Weddings X2

In the last few months we got to go to two of our siblings weddings- both in the same Temple in the same room, just a few months apart. My little sister Liz became Mrs. Elizabeth Judy, and Eric’s little sis Melissa became Mrs. Dustin Ranglack. So crazy….my entire family in now married off. Minus my brother Ben and wife Deya (in Mexico) – I got to see all my siblings, and all 7 of Eric’s siblings were at Mel’s wedding. So fun!

It’s always fun to add more members to the family. Zech is great to Liz. He is a super smart chemical engineer, a talented photographer, and is Mr. Ultra Preparedness with a 72 hour kit like you wouldn’t believe! Dustin is a great guy, too. He is also super smart with fascinating tales to tell. He works for the forest service? (I think) tagging lynx or mountain lions, and all other kinds of daring things. He was just quoted in Newsweek – interesting job indeed!

Weddings are great – but I can’t say I really enjoy them with little kids. “Don’t touch! Sit still! Just a few more hours….etc…etc…etc… “ So happy for the beautiful couples, though!

Here’s a slew of pictures for all the disinterested to browse:

Zech and Liz Mel and Dustin

The Reed Grandchildren The Cannon Grandchildren

The Reed family (minus Ben) all 8 of the Cannon siblings

My Crazy Sisters and Mom 3 bro. Jason, Eric, Nate and in-law Steve

Cade with cousins Adam and Caleb Cade with cousins Ian and Riley

Me and my little sis Braden and Aunt Mel

pictures work with just Eric and I……..but when we try to get the whole family……DISASTER. Reminds me why I dread family pics……

I kind of give up on the whole family picture thing these days, just doesn’t work!

David and Cade sure are cute together, though……and they know how to have fun together – from wearing ties backwards to ransacking the church….happiness!

There is always the dilemma….what to wear what to wear? Mel’s colors were great – but they were kind of challenging to shop for.

what Amanda suggested we wear… what I finally found to wear 20 stores later!

The wedding always starts as a party, complete with cake and dancing………

but it is inevitable that they end like this….

Weddings are great…but I’ll take a break for a while now – thanks!

Balloon Stampede

A few weeks ago we went to Antelope Island for a Balloon Stampede and Kite Flying Festival. We rode on a mini train and watched balloons and really enjoyed ourselves. I went to Antelope Island (where the Great Salt Lake is) last year and was so severely disappointed that I vowed I'd never go back....at least not until my kids are out of the stroller. There are no trails there for strollers - just lots of drives and walks and no trees and smelly salts. But...it was much improved with a balloon festival, I must say. I relented, and I was glad. On the drive home I caught a magnificent full moon rise reflecting off the Great Salt Lake...I might go back again!

Friends!

Over the summer I've had the great opportunity to reconnect with quite a few friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It makes me so grateful for all the wonderful people I've been blessed to meet in my life. Here's just a few that I managed to have pics of....

This is my friend Catherine from Utah State. We were music majors at USU at the same time. She is a phenomenal vocalist! When I got asked to fill in for a show for Stage Right at the last minute, she ended up being one of the singers in the cast. We didn't know each other too well in college, but we knew all the same people, and I'm only sad I didn't know her better sooner. Our husbands both work at Hill, and she has three darling little boys. We decided that we have missed making music - "real" music that is. So...we put on a recital for our families for fun. We had it at the Roy library. I was planning on playing a few solos, but that never materialized. Somehow, it is next to impossible to practice with a one year old on your lap. :) Catherine did great, though. It was so refreshing, and I found that I simply adore Poulenc! We even had a lesson at USU with Cindy Dewey. So fun...makes me want to go back to college and study music again....almost.....okay.....maybe for a week, but I don't miss the 5 plus hours of practice every day that was a little much even for me! :)
This is my friend Joy from forever and a day ago! I think I've known her since I was 2, and she is just so much fun to be with. We grew up around the corner from each other, skipped out on one too many health occupation job shadows together :) and I sadly haven't seen her in years since she moved to Indiana. She showed up at my sister's wedding reception, with her kids - (who are just the cutest little guys ever, I so wish I had a picture of them), and I was so happy! Joy Joy Alligator...so fun to see her again!!! It cheered me up so much to see her and her great smile again.

