July 18 Stephen & Kendra

Saturday:  I was glad to be invited to Nigel and Angela's son's wedding--not that I know Stephen all that well AND I'd never met Kendra before ever; but Nigel and Angela are very special to me. For almost a dozen years, Nigel taught our LOGOS class at Calvary Church. The folk in the class all went their separate ways, for many different reasons, about five years ago now. And just in the last year, Nigel and Angela felt God leading them to be part of a new church forming in Ada (which is where they live). I don't see them on Sundays anymore and I miss them. 

 I only knew a handful of people attending the wedding--I would estimate there were maybe 150 guests--the ones I recognized and "kind of" knew were all from Calvary. Pastor Tom did the wedding ceremony.

The above picture is the wedding program. The front was the order of the wedding ceremony, and the reverse side listed all who stood up with Stephen and Kendra. I thought it was very interesting that both mom's names are ANGELA. I found Kendra's folks to be very welcoming. Somehow they already knew my name, and I had never met them before--Kendra, too--she called me by name in the greeting line after the ceremony. 

The wedding took place outdoors at the ALASKA HAUS venue, a little beyond Caledonia. It was very HOT, but not as hot as it had been earlier in the week.

The Ceremony:

The wedding began promptly at 4pm. Kendra had a matron of honor (her only sister), a maid of honor (her best friend), and two others. Two of the girls wore a deep purple/wine colored gown, and the other two wore lilac. The dresses were really pretty.

Kendra and her father have now appeared and are walking towards Stephen and Pastor Tom ...

I thought Kendra's dress was super pretty. The sleeves were detachable (which she removed at the reception). Her dad was a very enjoyable person to listen to and to meet.

They wrote their own vows and repeated them to each other.

Pastor Tom gave the "wedding address", and a few other things were performed, and then Stephen and Kendra were pronounced husband and wife.

The Reception:

There was about a 30-minute wait after the ceremony before the reception began--probably because photographers (they had THREE) were taking pictures of the wedding party.

I found my "place" (there was a note card with each guest's name printed), and I was seated right next to Angela and Nigel! We had such a wonderful time catching up during the reception. I love these two so much--it was so refreshing to be with them. Nigel's brother, Alistair, flew over from Edinburg, Scotland, for this occasion. He and Nigel look so much alike!

Here is Ben (Stephen's older brother) giving a tribute to Stephen ...

Ben could barely get through his written "speech" without tears ...

Here is the bride and groom with the first dance ... I did NOT get any good pictures of him spinning her around, etc. I just wasn't situated in a very good place to get a decent photo, and I certainly did not want to be in the way of the photographers.

Here is Stephen and his mom dancing ...

And then everyone joined in the celebration with crazy dancing, a disc jockey, funny light-up glasses, etc.

The Venue:

I took a few pictures of Alaska Haus prior to the wedding. I thought this was just the right size room. Three rows of tables, two aisles nicely spaced, and decorated beautifully.

This is the wedding party table ...

This is outside where the wedding ceremony was held.

Just a few more inside the venue ...

I read on their website that this building used to be a church. These stained-glass windows are original to the building.

Can you see the upstairs where the glass wall is? That's where the bride and groom had the first dance.

A very pretty place! I was honored to be invited, and so happy to be able to talk to Nigel and Angela for such a long time. I also got better acquainted with our Mission's pastor wife--Nancy--she was just down a few seats from where I was sitting.

The next upcoming wedding is Christopher and Ella!

June 14 Super HOT

Tuesday:  I picked the kiddos up from Kelly this morning at 9:30. The humidity and heat have reached levels that are quite Uncomfortable in my little house; so we just ate a good breakfast, the kids worked on making some home videos on PhotoBooth, we ate a decent lunch, and as the children watched about 30 minutes of "The Roadrunner", I picked up this place, prepped dishes for washing later, and loaded the children up to go to MVP to swim for the rest of the afternoon.

All four of them DID play for a little while,
but even with every single fan I had blowing
on high speed, it was very uncomfortable at my house.

It was a good plan! The pool was refreshing and the kids had a lot of fun. The sun was SO hot, though, I feared staying in the water and out in the sun for more than an hour. I retreated to some lounge chairs, but had to wait another hour before I could find any "shaded" lounge chairs. I did use sunscreen, but I have such WHITE skin. The kids used a special face sunscreen and then a body sunscreen as well; but their swimsuits also offer a lot of coverage and protection.

I was very pleased to see how much fun Aidan had in the water. He used to be (years ago) quite timid and actually a little bit fearful of swimming. He has grown so much! I love to see this brilliant little child playing like a regular person--whooping and hollering, splashing and jumping, making friends--it's a wonderful sight!

Brendan is not pictured--we barely saw him! Brendan's explanation was this: "Oh! I like to stay at the BOTTOM of the pool, in the deep end." Well then. No wonder!

Young Mr. Gregory, life vest on at all times, was also very happy to be in the thick of all of the activity. He is not allowed to go down the huge curvy slide because he is not tall enough yet. He told me he is still the shortest in his Kindergarten class, even though he is the oldest. I don't think he tells me this with sadness, he's just delivering the FACTS.

As soon as we checked in through the gate, Erin's close friend (Emmy) ran over to her. How fun it was for those girls to swim together. I didn't photograph Emmy--but here are Aidan and Erin trying to decide who is going to jump and make the biggest splash.

I regret feeling rather irritable quite a bit of the time we were at the pool. Hopefully, the children didn't pick up on it. I had just been so terribly hot and worn out at home--I do fine in the early morning hours when the air is still somewhat tolerable; but WOW it sure got hot at my house mid-day. When we got to the pool, it was (of course) quite crowded. Why is it that children SCREAM so loudly in the water?!?! Sigh. I hate being grumpy around little ones. Please help me with this Lord.

July 12 More engagement pics

continued:  These next few pictures were taken very far away from Kota and Emma. I am absolutely terrible at ZOOMing anything! I used my photo program to kind of fix these, but I don't think the pixel quality is very good.

They are closer here, so this is a clearer shot ...

Oh to run down the beach again (never in my lifetime will I be able to do this)! I love it when Emma does this. She is a fast runner!

This next series is my favorite. I hope Emma will use these on FB, but she is free to use whatever she likes.

They are just such sweet pictures.

And she's OFF once more ... !!!

 I hope Emma finds these acceptable to use where she wants to use them. It sure was nice to be with these two yesterday. 

We ate dinner out (they treated me!) at Buffalo Wild Wings--YUM! I moaned as I ate. Shock!

Oh, Lord, please draw these two dear people close to Your wonderful heart. Teach them to love you as You alone deserve. Help them submit all of their lives to You. Guard them, Jesus, from the evils of the world around us. Direct them to Your Word and use it to daily cleanse their lives. 

Help us to truly KNOW You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ who You sent to chase us down and show us Who You are. Please guard us from our enemy, help us keep alert, and use our lives to bring You glory, honor, and praise.