Wedding Prep- Part 1

So this is totally out of order which is sooooo not my style. But since it is what is consuming me right now I wanted to do it. Heck I will just change the posting date later and put it where it belongs if I ever catch up.

So I have spent most waking minutes getting ready for Jeff & Rachel's wedding for pretty much months now. But anyone who knows me, knows this is really my passion. I LOVE weddings and I love organizing and throwing a bash so I am pumped!This looks like a total disaster but I assure you it's very organized. Since Hayden is gone his room is now the wedding staging room hahahah. I am keeping lots of stuff in here so I can keep it together and find it when I need it.

This was fun putting these together for centerpieces for the open house. Those lanterns had gotten so filthy outside for two years so I had to start by scrubbing them up. I couldn't find navy candles that I could afford so Ashley gave me the great idea to spray paint them. Peach pebbles finish them up. So excited to be able to use candles for once. Since it's in my back yard I can do what I want!

Some of the candy I have accumulated for the candy buffet. Navy and peach candy is not so easy to find. Well sure I can special order a bunch for a king's ransom so I found what I could and added orange and royal to the mix. Now there's tons.

More stuff ready to go.

Believe it or not this is more candy. This is ear marked for the shower.

One of the things I am most excited about are these miniature dessert dishes. I finally found some online. They are going to be filled with yummy treats to eat for the open house. This is where Cheryl and Lori come in! Faithful friends. I want to work on them so bad I have to get everything done so I can help!!

SO I am pretty much ready.
I have to gather my cake stuff so I can take that up to Utah to make the wedding cake next week. Tote shower stuff up and whatever we need for the wedding and reception. Now you see why 2 cars is going to be such a help for me.

I have to get the inside of the house ready in case the weather is bad. So that has been fun. The carpets are finally clean...

Inside windows done (outside is going to be a nightmare). Plants all washed (thanks mom & dad). Pillars repainted. Curtains washed. Just basic cleaning like bathrooms, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, getting sheets & towels washed and ready left I think. Not to mention cooking and making cupcakes and stuff. That's fun stuff...Not looking forward to ceiling fans though.

So I finally finished their quilts this week. Blue yellow brick road adaptation was actually started about 7 -8 years ago. I knew it would be for one of my kids but I didn't know which one at the time. I did finish piecing the top a couple of years ago so it wasn't as bad as it sounds! The binding took days as you can imagine since that sucker is huge. I finished binding in the kitchen surrounded by furniture as the carpets were drying for 2 days.

A closer look. Not too close or you will see the flaws. I love it. Hopefully they will.

I want to make each child 2 quilts when they get married. One nice one and one casual one that they can throw on the ground if they want and I won't have a come apart. So for the second quilt I finally made a tshirt quilt. I have never done one so I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I love the shirts he picked out. The best part is the awesome pirate fabric I found online for the sashing strips and the back. Very cool.

Wait until I show you what's been going on outside the house!...part 2

San Diego

Feb 29-March 5 Mendis had business in San Diego.I got to go with them because they were driving. I took the time off work and was so excited to go.

We stayed at the Westin Hotel in the Gaslamp district.
It was under construction so when we pulled up you could hear the jack hammers going all around us.....great. The hilarious thing was yo never knew how you would be getting over to the elevators because they kept changing the route everyday while they painted and stuff. We walked most everywhere because parking was a nightmare. It was fine though because it helped us stay in shape and everything was right there close by anyway.

We did drive around downtown the first night and get the lay of the land though. We saw Petco park and lots of fun streets with restaurants everywhere.

They all had outdoor seating on the sidewalk and were so fun. The food was fabulous. We ate some place new every night.

One of the most fun was the night we had Persian food. I have always wondered what it was like. We really enjoyed it. Very mild and yummy.

I got these yummy ribs and saffron rice..delightful.

During one of our walks we found this and came back every single night!

I bought a bunch of chocolate for the open house. Man it was good!

Friday I got together with Carolyn for the day. We went to Balboa Park and Old Town.

I have never been to Old Town so I was looking forward to that. We strolled around and shopped ...delightful again.

I thought the Old School House was charming. They did such a good job restoring it.

The Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. Again another first for me. It was really cool. They did an awesome job with it.

Carolyn and I at the Mormon Battalion.

After a fab lunch we headed down to Balboa Park. We went to the air and space museum which as it turns out was a children's museum. Of course we discovered that after we spent all that money to get in there. We got tickets to the Omnimax show too. The first 5 minutes was great but then we both fell asleep!!

On Saturday Mendis and I headed over to the Midway. We probably spent a good 4 hours there and didn't get to see everything. We saw the ship pretty thoroughly but we didn't get to all the planes on the air deck. That was okay because we were getting a bit tired of it after all those hours anyway.

