Memorial Day and Partying at JD's

JD and Monica were so kindly willing to host a pool party at their home on Memorial Day afternoon.  Their indoor pool is really a hit with the kids.  Everyone helped on dinner, and then the kids all played away.  Such a fun time!

Duncan and Heather

Bapa, the camera man

Clay and Caroline enjoying the water.

Grams (Chris) and Gramps (Bert) making ice cream cones for everyone.

Great pool with loads of room for four families.

Emily and Chris, having a very serious discussion about something...

The cousins, Bryan and JD, hanging out. 

Memorial Weekend Checking Out Bear Lake

 At Adam's request, we made arrangements to take a little field trip outside of our mission boundaries to visit Bear Lake and where we will be staying on our Family Reunion.  So we left bright and early on Saturday morning and drove first to Logan where we met the Despains from our last mission and had breakfast at Burger King.  By the way, they have good breakfast there!  It was a lovely day, and we were so happy to have a little break from our busy schedules 

Then up Logan Canyon to Bear Lake.  The lake was covered in mist as we viewed it from the summit.  It took little while to get to Falcons Landing.  The GPS had us turn by the Fish Haven cemetery which began to lead us up a dirt road on the side of the mountain.  We decided turn around to return to the main road and then found the official entrance just a little farther down the road.

Here is the view of the house that we are renting.

There is a clubhouse and here is the great pool - there is a hot tub to the left.

A tennis court with a basketball and paddle ball courts on the right.

Afterwards, we checked out a fun Mexican restaurant Cafe Sabor in Garden City on our way home. .

Mother's Day in Atlanta and Utah

After an early wake-up on Mother's Day after Alex and Charlotte's reception the night before , we dropped by the parking lot of the Sugar Hill Ward building to give hugs to two of my friends from the ward there, and then on to Clay's and Amie's for Church and the rest of our stay.

Matt and Tana had given me yummy Almond Rocher candy, a Happy Mother's Day balloon, and a sweet little African violet in a cute pot.  I actually boxed up the violet in a plastic bag and put it in our luggage, and it traveled home just fine, so it now sits on our window sill.  Clay and Amie gave me a boxed set of DVD's for the series "Victoria" which we have enjoyed.

We had lunch with Clay's family and then Rob was able to take some photos of them in their pretty backyard afterward.

It was sweet to be able to take a photo of their saying family prayers.

Amie made some wonderful bread which we all gobbled down.  

Before they left to go back to Virginia after the sealing,  Brittany gave me 
a cute gratitude picture which looks so cute with my little yellow bird.  

There was a rainbow over the mountains on the 21st when we celebrated
 Mother's Day in Utah the next weekend.  

Heather kindly hosted us at our dinner including hers and Bryan's families.

Adam gave me/us a wonderful set of photos of their family that mount on the wall.

Ben and Bryan gave me Amazon gift cards which I used to get a great computer case, and Heather gave me some Mac makeup and dark chocolates.

Such a wonderful time for a mother...

Alex and Charlotte's Sealing - the rest of the day

Afterward the sealing, we went to the Madeleine restaurant for lunch, even getting seats in the "cellar" where we had Clay's and Amie's wedding dinner nearly 19th years before.  Clay and Brittany and their families joined us.  We then said good by to Brittany and Michael and their kids because they were heading back to Virginia.  That was such a special thing for them to do to come down for day-in and next day-out trip of 8 hours each way!  Such troopers.  Clay and Amie took their family home to get ready for Cailey's Mormon Prom date

Cailey and Kendall

Faith and Lia

Uncle Clay hanging out with the nephews who adore him!

Full of tricks to teach the kids, too.

Alex and Charlotte were able to join us for lunch as well - here he is with Michael

Brittany with her daddy

Henry just wants some of the bread in the display case

Mom discussing some important things with Cailey and Amie

Henry and Bapa playing together

We were able to drive up to Cumming to see Brooke and Rowan's amazing dance recital.  (I don't know why we don't have a photo of Rowan here)

Back up to Matt's where we helped to get everything ready for the lovely reception that Tana had worked so hard on.  We had some good opportunity that night to talk to Charlotte's parents via a very effective translation app.  We hope that it was a good trip for them.  We were able to visit with the Oherns and the Ellis' who we have known for many years.

Such pretty food display!

The cake with the temple on top.

Mmm, lots of yummy food!

Lovely Matt Dunford girls - Rowan, Eden, and Brooke

Matt and Ken Ohern

Serving each other wedding cake.

Bapa with Rowan

The brothers!

Lovely Tana

Those cookies were the best!  Thank you for all of your hard work...

Alex and Charlotte's Sealing

One of the blessings of being able to serve a Senior Mission is that you can attend important family events.  We were so excited when our mission presidency gave us permission to attend Alex and Charlotte's sealing on May 13th in the Atlanta Temple.  And we were even happier to get very cheap airfares and car rental!  

We got in late after a direct flight and spent that night at Matt's and Tana's.  We headed down early on Saturday morning to the temple to participate in baptisms for the dead for Faith and Clara doing family names.  Then we left them in the annex to attend Alex and Charlotte's sealing.  They had been married last July, just before we left on our mission.  She hadn't been married a year yet in order for them to be sealed.  But this was even better because her parents had come from China for her Ga Tech graduation, so they were able to participate in this as well.

We stopped off in the waiting room at the front of the temple. where Eden was waiting with Charlotte's parents to meet them and give them a copy of the Proclamation on the Family that we had gotten in Mandarin and framed for them.

The sealing was so lovely - and so neat to be there with Matt and Tana, Clay and Amie, and Brittany and Michael.  They are such a sweet couple - we can't wait for everyone to meet Charlotte.

Here we are with her wonderful parents!

Such a sweet couple!

Lots of family were able to be there.

How beautiful the temple always is!