A Story for You All

Here are the pictures from the open house in Utah. Karen and her siblings really know how to put on a show! Everything was beautiful. Thanks for all the hard work! So, here's a story about the happenings of the evening:

We took pictures with Mike's family.

Our kids at the time of marriage... okay, that's not a very funny joke. I mean, it is in my mind, but who knows who's reading this, right? These are Mike's nieces and nephews. I have the perfectly pleasant Sam, Mike's got the disgruntled Sadie (poor thing, she had the hardest time with her dress all night) and Kylie, Lexi, Claire, and Ethan are in the front.

We took pictures with Grandpa Watkins. We were so happy he could make it to the open house, especially since he wasn't able to go back east for the actual wedding.

Mum saw an old seminary student - all grown up and married. (sniff)
Mike saw his old mission president and his wife.
We were all able to re-connect with LONG lost friends.
Angela made us laugh, and Mike made weird faces at Jeff.
And Sadie ate cake - and she was better.
The end!

THEY'RE HEEEERE!

Don't worry, it's not poltergeist; it's wedding photos! We got disc 1 from Selena a few days ago, so here are the highlights!

Here we are at sunset on the slope of Bunker Hill. The sky was so pretty, we had to stop and take them here. This is actually at the end of picture day #1, and I was like, "My shoes are coming off right now." So, we relaxed a bit in the clothing department, sat on the grass, and started snapping shots.

Here we are looking out over Charlstown Pier towards "Ol' Ironsides" (aka: the USS Constitution).

Again, Charlstown Pier. My bouquet down in Boston was just pulled together by yours truly. If I had known I could do a fairly good job on my own, I don't know if I would've bought one up in Maine. There are better shots of it, but not in any of these really.

Here we are back up on Bunker Hill. There were dogs frolicking over in the lawn - a couple of them getting a little too close for comfort with this dress on - but Selena (along with the owners of course) of keeping them away.

On our way to the Public Gardens we ran into a number of children, particularly little girls. At one point I climbed into an elevator that had a mother and her 4-ish year-old daughter. The girls eyes just went enormous when she saw my dress. When we actually entered the Gardens there was a musician playing his accordian. Selena asked if we could dance to his music while she took some shots and he broke into the classic prossession song. We saw another man taking pictures while we danced and this little girl just stood there and watched.

Standing in the arch of a tree in the Gardens.
Walking the end of the Freedom Trail on Bunker Hill. (Don't worry, I didn't walk the whole thing in that dress and those stilletos. Although I probably walked about the equivalent.)

Next up: pictures from the Utah reception!

New Dishes!

So, while we were in Arizona, Mike and I looked online for some new dishes. I have a very small set that is missing a couple of pieces, and Mike has almost a full set of eight, but they're pretty old and again, some are missing. We figure we'll be able to sell his at least for a little bit, even just $10 or $20. He's gotten some good use out of them, so we wouldn't be loosing anything really. Besides, we had all this money and these gift cards - we might as well use it!

Anyway, we found some that we LOVED on Overstock.com, but they only had one set of 16. The set wasn't too too expensive, so we started looking on other sites for another. We found one on a site called Gifts1234.com or something like that, so, we bought them both. We loved the set. We were so excited to get them when we got back up to Grandma Clark's on our way back to Idaho.

When we got to Grandma's, there were no dishes. She said she'd give us a call when they came. Weeks went by, and still nothing. Finally, we contacted Gifts1234 and asked them what was up. They told us they hadn't shipped them because THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANYMORE! I just thought, are you kidding me? Mike was very put out with them. He contacted Overstock, who had at least sent us a confirmation of the purchase, and asked them why we hadn't received anything. They proved their incompetence by announcing to us that they didn't know what could have happened, and that they couldn't track the shipment. They promised to call us, but Mike told them not to bother, we didn't want the dishes anymore. Don't worry - we didn't lose any money.

