May in July

May turned 18 in July. She celebrated with some friends by having a Hello Kitty themed party.

It's hard to get a picture of this girl these days, but I manage to sneak one in every once in a while.

What better way to celebrate May than to show you pictures of her throughout the years. One for each of her 18 years.

We love you May!!!

The Day After

Cora and Andrew had their ring ceremony and reception at The 1903, formerly known as the Northampton House.

This used to be an lds chapel, and was right next door to my Grandma Petersen's house (in fact, she donated some of the land that they use as their parking lot).

As a child, I attended Sunday services many times in this chapel, so it is a special place to me. I was sad when the church sold the building, but it has been turned into the most lovely wedding venue. The ring ceremony and reception were perfect, perfect, perfect, from the grandma flower girls, to the dancing, to the bubble sendoff. We were glad to see so many friends from Germany, and from the singles ward where Cora and Andrew met, and of course, family. We would have had more family, but my cousin's kid just happened to be getting married that exact same night, so not a lot of people could make both, understandably. Here are some pictures from that wonderful night.

And then they lived happily ever after.

And Then They Got Married

It's funny what we end up remembering, and not remembering, about our wedding. The only thing about my wedding that I remember was sitting in the celestial room with Joe before the ceremony, and the fact that I wasn't nervous at all. I have no idea what the officiator said - not a single word. I vaguely remember who was their with us in the sealing room. I remember a whole lot afterwards (the pictures, the reception, etc.), but not the marriage ceremony itself. I wonder what Cora and Andrew will remember. For me, their ceremony is almost as much of a blur as mine was. I remember that I didn't cry at all until Cora started crying, and she didn't start crying until her grandma Liddell came up to hug her afterwards. It kind of opened the flood gates. She has such a special relationship with her grandma Liddell, and I love that. But it was still a happy occasion. Andrew's mom and I went with Cora to the bride's room afterwards to help her get into her wedding dress (Cora chose to get married in her temple dress, like I did, because it's covered up with the temple clothes anyway). Then we all came out of the temple to a VERY windy day. Pictures were....challenging. But they had a great photographer who got the job done.

After all the family photos had been taken, most people left to get ready for the family dinner we were having a little later that night. We stayed until after the bridesmaid's and groomsmen's photos were finished, since our kids were in those.

They got some more photos on their own after we left.

The family dinner was SO much fun. Thanks to Julie and Dan (Andrew's parents) again, for putting it all together. Cora and Andrew wanted a nacho bar, and that was a big hit.

I was asked to MC the night, and I loved that they asked me to do that. We laughed so much that whole night, getting to know more about the couple, and the sibling gifts were especially hilarious. Alex gave Cora a bell that she could summon Andrew with to do her bidding (because in the past, Cora has usually summoned Alex to do her bidding, and he wanted to pass the job on). Joseph gave Cora a grandma mug filled with Werther's caramels (because Cora is often referred to as the grandma or mother of her friend groups). And May gave her something that Cora and Andrew could "do together on their wedding night" - a lego set of a bride and groom. Unfortunately, we didn't really get any pictures of that night. I guess we were too busy having fun. One more thing that I got to do for the wedding festivities was to make all the flower arrangements. Cora found this really cool company that makes wood flowers. They can make the flower arrangements for you, or they can send you all the supplies and you can make them yourself. Since the second option was cheaper, I volunteered. I think they turned out really nice, and they'll last forever.

The next day they had a ring ceremony and reception, but I'll put that in another post.