Anniveraries, Weddings and San Francisco

So Monday … Dad and I had the opportunity to sit in Pleasant Grove … Nell had hit days 3 and 4 after her most recent chemo experience, which are the hardest.  We got to take up the slack, mainly spending time with kids, and occasionally helping Nell, though, even as sick as she was, she mostly managed to take care of her self.  

I took the older girls off to DI for some shopping, as they love it as much as I do … and I ran into my friend Lyn.  She had just come from a sidewalk chalk art contest where she had gotten an honorary mention.  That woman just goes and goes.

Lu is so fun to shop with, she changes her mind repeatedly.  She had settled on this panda head mask, but changed her mind three more times ….

Then we ran into Nanna Grow, which was very funny because the last time I shopped this store with her grand girls, I ran into her also. 

Don't we look like a fun group?

Here is the 'bee' rag banner that I made at Trevor and Nell's on Monday … I hung it on Tuesday morning, before I forgot about it … sad, but true.

Someone else was out putting up crafties too.  It was for Ben and Hannah's 4th anniversary … and we all tried to do things to fill her day with joy.  Becca collected comments from all of us about how we love and admire Hannah, then early that morning Becca gave her this heart attack.

Becca also took her to lunch, and Hannah said she got three flower deliveries, two from our family.

 I took the girls to Cravings on our way to DI that day …

Eva found this bee on a flower at DI, and painted it for Hannah … she also found a new puzzle and a cute mug for her.

Lu found some purple craft elastics and made Hannah a purple bracelet, which we gave to Hannah when we took her to dinner that night.  Hannah had everyone send her pictures of Ben throughout the day, so she could be reminded of good times.  We had dinner at La Dulce Vita, as she loves good Italian food.

Here she is with the Bee pillow Lu picked out … you can see the gift bag that Eva put together with her gifts in her other hand.  We love Hannah so much and we're so glad she had a good day.

At work on Wednesday I had this guy come into the mall … he travels all over the world doing difficult contracting stuff … he was super interesting to talk to … he said some guys with a You-tube channel follow him and take videos of his adventures … not bad for a local guy.

Especially a local guy who looks like our neighbor Hal Peery. (Hal is the one who made our wrought iron fence)

Look what Dad was doing … he hung buntings for me while I was at work.  We are also loving our Hollyhocks this year … it must have been all the spring rain. And you can see the fence here that Hal made.

I worked again on Thursday and Dad did his temple shift that day too … he then painted more of the garden house and its fence. Doesn't it look terrific?

That night I had book club at Carolyn's and we sat out on her deck and enjoyed the lovely view... she lives on the rim of the Woodland Hills canyon, so we got to watch the deer wandering about her yard as well …. 

Friday was Ashley and Andy's 22nd anniversary.  Dad found this oldie to post on Facebook when he congratulated them.

Then we were off … we flew to San Francisco in hopes of applying for the long battled visas.  I found the perfect shoes for me at the airport, but of course, they were too big.

When we got to the visa office, we ran into these two, who are from Littleton Colorado, Jim and Jill Jackson, who are going to Norway … Yeah!!

We were told that we did not have an appointment, even when we showed them the letter from church travel... OK, they said come back in three hours ...

So what else could we do to kill time but walk 1.8 miles to a cute antique store … here I stopped to take a picture with a man in a bow tie … since Dad wasn't wearing one.

This is the place … I even found a nice vase.

… and I had to have a picture of the helpful Stuff Staff!  Right?

We walked back, stopping for a vegan dog … yea … and were back half an hour early.  Which didn't help … because in spite of several phone calls between our travel gal, and the visa clearing house gal, it came down to the fact that the visa we want to apply for is not available on line, and the clearing house is set up to only process visas that have been applied for on-line … dang.  We sat around their offices for 2 and a 1/2 hours and had to take a later flight out.  Yep, it was a long day … we walked over 7 miles. 

Saturday was wedding day for us … and we managed to sort of live a full day of weddings stuff, by sharing snippets of four weddings.  Here we find ourselves outside the Mt Timpanogos Temple where we witnessed Nell's sister Alexis' marriage … where Dad got to chat shortly with the sealer who is also a former Finnish Mission President … how cute are these girls?

and this boy!

Then there was a three hour drive to Cedar City, where we joined Kaden Hackney and his bride were married in the new temple there.  We got there in time to see them celebrate at a ring ceremony.  Kaden is the missionary who had the amazing conversion story, our favorite, of the few new convert missionaries we served with.  His miracle started with his aunt and uncle in Cedar City who where members, when he was about 15 … imagine Dad's thrill when we found out that Kaden's uncle is the pharmacist who works at Lynn's, and whom Dad knows well.

Next we showed up early for this reception, a hour early that is, in Ephraim.  They had been married in the Meridian Temple last week. He is Elder Kyle Robison.

Then we drove like mad and got to Sarah Barrus' reception on the top floor of the Zion's bank building in the City Creek Center at the very end.

We got to see lots of missionaries there, though there are a couple of husbands added in, the husband in the back, is also a Finnish missionary.

Brother Peterson, Sister Haydn Peterson, nee Olson, Sabrina DuPaix, Elise Peterson, Kaitlyn Kunzler, Cameron Brown, Laurie Kehr (Behind) Sarah Hooper nee Barrus, Brother Hooper, Anna Brown nee Wilson, Brynn Parker and Amanda Toomie.

I thought her dress was absolutely divine … she got it at Anthropolgie, who have thought.

We had to get this picture with Laurie and Phillip Sisco, because he made it just in time for the send off.

This sub group is an MTC group, minus the bride who just drove away and Karrisa Capps.  (Who is currently working as the Finnish contact for Dottera.) Its kind of fun to see how MTC groups feel kind of like family units.

This morning we were off chasing missionaries again … this time attending Steven Bartholomew's homecoming in Springville.  His parents got back from their mission to North Carolina where they worked on a Cherokee reservation.  They also gave their homecoming talks, and it was delightful.  We received their letters after we met their son, and got to follow all their hard work.  What a faithful couple. 

Annika Quick, Kate Petersen, Dad, Laurie Kehr, Me, Steve Bartholomew.

Then we went to the Jamsas farewell in Salem.  We are so excited to get to serve with them in Finland, and I know they will do amazingly working with the single young adults in Helsinki.

They are Denise and Ralph Jamsa. 

So that was our week … we covered a lot of ground and met up with a lot of great people.  We hope your week was full of hard work and joyful moments too.