Jeff & Krista's Wedding

After dessert at Nathan and Steph's on Friday night, we headed south to Cedar City where we checked into the Hampton Inn. Dad and MK were in the pool before most of us were unpacked. The next morning we headed down to the beautiful St. George Temple for the wedding. The sealing was performed by Eldred G. Smith. This is a picture of him about 30 or 40 years ago back when he was a spring chicken: He is now 103 years old and is also Krista's Grandpa. He did an amazing job and we all loved that he was able to perform the ceremony. Krista's colors were coincidentally the color of Jeff's mission country's flag:Jeff got 11 new nieces and nephews when he married Krista. They were really cute all dressed up. Mom and Dad are so happy to get another one married off ;) Both sets of proud parents: And the two happy moms:So happy G-ma and G-pa D came all the way from Virginia.Our dear friends from back in the day, the Bybees, drove up from Vegas. Thanks to Dianna for being our unofficial photographer and corsage pinner. Nathan and Stephanie looking super cute:Steph's mom made an amazing temple quilt for the newlyweds. Thanks Diana! Always fun to have all seven together:After pictures we had lunch in a park just a short walk from the temple. Then later that night was the reception at Krista's house. The food, DJ, decorations and weather were all outstanding. Everyone had a blast. More on that to come...

BYU Graduation

First off, the Nielson kids haven't missed a day of seminary since 1997. Our streak was broken this past Thursday, but I guess graduation and a wedding are pretty good excuses to miss. After 2 hours of sleep on Wednesday night we got up at 4:30 to make our 7:30 AM flight out of BWI. We took off from a very foggy Baltimore and landed in a very foggy Denver only to arrive 2 hours later to a very foggy Salt Lake City. We started off on the right foot when we met up with Jeff for lunch at Cafe Rio. We caught up with Tom for dessert at the Ninth East Creamery where we have never eaten before. And now we know why. It was lame and it took forever to get our ice cream. Thus the goofiness: We spent the night in Lynndyl and were back up in the Provo for graduation the next day. We enjoyed a nice quiet lunch at Burger Supreme with the Isoms. It was great to get to know them. We had plenty of time to kill before graduation at the Marriott center. We ended up with front row seats. Nathan, Jeff and Krista walked together during the two hour ceremony. Tom had to work or else he'd be in this picture:After graduation we went to Nathan and Steph's for dessert. She made a chocolate peanut butter pie that was to die for. Thanks Steph:)

Phase Four

HOME!!!

Phase Three: UPDATED

Today is the longest day of all because we are operating under the assumption that no news is good news. Her plane took off this morning at 6:35 AM (Virginia time) and since we have not heard from her, then she must be on it. She went to London without an international cell phone, so her only way of communicating is through her laptop. If her train ran on time she would have gotten to the airport at least 2 and 1/2 hours early. Let's hope all is going as planned! UPDATE: We know for sure she got on the plane--Bruce called the airlines, and she has landed in Philadelphia for a ridiculous 3 hour 45 minute layover.

Phase Two

Laura is aboard the overnight train from Paris to Madrid. She is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning at around 9:00 her time. Then hopefully her plane will take off a little after noon. As you can see from the latest map, the ash cloud has started to reach Madrid, so keep your fingers crossed!

Phase One

Just skyped with Laura in Paris. The ride on the Chunnel and cab ride to the hotel went fine. She has a nice hotel room and free wifi. She is going to make a dry run to the train station this afternoon to make sure she knows what to do tomorrow. The weather forecast for Madrid predicts that the wind will continue to blow from the south--so that's good news.

Laura's Escape from London, via Paris and Madrid

For Laura's sake, we hope the ash plume continues to stay free of most of Spain, and we hope all the students, faculty and staff at the BYU London Centre who are trying to get home can do soon and safely!

Eyjafjallajokull

Who knew that such a place existed let alone could wreak so much havoc in our lives? After 7 hours on the internet/phone Bruce was able to reroute Laura through Europe in an attempt to get her home in time to make her flight to Utah for Jeff and Krista's wedding. On the third day in a row of flight cancellations out of Heathrow (not to mention almost every other airport in North Western Europe) we realized she could very well be stuck there indefinitely. When her flight that was scheduled to leave tomorrow was cancelled this afternoon, Bruce pretty much had her new itinerary hammered out: It took a ton of patience on very slow websites to purchase the following tickets: From London on the Chunnel to get to Paris where she will spend the night and day. Then an overnight train to Madrid with a flight out of Barajas on Tuesday morning. If all goes well she will be home on Tuesday evening. Keep your fingers crossed that the ash cloud doesn't decided to drift south! Meanwhile it would be just our luck for her originally cancelled flight to be rescheduled and beat her home. Only time will tell.

How can this be?

MK went to her first stake dance tonight! Our baby is all grown up :( It was a 50's dance. Mike dressed up, but we didn't have poodle skirt so MK didn't.

Veggie Garden & New Wheels

MK and Dad spent the afternoon planting carrots, spinach and lettuce. Can't wait to enjoy the fruits of their labor:) In an unrelated story, Mike got a new bike today. For high adventure the boys are going on a 200 mile 6 day bike trek. Mike and his friend, Nick along with Dad went on a test run on the bike path this afternoon.

MK's 14th Birthday Party

MK had 8 of her friends over to decorate cakes. MK is really good at making the fondant and draping it on the cake. She was really whipping them out last night. Saskia came over early and helped with the fruit:

The girls helped make fondant and butter cream frosting to decorate with. They had fun being creative.



After decorating all of the cakes, we had yummy pizza from papa johns and then MK opened presents. She got a Dwight Shrute bobble head from Saskia. Of course she LOVED it.

Summer's comin'!

It hit 90 this afternoon. So I bought a humongous bag of potting soil (Thanks Marilyn, for helping me haul it). And strawberries.

This afternoon MK babysat Miss Gwyneth Kemeny. A sprinkler was involved.

What a day!

The Suite Life

Gotta love Hamton Inn. They messed up our reservations and gave us the 14th floor penthouse suite. We are talking 2 full baths, a living room with pull out sofa (for Mike) 2 bedroomsa full kitchen, here is one of three flatscreens, 2 balconies not to mention free wi fi. But they always have free wi fi and a free breakfast. This is a really nice Hampton Inn even without the nice suite. There are four or five heated pools plus hot tubs and a couple of lazy rivers. It's ridiculous! Suffice it to say, we are getting quite the bang for the buck!