Jenna's Wedding Day

Let me preface this be saying that I remember the day Jenna was born, July 4th, and we watched fireworks from the hospital room window.  What a lovely young lady.  We were thrilled to be able to  celebrate "her" day.

The weather on Friday morning was so much better than the forecast had predicted.  No rain.  Woohoo.  I was worried I would have to pull out the umbrellas.  Besides, no one wants cold and rain on their wedding day.  We drove to the Provo Temple and pointed out places of interest to our girls as we drove, especially UVU, formerly known as UVSC, where we first met.

The girls were able to wait in a small waiting room while we were in the temple for the ceremony.  It wasn't terribly exciting for them since their cousins hadn't arrived yet, but they had iPods to keep them busy.

Crazy how you think back and it was just like yesterday when Chris and I were getting married.  Seriously, it hardly feels as though it were 16 years.  A nice tradition for Jenna though--she got married on the year of her parents' 25th anniversary, and on the year of her grandparents' 50th anniversary.  She has great examples to follow.

After the ceremony, we headed down to the waiting room to pick up our girls and then outside.  We had a little time, so Chris and I walked down to our parking spot to retrieve my camera.  I captured some fun moments from the day.

Pretty funny when my nephew arrived with the flowers and boutonnieres for the wedding party and mentioned that they were for the pall bearers!

We had a little more time until the family luncheon in Lindon.  The girls were excited to visit the BYU campus.  In hindsight, we never really planned for our visit to BYU to have such a positive impact on our girls, but they are so thrilled to attend someday.  Amy would love to skip from high school right to college now.  Chris and I are excited that they are excited.  It was good motivation to keep working hard and to begin going above and beyond.  College was some of the funnest years of my life.  I look forward to them having some amazing experiences as well.  Besides, any place that combines BYU and Chick-fil-A is tops in Amy's book!

I am not sure we would have easily found the church building in Lindon without GPS.  My parents arrived about the same time as we did and got out of their car saying, "Thank heavens for 'On-star'."  We joined the two families inside for a nice lunch.

Kristen wanted to stay with her cousin Lissy, and in all of the craziness of wedding day planning for the mother-of-the bride, my sister agreed to let Kristen and Lissy hang out for the afternoon.  Perhaps it made life easier having her youngest occupied.

Chris and I and the older girls drove around a bit.  We had thought to go see a movie, but the times didn't really match up well for the reception later in the evening.  We ended up at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  We left Amy sleeping in the car and Misha playing her iPod.  Chris and I ventured and found that our membership at Denver Museum of Nature and Science allowed us free entrance.  They also had golf carts that you could drive around the gardens.  We figured that would perk the girls up and add a little enthusiasm to us rousing them from the car.

Sadly, we found out that there was a waiting list for the carts.  Hmmm. Pouting.  We headed out anyway and stopped first in front of a grand lawn.  Kids were rolling down the hill and Misha said she wanted to try as well.  I think I shocked her a bit when I said I would roll down the hill with her.  I felt a bit whoozy after but it was fun.  Half way down the hill, I could hear Chris and Amy yelling, "Stop.  Stop!"  I opened my eyes and focused as much as possible to see the edge of the grass and the beginning of the flower bed coming in to my view in a very fast way.  I stopped just in time.

It was a bit of crazy, spontaneous fun.  The hill wasn't too straight however, and Misha and I kept heading off in crazy directions.

We started to explore the grounds when Amy decided to go back to the front desk and just check to see if a golf cart was available.  It was and she encouraged us strongly to come back.  We did.  Such a lovely place to spend the afternoon.

We returned to the Stake Center by my sister's home for the evening reception.  Guests arrived most of the night to greet Jenna and Joey--even after the reception was over.  We however were tired of waiting to help clean up and just started putting chairs away.  It had been a long day and we were all pretty pooped.  Congratulations Joey and Jenna.  We loved sharing your day with you.

A Surprise at the Airport

You know Kristen is excited for her day when she is up and out of bed before 7 am.  Sadly that was Wednesday morning, and she had her days mixed up.  We weren't leaving for Utah until Thursday after school.  We got the girls all packed to go Wednesday evening.  We should know by now that unless we are heading to Florida, our Fall Break Getaway is going to be chilly.  We packed for different scenarios--cold, wind, rain--and I think we got a little of all of it.  At least it didn't snow. 