So, we used the dishes we had, which aren't all too bad, and I was fine with just using those. Mike however, has been saying he still would like some new dishes. (Hey, if he wants them, I'm all for it!) Then we found, in the bottom of some box not yet unpacked, a pile of cash and forgotten gift cards! CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY! We headed out to IF yesterday to run some errands and then attend a young man's graduation from the drug rehab ranch Mike used to work at. We cashed in the gift card to BB&B, and bought some dishes we both really like from Target using the cash and some Target gift cards. We love it! Plus, since we bought the pieces all separately (plates came in packs of four and bowls in packs of two) we didn't have to spend money on pointless mugs. (Why do dish sets do that? I don't want to serve dinner with a bunch of mugs on the table. Mugs are for casual hot chocolate parties. Who cares if they match?!)

Anyway, here's a picture of the pieces in the set. The closest plate is just a little salad plate, and the further one is that actual dinner plate. We were both really happy to find this set. And it turned out to be quite a bit cheaper than the online buys, not even taking into account the cost of shipping.

October Celebrations

Here are some pictures from Malies special day. It was great having her birthday mid-week because we honestly treated it like a Saturday...except we still went to school. Basically, we didn't do any school work. The day-after wasn't so much fun (it involved a lot of make-up work, cramming, postponed tests, etc), but Wednesday was great! Here are some highlights:

A few weeks ago we were in Barns-n-Noble and Mallory spotted a Dr. Seuss book translated into Latin. She was pretty peeved that it was in a "dead language" and wasn't to be found in any other language! So, I did some research online. Come to find out, there are three Dr. Seuss books in Russian! Interesting Note: these books are illegal in Russia and any former Soviet Union states.

When we were on our honeymoon in San Diego, Mallory really wanted to rent a tandem bike. Time didn't really permit the activity, but I did make a mental note for a future date. So this is what we did! We just cruised around town. I don't know how many of you have ridden one before, but it was pretty wierd. Mallory insisted on sitting in front, which put me on the wobbly back seat. I felt like I was leaning the whole time! Mallory just informed me to inform you all that it wasn't wobbly because of her driving skills. That's just the way the seat is. A weak frame could also contribute to that. FYI.

We made a pit-stop at a friend's house to get some pictures taken. This friend actually lives in the same home that my Grandpa Mel Clark lived in when he attended Ricks back in the 1940's.

Don't we belong in a Mentos commercial?

We also rode to the Rexburg Nature Park which consisted of a lot of ponds, beautiful trees, and a TON of ducks. All different kinds too! It was really pretty because the trees are just starting to turn.

The sun was setting when I took this picture, but you can still get an idea of what season we are in.

See all the ducks?! There was a family that was feeding them, and the ducks were blitzing them from left to right, top to bottom...literally. The boy feeding them was so happy! When they ran out of food for the ducks, the ducks called it a day and departed. He started to cry. Ironically, the ducks must have smelt food because they swam to another family that came to feed them. Same thing happened there too.

Later on we got together with some friends and had cake and ice cream. No, I didn't make the cake. When I offered, she insisted "My Mom makes her cake." I did help get out the mixing bowls though. I guess that counts for "helping out". Haha.

Singing Happy Birthday!

She didn't get them all blown out in one breath due to technical difficulties. Chelsea commited "candle interference" and Mallory was granted a second shot to finish the job.

Later on, Chelsea inserted herself into every picture. There are about 2-3 more that include her standing somewhere in the picture.

Jo-nathan, Chelsea, and Kyle all enjoying the party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALIE!

I love you Malie.

Homemade Bread

I always look forward to the weekends for many reasons. Among the top reasons is Malie makes homemade bread every week! What an awesome wife =). We figure it's cheaper than buying from the store, and not to mention tastes far better than any bread you can buy. So, here are some pics from yesterday's session.

TEAM HOYT

This is incredible. We watched this in my Exceptional Students class yesterday, and it's just ridiculous what these men do. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's always worth watching.

So, grab some popcorn and probably a box of tissues for most of you, and go here.