These are some more freinds from High School. We've been getting together since December, and this time it was my turn to host the group. We -had lunch together - and I am sooo glad that Maria was around to save me! I had been up since 3 A.M. with David. He had been saying "hit, hit" and pointing to his head wailing nonstop for about 4 hours. Finally I figured out he wasn't just hitting himself in the head, he was trying to say "hurt." (I know I am a little slow....) That was when I decided to take him to the doc. I didn't like it being the middle of the night, or the fact that he had soo much ear wax that they had to irrigate his ears, but it wasn't busy at all, and the little guy got feeling better so fast. Unfortunately, I was sooo tired and out of it. I didn't even get a chance to get food for lunch. Maria went and saved the day picking up pizza for us all. It was so fun.....oh and I hope it is okay I am using your picture collage Maria! It was so well done, and I didn't have any pics. I hope you don't decide to sue me for copyright infringement....if you do...can we still be friends? Thanks!

These are some of my friends and piano students from San Diego. The Pilkingtons were in my ward in CA - and I got to teach 3 of them piano. It was so fun visiting with them again. They stopped by for a couple of hours, and I had so much fun catching up with them. They are such a great family. I can't believe how grown up the kids are! They all played the piano for me which I totally loved. It made me homesick for San Diego - but I'm so glad they stopped by!
This is my friend Sarah from junior high - I have such fun memories with her! We would jump on the trampoline (that she has now!) and play tennis in the rain together. I had often wondered what had happened to her, and had nooo idea where she went after she moved to Utah. Thanks to Facebook - we found each other after 15 years! Lo and behold she lives in Roy - where we had our rental house last year. We ended up just a few blocks away from each other again! We have had fun reconnecting after sooo many years. She has two little girls, and I have two little boys about the same age. She is always so fun to talk to and when she says things - sometimes the simplest things just get me thinking. We were talking and she mentioned how she doesn't care if her daughter is pretty, and she doesn't care if her daughters are really smart, she just wants them to be nice. Yup. This is the Sarah I remember and love - lots of fun - and down to earth focused on what really matters. Hooray for fun friends to remind me of what really matters, who cheer me up, who entertain me with music, who do recitals for me just for fun, and who rescue me after long nights...I really am blessed to have so many wonderful friends all around me!

8 IS Grrr8!

So Eric just asked what I was doing. I told him I was posting a blog on our 8th anniversary. Classic Eric responds: A. Too late to write on our 8th anniversary, it was almost a month ago. (meaning...I should have said, "about our 8th") and B. can you think of 8 reasons you married me? (to which I replied...the hard part is only thinking of 8.) Okay, so there you have our classic conversations - sappy - silly- and just us. At any rate - I am going to post a slew of pics for my benefit. I love to remember how great the last 8 years haved been. For our 8th anniversary -we celebrated by the gifting....Eric gave me a great yellow chair for the office and I gave Eric a gift card to the home depot, a rock, and some socks. Oh...and Cade picked out a Card for Eric that plays Star Wars every time you open it....a birthday card no less :) I wish I could say we had some great romantic date together - but no such luck. I'm afeared we haven't found any great babysitters in our new dig yet. So, we went out to dinner all four of us. We went to Garcia's which was great, and then we looked at old pics together as a family. The next day, I found Cade going through our albums taking pics of our wedding pics. He wanted the because they were "soooo sooo beautiful"....so now I have a lot of pics of pics of us. I won't complain. I thought it was actually not a bad idea because most of my older pics are not digital so not on the computer. I tried to take a few myself....if you look you can see that Cade was actually way better than me at it, find the hidden Debby in the reflection in one of them :) So....Happy Anniversary to me and Eric. Oh, and 8 Reasons why I love being married to Eric:

1. SomeONE super smart and super sweet is always there for me. Always.

2. TOO many zany jokes and puns are told every day...and I love it.

3. THREE turned out to not be a crowd...we made an awesome kid (Cade)..so ...

4. FOUR we became. We made another awesome kid (David.)

5. FIVE - ALIVE. I feel alive because I have a perma friend/spousal unit. He can't escape, poor guy!

6. SIX - We are having so much fun picking up Sticks in our yard together - yardwork will cement us together, I'm convinced.

7. SEVEN Eleven, slurpy runs are so much fun!
8. EIGHT is sure GREAT!!!! Too bad...we didn't get a date.

Okay.....enough cheddar for one night. I probably shouldn't write in my sappy moods. Hopefully I splattered enough nonsense no one even made it this far! :)