Chris arrived home from the airport around 2:45 pm on Thursday afternoon.  He emptied out his suitcase and quickly packed it up again.  Amy and Misha arrived home from school at 3 pm and tried to load some last-minute movies and such on to their iPods.  Perhaps next time they will plan ahead a little more.  Chris was on a call, so I loaded up the Pilot.  We were ready to go by 3:35 pm, just in time to pick Kristen up from school and head to the airport.  She was so excited, she came racing toward the car and hopped in.

Our flight was a little late, so we knew we had some extra time at the airport to grab a quick dinner.  So glad we did.  Kristen had her dinner from McDonald's, Amy and Misha from the Italian place, and Chris and I from the Mexican restaurant.  We had all just sat down to eat when I happened to look up, "Hey, there's your dad!"  Everyone thought I was joking until they looked up to see Grandpa Kline standing in line at McDonald's...for a salad (I must clarify).  Amy was off quick as a flash and nearly tackled her grandfather.  The others raced off to hug Grandpa.  I stayed with all of our carry-ons until Kristen returned to the table.  What are the odds?  Well, greater when your grandfather is a pilot, but it was an amazing opportunity to spend a little time together.  We didn't have a lot of time to chat, but it was enough.

We snapped a few pictures and then headed off to our gate where boarding was already in process, and Chris had already missed his boarding group.  He quickly boarded and headed to the back of the plane to save seats.  Even so, people didn't like that he saved seats.  Oh well, we like to sit together.  The girls and I finally board in the "B" group.  And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Apparently the computers were down and all of the weights and balances had to be calculated by hand.  Twice since they messed up the first time.

It was a good opportunity to further promote the benefit of succeeding in math class.  You DO use math once you get out of school!

We finally got off the ground about an hour and a half after our scheduled time.  Boo.  We picked up our luggage in SLC, loaded up our rental car, stopped for groceries, and arrived at my brother Mitch's house around 10 pm.  We were all exhausted.  I guess Mitch had just taken off about 15 minutes prior to go and exercise.  We saw him a little bit later as we herded kids to bed.

House Progress

Though the progress on our house is occurring at an excruciatingly slow rate, there is some progress to document.

February 2013

August 16, 2013

August 24, 2013

September 24, 2013

September 28, 2013

Sunrise

There was a beautiful sunrise the other morning when I drove to seminary to pick up the kids to take them to school.  I would have liked to have stopped and taken some pictures, but had to keep on moving.  I did capture a few of the early morning rays once I arrived at Morgan's, but the sunrise wasn't quite as dramatic as it had been when I left the house.

Misha's Concert

Misha had her first concert of the season this week.  We had hoped that having a new middle school in the area would ease the over-crowding in the parking lot and commons area.  Not so.  Oh well, the kids still did a great job.

Misha rode her bike to the school because she had to be there early.  Amy was only too happy to bring Misha's bike home as she was bored and left early.

Misha played with her 7th grade band and then assisted with the percussion of the 8th grade band.  So proud of her.  I love that she is tall enough that I can pick her out on the stage and watch her head bob with the beat.  Her friend Trent's hair was only barely visible about the music stands.

Kristen's Quest for Knowledge

I tucked Kristen in the other night.  As I reached to turn out her light, she thoughtfully queried, "Mom, when are you going to teach me all of the swear words?"  Woosh.  Did you feel that one coming from left field.  "Ummm, I'm not sweetie.  Good night."  Kristen was hoping for a different answer. 

Fritzler Corn Maze

Chris was excited when he found coupons for the Fritzler corn maze again.  It is about 35 minutes from our house; we all had a fun time a couple of years ago when we visited the farm.  The coupon was short-lived and expired last weekend.  We took the afternoon away from Conference (watched it later), picked up Kristen's friend Sophie, and headed out.

The farm was rather quiet and not very busy when we arrived.  Perfect.  We decided to start with the first corn maze and then come back to other activities.  As you can imagine a teenager and tween might, Amy and Misha ditched us and promised to see us at the finish. 