Saturday night Brent & Carolyn drove down and we went out to dinner together. We went to a fabulous little Italian restaurant right down the street. Parking their Yukon was a treat!! SO glad it wasn't me. Of course we finished off our meal with a trip to Ghirardelli again. We had some awesome meals in San Diego. Sunday we all went together to this amazing restaurant across the bay right on the water. Here's the view from there.
So Monday on our way home we got the phone call from Hayden. HE was at the airport ready to fly out to Chile. We got to talk for over an hour and then he got to call again from Atlanta. It was so fun to hear from him. He was doing great and was ready to get going on the mission!!

A great trip. I think next year is New Orleans so I am already looking forward to that one. The only bummer is Mendis has to take all these classes so he doesn't get to run around all the time but we did pretty good.

Reunion @ Flagstaff

Feb 25/26 was such a fun weekend. Mendis and I drove down to Flagstaff to meet up with my friend from high school...Sheila...her husband Louie and her 3 children and their friends. We stopped off in Vegas so Mendis could get fitted for his tux for the wedding on the way but then hustled right on down to Flagstaff. It's been about 23 years since we had been there and oddly enough back then it was to take Sheila & Louie to the Grand Canyon! When we got to our hotel we discovered that they had already paid for it so we took them all out to dinner. We went to the Outback in Flagstaff and enjoyed a lovely meal.After dinner we headed back to their condo and visited for hours more. She brought up names of people I had not thought of in so many years. It sounded like everyone back in Shelburne was doing well. I have to admit hearing about everyone again made me miss them all again. SO you I think Sheila looks just the same as she did in high school. Really I mean it she does look exactly the same.

Louie looks great too with a bit more grey hair. He is the nicest guy and it was so nice to visit with them both again. We picked right up as if we had only been away for a few weeks. What a good friend. They are both great parents and have really nice kids. Who knew they would be playing hockey, riding motor cross and riding horses constantly. They had made a life following their kids from event to event exactly like we have over the years. The only difference is they were different events.

It was a really fun night and we said good bye and promised to not wait another 23 years to get together. Now that every one's family is getting older I know we can make it happen!

We decided to spend the next day driving home by the Grand Canyon since it had been so long. It was so fun because as you can see there was still snow on the ground. We have never been there in the winter so it was so fun. We decided we both have really BAD memories because we remembered there was no trees on the south rim. Wow were we ever wrong. It was really beautiful with lots of pine trees everywhere. We were amazed. The coolest thing was there is a road that closes for auto traffic the end of February so we just got there in time to check it out. It was gorgeous. We loved the park so much we spent the whole day there and wished we had more time. It took forever to drive it but only missed little bits along the way since we were running out of time. Then to celebrate that there was no one in the back seat whining to get back home we decided to take the long way and drive all the way around through Utah to get back home. About an hour before we got to Jacob's Lake we ran out of daylight.It was really quite cold and there was lots of snow up there. Just beautiful though. It was an awesome weekend and we had so much fun we wish we could do it all over again.

Mom & Dad are Back AND Jeff & Rachel Visit

How this works is Mom & Dad come to our house for a couple of weeks and then they head down to California to spend the exact same number of days with Carolyn and her family. They are always so concerned with making it equal! None of us is that worried about it but they count the days out. So after the allotted time they came back on their way north.

Jeff & Rachel came down for President's Day weekend and it just happened to be the same time as Mom & Dad came. So during the weekend Rachel & I got their invitations ready to mail out. It was quite funny because our dang printer wouldn't work at all the way we wanted it to. It took most of Saturday to get the envelopes and the Temple cards done. When it was finished we treated ourselves and took the 6 of us out to dinner. We know everyone likes a buffet and since Rachel had never been to one we decided to show her how it's done. We decided to go to the Winn Buffet for a change and check it out. Mom had wanted to see the Winn so it worked out. Best decision ever!! The buffet was absolutely fabulous. We really loved it. It was super expensive but we thought it was worth the extra money. We were all impressed. Mom was swooning I think over the food. Okay maybe we all were...Here we are looking silly enjoying dinner.They don't look silly but enjoying dinner.

I loved the gourmet salads in the individual cups and copied that for Rachel's shower.

I didn't get a picture but they had alot of the desserts in little individual cups that were all way cool shapes so I copied that for the open house dessert bar too!! I love copying.

The place was huge and not overrun with a million people. Loved that.

We thought is was quite beautiful and had a delightful evening.

We even managed to take a couple of great pictures afterward out in the Winn. Loved the lights and copied that for the open house too. hahahahah

Our fun filled weekend didn't last forever though darn it. Before too long Jeff & Rachel had to leave and mom & dad decided to hit the road all at the same time. Mendis' mom had shoulder surgery so we decided to go up and see how she was doing and wish Mendis' dad a happy birthday at the same time. Jeff & Rachel went to Cedar City too on their way back to Idaho and mom & dad did too and left for Canada from there.