Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend we enjoyed and expressed the freedoms for which so many brave patriots have served, fought and died. Without them and their sacrifices, great weekends like we had, not to mention our great country and our freedoms and opportunities, would not be possible. We remember and thank all those who have served -- especially those who died or were injured -- and their families and friends for their service and sacrifices.














Bright and early on Saturday morning, Bruce, Laura and Mike, along with several young men and other adults, rode their bikes 50 miles on Saturday morning, from our house to Leesburg and back, on the W&OD Trail. (Mikey and Bruce have now gone over 150 miles over the past couple of months.)

They stopped several times along the way, including at a yummy bakery in Leesburg, and got back to Vienna in the heart of ViVa! Vienna, where they met up with me and Mary Kate and feasted on chickens on a stick.

On Sunday morning, we walked to the corner of Nutley and 66 and watched the Rolling Thunder group that starts at Patriot Harley Davidson in Fairfax get on to the highway to join the overall Rolling Thunder ride downtown. Quite a sight!

We went to church Sunday and had Seminary graduation Sunday night, which was nice.

This morning, MK and Dad and I went to ViVa! Vienna again, where MK and her friend Sarah Stevenson rode some rides and we got a little food. It was hot. Mikey was at Michael Nokes house. It was over 100 degrees in the sun when we got back from ViVa! Vienna, and Dad and MK rode our bikes to the pool and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Laura joined them after a while, as did a lot of youth from church.



























We cooked out burgers and dogs on the grill for dinner and enjoyed eating it on the deck tonight. A memorable Memorial Day weekend!

Two Peas in a Pod

This is what happens when Laura and MK get goofy with my camera.


Proof that Laura has finally (sort of) learned how to do french braids.

Jeff & Krista's VA Open House

What a great par-tay! Only wish that Nathan and Steph and Tom could have been here!

Grandma directing traffic:
Laura made a lovely bridal bouquet out of white roses:

The food:
Yummy lime-ade. We also had several varieties of coke, and bottled water.
Can't go wrong with lots of shrimp!

Chicken salad sammies.
Brownie bites:)Always popular meatballs in grape jelly and chili sauce.
Edible Arrangement. Next time I'm going ALL chocolate. Here I am the night before rolling fondant for the cake:

When I went to bed it looked great, but the next morning it had slipped all over the place! We had to use real daisies to hide the boo boos, but in the end it looked OK, and happily it tasted even better.


Even though it rained, it wasn't hard enough to really matter:)
Don't let this picture fool you. They were on their feet greeting people for a solid 2 and 1/2 hours.G-ma and G-pa chillaxin.

The CopansKrista's parents, Craig and Sylvia, made the trek from Utah:)
Dad with his former secretary, Lorett.
Our lovely young women who I hired to help with the photos and the food:) You rock, Jill, Syd and Leslea:)

Nick was our great bartender.
Beautiful Nielson girls:)
Laura and her exploding coke.

The Rill Dill

We decided to lose the smurf blue and just go with the white fondant. Can you believe there are 16 eggs plus at least 6 pounds of confectioner's sugar and 3 pounds of butter in it? It doesn't seem to be THAT big. Anyway, thanks to Laura for helping me a ton with the assembly and also did a great job making and placing the flowers:) MK and Krista helped too. XXX OOO

Also check out the dahlias from my garden:
I love spring. And weddings:)

Krista's Daisy Cake

This was an insane amount of work, so all I'm saying is, it might not actually happen for the VA reception. But I learned a lot (thank-you food network/the internet) and might actually take a class someday to improve my fledgling cake baking/decorating skills.

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...