We passed by them a time or two.  One such moment had our little group of four in the lead and trying to get far enough ahead that Amy and Misha would get lost again.  Sadly, I now know why the rules at the entrance stated, "No running."  As we were coming around a corner, I slipped on the dirt.  I thought I had recovered, realized I was still slipping, then thought that maybe I had caught my footing again, and quickly came to the realization that I was going down.   SAVE THE CAMERA! (and my face).  But the rest of me hit the ground pretty hard.  But I saved my camera by awkwardly cranking my right arm as far backward and away from the ground as I could get it.  My camera was the first thing I checked.  Whew.  The rest of me was a bit dirty and bruised.  Ok, walk.  I dusted off and kept on going.  We were excited when Chris, Kristen, Sophie, and I reached the end and realized that Amy and Misha were still in the maze.

I waited at the exit to catch a picture of their faces as they finished the maze.  Chris took Kristen and Sophie over to the small train.

We caught up with them on the train. 

As I sat further back on the train, I watched Chris somewhat squished on this little train. I admit, I fell in love even more with him.  I love that I married a man who loves his family and enjoys spending time with us.  We are truly blessed.

As our afternoon moved along, we also watched the pig races, jumped on the pillow trampoline, raced on big trikes, slid on slides, and headed back for the second half of the maze. 

Misha wanted to stick with Chris and I the second time through the maze, so Amy took charge of Kristen and Sophie.  We beat them again.  This time, Chris and I left Misha standing at the exit and snuck back in to the maze.  Amy had quite the fright has Chris jumped out of the corn.  I tried to get a picture, but Chris' head was in the way.  Amy, still the competitive one, thought we hadn't made it to the finish and figured she would still beat us.  Her pace slowed and a frown appeared as she spied Misha nonchalantly standing at the exit.  Drats!  That's twice Amy.

Everyone was a little starved so we let Amy and Misha purchase a big bag of kettle popcorn and a funnel cake.  The girls' comment, "Why have you never let us try this before?"  The funnel cake was a big success. 

Our final activity involved cannon-shooting pumpkins and ears of corn at targets.  Here, Amy aced us all as she hit her target twice.  (No competetiveness here!)  But I think she was so successful because of her superior sighting abilities.

As we were done for the day, we were glad that we had come so early in the afternoon.  The farm was pretty packed as we made our way to the Pilot.  There would likely be much longer waits.  Sadly we missed out on the Zombie Bus.

My leg starting hurting Saturday night.  When Kristen had a bad dream in the middle of the night, I limped to her bedroom and couldn't believe the pain!  By morning, I could hardly walk on it and my right knee would give out as I put any pressure on it.  But, I saved the camera right?  I limped around all day Sunday when I wasn't keeping my leg elevated.  I also wore a knee brace of Amy's that helped substantially.  The pain had eased by Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday brought a return.  Let's hope it is nothing serious.

Amy's Braces

Amy had her second round of braces applied at the beginning of July.  She was hoping that she'd have a different smile for school pictures, but it was unlikely that her braces would be off by the middle of August.  Knowing that they would make a change anyway, Amy opted to sacrifice another school picture to have the gap fixed in her teeth.

Our dentist applied 8 brackets to her top front teeth, added a wire, and left it at that to start the loosening of her teeth.  In August, he began to add in bands that would begin to pull the teeth together.  She had some painful days, but got through them without too much difficulty.

Because Amy was on Trek with her church group, she missed the first opportunity to get pictures taken at school for her ID.  She was ID-less for the first two months of school, but managed.  She missed the make-up day for ID pictures because school was cancelled for the flooding.

The final ID picture day was scheduled for October 8.  Amy got her braces off on October 6.  Pretty amazing.  I knew that the process would be quick since it went quickly the first time, but she surely lucked out in having a brace-less ID picture smile.

Amy has a tiny little wire that is bonded to the back of her front teeth to keep them from drifting apart.  She will also have a retainer to wear at night to maintain the alignment.  Now the dentist is considering laser restructuring of her gum line because Amy's teeth are so tiny.  We'll see.

Before:

Braces:

After: