Summer travel: 2nd stop-Utah wedding

She got the bridesmaid's dresses

made in China for super cheap!

Me and Paola in the rain

Charles stepped up to brother duty and held an umbrella for Lina all morning!

The happy couple before the wedding...

After a week in Arizona, I flew to Utah and met up again with mom who was there to help out my recently-returned-missionary-grandparents! Grandma broke her hand in Italy and decided it was time to come home. I was so happy to see them. I met up with Kurtis' mom and siblings who were in Utah for Lina's (Kurtis' sister) wedding. I spent the week with his family getting wedding details settled and anxiously awaiting the reunion with my husband! We were apart almost 2 weeks and we couldn't stand it. I don't know how you do it Jana and Mark, I don't envy it but admire your strength. :) The pre-wedding partys were lots of fun and full of family. It was mostly the groom's family in charge because they live in Utah! We ran around the valley attending various things, including an embarassing bridal shower (see picture, I think those are for Jordan...ha!) and a wonderful first temple session for Lina. The wedding went by in a blur of course on 8-8-08, not to be upstaged by Kurtis and my 7-6-07. We didn't need the lucky 777 date. :) Anyway, the wedding was very special with a sealing by Elder Quentin Cook of the quorum of the 12. The groom's mom is cousins with another apostle who just had knee surgery, he sent Elder Cook in his place! The SLC temple was a madhouse with over 90 weddings that day and rainy weather. But we survived in style, took naps and partied like it was 1999 at the reception. Oh, and we finally convinced Jordan's mom to let us decorate their 1st get-away car. They hid the real car in fear that we'd trash it. Wimps. :) Congrats Lina and Jordon! We love you!

Summer travel: First stop-Arizona

This summer my mom asked me to attend the WPPI piano festival. 2 Summers ago it was in AZ and I was able to drive down from BYU to provide moral support for mom. She was so anxious about all her duties this festival, including a major performance, that I was more then happy to come. The festival was great and mom's performance was fabulous!! As well as their outfits... :) Congrats mom and great job! I also got to spend a few days with Jana and Grant who live near Pheonix where we spent our days playing with trains, talking about daddy, and watching sappy chick-flicks. You can look at Jana's blog to see exactly how we spent our time... wink wink.... Thanks for letting me stay Jana!!

New Address

Hey! I'll post pictures asap of the house but I'm at Great Harvest using free wi-fi.. I just have enough battery left on my computer to post our new address. :) C'est la vie!

109 17th St. SE
Rochester, MN 55904

It's wonderful to be a homeowner!!! We love you all!

HOUSE!

Well, we did it! We've bought a house. Well, we're in the process anyway... we had the inspection last week and everything looks good. We're to close on the 18th of August, 2 days after we get back from Utah. We're still keeping fingers crossed that things pan out so I won't post pictures until we get the keys in hand! Oh, and about the washer and dryer that the seller took at the last minute.. there are a few giveaways from people in the ward so that takes care of that!

Tornado warning

Every Wednesday morning around 10 AM the city does a simple check of the tornado warning towers to make sure they work. I've never heard them because I was always at work by 10! Last week was my first hearing. It just sounds like a regular police siren that goes really high then really low. The test lasts about 20 seconds. Later that day I was watching TV while I ate lunch and I heard a siren. I thought it was the TV, nope. I thought it was the police, fire or ambulance, nope. It was a bonafide tornado warning siren! The sky was very overcast and the wind was picking up. I had no idea what to do so of course in my curiosity, I went outside to check it out. A neighbor was outside too and motioned for me to go back inside. I began to camp out in the bathroom across the hall but then figured it was nothing before I noticed that it was extremely dark outside. I got excited, grabbed the camera and took a couple pictures. It wasn't that windy but I've never seen the sky that dark in the middle of the day. Then it started to pour buckets. There were no sightings in town but apparently a few farms northeast of town were hit. No fatalities. The adventures in the midwest keep coming!!!