Love is Lovely

We are so excited to welcome a new member to our family!  Reed, my little brother, married Emily, on November 10th, 2012, in the Salt Lake City Utah Temple.  It was a snowy day, but beautiful, just the same.

***In hindsight, I wish I would have had my camera, but I had left it in the car, thinking it'd be too big and bulky to lug around.  Hence, the engagement photos.

Ryan and I and our boys drove down to SLC in the rain the night before.  Keith and Tricia were gracious to let us stay at their house, and we are so grateful for them!  The evening was spent practicing our music and having good laughs as siblings. The rain had turned into peaceful falling snowflakes. 

Saturday morning's weather was filled with white flakes, and the roads were covered.  We slowly made our way to the temple, where Katelyn, Clay and Deseret helped with the boys in the temple's youth waiting room.  After waiting for what seemed like for.ev.er, Reed and Emily were sealed for time and all Eternity, and their ceremony was simply beautiful!!  They were surrounded by family and friends, and it was so fun to see so many family members there.

Reed looked handsome and Emily was stunning.  Their smiles and the light in their eyes was evident of the love they have for each other.  

After the temple sealing, we made our way outside for family pictures, then Ryan and I rushed the kids to a baby sitter's house so we could enjoy the luncheon without them.  :)

A delicious and beautiful luncheon was held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, where the closest of friends and family ate and enjoyed each other's company.  

I was supposed to play music for about an hour during this social hour, and had prepared for weeks my music selections.  Because the sealing was an hour late, Ryan and I missed this social hour because we took our kids to the sitters, and it sorta threw off the rest of my day.  I am so grateful to my sisters who filled in for me!  They're so talented to be able to cover for me like that!

Katelyn, Stephanie, and I prepared 'their song', Michael Buble's "Everything" on the piano and guitar, with vocals....towards the end of the song, I pretty much bombed the whole thing when I got ahead of myself.  LOL!  It was a little pathetic, but mostly embarrassing.  Reed redeemed our sad performance with a great Cello piece he had prepared to play for his new bride.

Once dinner and dessert was finished, Ryan and I booked it back to the sitters to pick up kids and dashed to Sandy for their reception.  By now, we were in full-fledged snow-storm mode.  Salt Lake was being plastered with the pretty white stuff.  But we carried on!

Reed & Emily's reception was beautiful, at Le Jardin.  It reminded me of a forest/greenhouse, and was beautiful!  We helped set up/stay out of the way as much as possible during formal family pictures.  The kids had a hay-day running, playing with Emily's nieces and nephews, and getting away with handfuls of mints and  dainty chocolates.  The rest of us enjoyed the pies and good company.

Tanner had BEGGED to watch them cut their cake (which was the MOST DELICIOUS wedding cake I've ever tasted!!) so we stayed to watch those festivities....then hit the road about 8:30 pm.  We still had to stop and Keith and Tricia's to pick up a few bags we thought we'd have time to come back for earlier in the day....so by 9:00 we were entering the on-ramp to I-15, North Bound.  And it was still snowing.

We drove 25 mph from Salt Lake to Farmington.  It took us much too long. We saw multiple accidents. The roads were terrible, but the kids had crashed their sleepy little heads.  Had Ryan not needed to work the following day, we would have spent the night in SLC.  My parents even offered to get us a hotel room. We stayed in constant communication with my aunt who was about 30 minutes ahead (but ended up staying in SLC anyways), and with my parents, who we convinced to stay at Keith and Tricia's....By the time we rolled past Tremonton, the roads were dry, and my eyes closed.  

Apparently we made it over the Malad pass without incident, but Ryan was too tired to drive on, and I couldn't wake up enough to see straight.  We pulled over at a little gas station in the middle of nowhere (Virginia) where we turned the car and headlights off.  Within 3 seconds, we realized we wouldn't be able to get ANY sleep because Kortlen was snoring so loudly.  After a minute or so of waking up, I took my turn driving.  

As we approached McCammon, and the roads instantly turned wet, then icey, then snowy.  We were back to 25 mph, inching our way along, pleading we'd be watched over and safe.  Inkom slowly came and went.  Pocatello slowly came and went.  And then we hit Fort hall.  And Fog.  Lots, of THICK fog!  Ryan had woken up, and we were surprised at how many cars were pulled over with their hazard lights on, then we realized we couldn't see the road, either.  Fervent prayers went up, as it was already 1 am, and we had been driving for 4 hours.....we thought we'd be home an hour previously.  

Towards Blackfoot, it cleared a little, but not for long.  After limping through the blindness, we could tell our exit was coming up, and then Kortlen woke up, screaming "out!  OUT!!!"  He'd had enough!   Can't say that I blame him....I was right there with him.  

We finally made it safely home at 2 am, dragged ourselves into the house and crashed in our beds.  

Despite the wild ride home, we are SO THANKFUL and glad that we could be a part of Reed and Emily's perfect day.

Love is Lovely.

I stole this one from her photographer.  ;)  Aren't they stunning?!