my best friend's wedding

What a fabulous weekend! My dearest, greatest friend, Lissy Sanders, got married in the Salt Lake Temple to a wonderful guy, Mark Sarvela. I've never seen her look so radiantly happy. She was beaming from head to toe! My other good friends, Kay and Jen, were there. We were all roommates at BYU (missed you Jamie and Liz!) It was a beautiful sealing--Garrett and I were so glad we were able to come. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Sarvela!

We also got to enjoy absolutely perfect weather and great company for the weekend. We visited my Aunt Patty after the wedding in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where she is serving a mission in the Family and Church History Mission.

We enjoyed walking around the temple grounds and basking in the gorgeous weather. What a day! This is one of the best pictures Garrett and I have taken in a while!

After all the festivities, we met up with some of our good friends from college. We hadn't seen two of the couples in about 10 years! It was great to hang out with them. There was a lot of laughing, as usual. Roger's wife, Angie, commented to me, "I think Rog and Garrett are soul mates." Later Garrett told me his cheek muscles were cramping and sore and that Roger spit out his food multiple times. That's the sign of good times.

Jeremy & Janet Astle, Alesha & Clark Finlinson, Roger & Angie Gardner, Us, Andrea & Mark Ryser

We enjoyed two fun hikes with the Burbidge clan that was in town. Friday we hiked in the mountains on the west side (I can't spell the name!) then drove to the top and looked down into Kennicot Copper mine. What a sight! Saturday we did a short but beautiful hike up a little canyon in Salt Lake. I had no idea this lovely stream, waterfalls, and lake were so close! After a picnic, some duck feeding, and Angie taking advantage of the prettiest nursing spot ever, we took a few silly pictures and headed back. It was a perfect day! (This didn't have anything to do with the fact that our kids were home with mom. They would have loved the hike too--I think!)

The perfect end to this wonderful weekend was a very nice old lady giving us a ride home from the airport. We got home in the middle of church, so we didn't want to bother anyone to come get us. We figured we'd just get a taxi. But there weren't any hanging out, so we were wandering a bit when she spotted us. She'd just dropped off her daughter and said, "Do you have a ride?" She didn't even live in Clovis--it was quite a bit out of her way. We offered her gas money, but she refused, even when I tried to stash the cash in her car. So we had a lovely ride home with Billie and enjoyed her gift of service to us. There are many good people out there, and it's good to be reminded of that!

P.S. I don't want to sound ungrateful by including this as a post script, but I need to mention that this wonderful weekend was made possible by the generosity and loving devotion of my mom. She came to stay with our kids so we could fly (wow, what a treat!) to SLC. She even helped the kids participate in our annual block sale. I know, I know, I can't believe it either. Garrett and I both regret asking her to do that, but the kids were so excited to sell some of their things and earn some money. So thanks A MILLION Mom! We all love you to pieces!