The day we arrived, Matthew and Daniel were invited to attend the Bachelor Party for Jeff. All the men and nephews went rock climbing at Utah's largest indoor rock climbing gym. They had SUCH a great time with all their cousins!
We also joined several relatives at a local parade. You have never enjoyed a parade until you attend a parade with Uncle Bliss. This guy is hilarious and makes it all a grand party. He gets all the performance groups to stop and do a show right in front of us, convinces beauty queens to blow kisses at the boys, encourages military units to fire their guns, and everyone else he coaxes to give a little dance or do a trick. So much fun! The little kids all adored his antics.
He'd run up to take pictures with every mascot in the parade, and the kids would all swarm up there with him for a quick photograph. They had such fun.
We enjoyed exploring the museum at Thanksgiving Point for free (thanks to our museum membership in our hometown). We loved all the hands-on experiments, and particularly loved watching paleontologists clean real fossils.
We had such fun learning more about dinosaurs, but the highlight of the day was definitely the Erosion Table. I think we spent about an hour here.
It was such a treat to stay with family for so long, and we loved it very much. Cousin Kristi was busy making a colossal wedding cake, and recruited my help for the project.
I had never decorated a wedding cake before, but was happy to help. We worked almost every day for several hours. We made almost 100 candy roses by melting down Jolly Rancher candies, this took 3 days. They were mixed with fresh roses on the cake.
We also made white fondant elements to imitate jasper ware- this was tricky. We initially made a model of what we wanted out of modeling clay. Then we poured plaster of Paris over it to create a mold. Then we carefully filled the molds with fondant, laboriously trimmed the edges, and extracted the finished product. We worked on these for several days as well. The leaves on the olive branches were about the size of a grain of rice, and tricky to manipulate into place. I also made a miniature version of the Draper temple, where the wedding was scheduled to occur. Very fun. Look at the stunning result:
After the cake was served, the candy roses were given to all the children to enjoy. So yummy and fun to eat!
Sarah was able to spend a day helping prepare the reception food with other cousins. They dipped strawberries in chocolate all afternoon to prepare for the feasting and festivities. What great helpers they were! She was so happy to be helpful with such a fun project.
The wedding ceremony itself was the most beautiful and most spiritual wedding I have ever witnessed. Such a priceless joy it was to be there and see these two souls united in marriage. Everyone was so happy for Jeff and Tamee. They have both waited for SO long to find the right person, and my heart was overflowing with happiness for them both. Such a memorable day to spend in the temple!
The reception was hosted at the This Is The Place Park in Salt Lake City, and there was a train hired for the day to give guests train tours of the historic village. The kids LOVED this activity!
The reception was SUCH a blast, filled with fantastic music and hours of dancing. The reception hall was packed with relatives all laughing and talking and dancing and being silly. What a happy celebration it was! All the kids and parents danced their hearts out the entire evening.
I had such a great time dancing with my boys and laughing. (Although the candy roses sometimes were dropped on the wood floor, where they shattered.....yeah....candy glass is just as sharp as real glass, so my bare feet took quite a lacerating that night!)
The upcoming weekend was Father's Day, so we left Utah bright and early the morning after the reception. We drove straight to Albuquerque that day (stopping only once in Moab for a picnic lunch and a bit of play). We decided the Albuquerque KOA is our favorite so far. We loved staying here for the night! We were lucky and scored a cabin right next to the playground, so the kids were able to play right next to me while I prepared dinner on our picnic table. The cabins here were also WAY nicer than any others- they were finished on the inside to look like real little homes, complete with nice furniture and finished walls. We loved this little place.
The next morning we left bright and early and drove all day and into the night until we arrived home in Central Texas late that night. Whew! We made it! We arrived home around midnight, the night before Father's Day. We were happy to be home so we could celebrate this special day with Nathan.
What a memorable adventure the past two months have been!
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