Saturday, August 30, 2025

Natali and Miguel - Wedding #2

Miguel's sister-in-law, Karly, took their engagement photos and some bridals up in the mountains so they could print some pics out for the reception.


Then morning of the wedding Natali was up super early to get her hair and makeup done before early morning but the pictures turned out great.
Miguel's family hosted a luncheon for the extended families.  It was nice to sit and chat with my family, Greg's family, and get to meet Miguel's family.
From there Natali, Miguel and I headed to the temple.  I got to help Natali prepare to go to the sealing room.  It felt unreal that we were actually there; special day to be a mom.

The temple worker leading us through the temple was probably only 4'9 - Natali looked like a giant walking behind her.

After the sealing I helped Natali get into her wedding dress and then joined the others waiting for the happy couple to exit the temple.  There was a bit a hiccup getting the flowers organized but they finally exited to excited cheers and clapping.

The photographer was super quick grabbing pictures before everyone was too hot.








It was fun to hang out with my sisters some of the nieces.  Laura and Myra stayed for all the pictures then took Andrew, Kate, Emily and Lily to Swig for drinks.  She and Myra had to try one of the famous Utah mixed soda shops and my kids were thrilled to join.
We had a lovely time at the reception chatting with everyone and eating yummy tacos and Krispy Kreme donuts.
On Friday when Natali when to Costco to pick up the cheesecake for the cake cutting there were 10, 10" cheesecakes with Maico and Natali on them.  
I had this text exchange...

Thankfully they didn't make her buy all of them and the they were able to cut the cake and play the shoe game before the dance party began.
We were all nervous about the dancing but Jared started us off with his famous "worm" and soon everyone was dancing.
Even Greg and I joined the party 😂.

Sweaty and hot we all lined up outside with sparklers for the happy couple's exit (sadly no pictures).  It was such a fun night enjoying family, eating good food, laughing, dancing, and celebrating Natali and Miguel.

Friday, August 29, 2025

Utah Fun

Weeks before the wedding we had made a plan to all leave Middleton on Friday morning in two cars loaded up with Andrews stuff and get to Provo on time to move him in at 3:00pm.  Wednesday night Andrew came in my room and said we needed to be in Provo by 9:00pm on Thursday so he could play with Miguel's soccer team.  With some farther research we also realized that freshman orientation started Thursday morning 🤦.  So we made some quick adjustments; Andrew and I headed down to Provo after he finished work Thursday and we arrived just in time for the double header soccer games.  
It was fun to watch him play again.

The two of us crowded into Natali's apartment for the night and we dropped Andrew off at orientation early the next morning.  The two of us grabbed breakfast and picked her friend up from Trax.  We went back to her apartment and reviewed all the wedding plans and I ran some errands for her before meeting up with Andrew at his apartment at 3:00 to move him in.  With Natali's help it didn't take long to have him all settled.
Meanwhile, Greg and the girls were having a heck of a time getting to Provo.  Road closures, wrecks, detours, who knows all the things but their 5 and 1/2 hour drive turned into over 8 hours.  At one point I looked at their location on my phone and it looked like Greg had left Kate and Emily behind at different points along the way.
We eventually all met up for burgers together before the girls headed to Natali's bachelorette party.
Andrew got into the women's soccer game with his ROC pass but the tickets were sold out so Greg and I caught part of the women's volleyball match before picking the girls up and heading to the hotel.  

All the saturday wedding fun will get its own post so I'll skip on to Sunday.  We slept in and went to a 10am church then headed to the Timpanogos Cave where we met up with cousins from both sides of the family to hike up to the cave for a tour. 

The scenery and cousin time was beautiful.

We had the pleasure of touring the cave with the Iverson's, Grandpa, Mark, Gayle and Marley.




Anders and Bacon's questions and commentary were the best parts of the tour.
Kate and Lily got to go through with Parkinsons, Yorgason girls and Loveridge's.


Fossils are cool.  Mack would have loved them but Sophia wasn't up for the 1.5 mile, 1,100 foot elevation gain hike.  
I was amazed that 80 year old grandpa made the trip up and down the mountain.  He is incredible.  

After the hike we all headed over to Laurie's to eat dinner and swim.  The kids had a blast with both sides of the family merging.  It was wonderful to have time all together.
Monday morning we enjoyed Kneaders breakfast then met Mack and Sophia at the Ancient Life Museum at Thanksgiving Point. 

I found this photo from the last time we had been there and we tried to replicate it without Reed and Sophie.



Look how she's grown.
Another recreation.
We had a lot of fun and learned a lot but had to say goodbye.  Andrew drove Mack and Sophia into Salt Lake to hang out, eat lunch, and kill time before their flight home to Moscow.  The rest of us headed up to Aunt Sue's house to say hello to Nani before heading home.