's family Bishop growing up and married Amelia and her first husband.

#2 My dad dated one of her good friends in high school

#3 My dad's mom was Jaden's moms young womens president and she was a beehive when Amelia was a Laurel. She was one of the older yw that Jaden's mom really looked up too.

#4 they have a good friend in their ward that lived in Omaha when my sister had her heart attack. She was actually there in the same room as my sister when she had her attack and helped give her cpr until the ambulance came. She was good friends with my mom and James family until she moved to Utah. Since then she has kept in touch mainly through facebook. She was so inspired by the experience that she had happened to tell her good friend Jaden's mom all about my sister's story. Jaden had heard about my sister's story in Boston, his first Sunday back in Utah and he's sitting by this lady and her family and she happens to mention something about my sister's story. She and Jaden started talking and they connect the dots that he was just serving with my sister's sister and daughter.

How crazy is that that we are connected on so many levels? I felt like I walked in the door to meet some people that I hadn't ever met but knew my entire life story.
They are an amazing family. It was a wonderful end to the day.

Wedding #2

We got home late Friday afternoon and got right to work. Wedding #2 time was coming soon. Lucky us it was another 8am wedding. Ugh.

The wedding was beautiful we are so happy for Jess and Chris. They are an amazing strong couple.
As we waited outside the temple I was fortunate to take a step back and watch the wonderful family that we were surrounded with. I snapped a few pictures but enjoyed being caught up in the moment more.

 

 

 

All week there was a threat of rain Saturday afternoon. We were hesitant to set up any decorations outside at the off chance we had to move it to the church. Jessica just kept saying "keep praying everything will be fine." Friday night the weather said there was a 60% chance of rain in the afternoon and it sprinkled off and on throughout the wedding at the temple. 

We were all hesitant about having the reception in the yard but Jessica said "Let's go for it!"
So a miracle began when in less than 3 hours we set up tables, chairs,  lights, a dance floor, photo booth, food table etc etc etc etc.

It was so awesome to see everything come together so quickly. Every family member had all hands on deck

 

 
I'm not posting pictures of every little detail but everything turned out so nice

See those dark clouds above Jess and Chris in this picture? It was the most amazing thing over the front house and beyond the clouds were dark and looked like the down pour was about to begin at any moment, at the edge of the back yard and beyond the clouds looked the same but directly over the reception we had blue skies and white clouds the entire time. Jess's prayers were answered, it was a tender mercy.

  

Thanks to social media a dear friend of mine realized I was in town. She came to the reception and we were able to visit. Nicole was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding, and one of my best friends through most of high school. I haven't seen her for years, possibly before Ben was born, it was so good to see her and catch up one of my favorite parts of the day! 

The night ended with all of the family at a midnight run for dinner at cafe rio to celebrate a successful day.