Utah: Lauren's Wedding

Our beautiful niece, Lauren, is getting married!

She waited for her high school sweetheart, Zac, while

he served a mission in Mexico, and they set the date

for December to be sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

We normally DON'T travel for Christmas.

But I REALLY wanted our kids to be there

to see Lauren and Zac walk out of the temple.

They had never been to a temple wedding before.

I felt like it could be a powerful experience for them.

Plus, we wanted to show our support for Tony and Cindy.

And be there with all of our family.

So, we packed up the girls and flew across the country.

We got to walk out on the tarmac in Greensboro.

Those little planes are NOT meant for Andrew-sized people.

It was fun to fly together.

Or maybe I should say it was fun for me.

I was cramping Andrew's flying style.

For example... 

I met these three cute sister missionaries during our

layover in Chicago. Then they ended up sitting

right behind us. I was chatting with them and 

found that we share some mutual friends.

At one point, our seatmate was in the restroom,

so I was kneeling on my seat, visiting with these girls.

Andrew later told me that was a BIG no-no.

I guess I shouldn't fly with him??

When we got into Salt Lake,

Andrew's parents took us to a park in Draper with 

some of the coolest Christmas Lights.  

Isn't this Tree of Life awesome???

Whit and Grandma had their first session of piano singing.

They are the best!

That evening, Brandon took the shuttle up from St. George. 

Hooray!!!

It was SOOOO good to see him!!

Brandon makes us laugh.

He's so fun to hang out with.

These two buddies have missed each other.

They were even twinning from across the country!

Cousins waiting for Lauren and Zac to come out of the temple.

It was cold. Brrrrrr.

It's official!

They're married!

I was so, so happy we could be with Lauren and Zac

 on their big day. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Look at all of this LOVE!

Happy to be with our kids at the temple, too.

Oh, those mountains. So pretty.

At the wedding luncheon,

Tony, Cindy, and the kids sang a parody

of a Justin Bieber song for Lauren.

It was hilarious.

And probably embarrassing for Lauren. Ha!

We snuck a QUICK pic of the entire

Sweat side of the family.

The mountains!

After the wedding, we had a few hours to spare

before the receptions. The girls got to crafting.

They made intricate utensil people.

We had some fun games of ping pong.

More creative cousin play.

Beautiful reception!

It was hilarious that I had to tell my 11-year-old,

"Scoot over a little, Care Bear. I can't see Lauren." :)

Fun dancing.

Cousin bonding

First dance

Tony and Cindy's youngest in the foreground

and oldest in the background. That's a lot of

years of changing diapers!

Kid conga line

All the little girl cousins dancing

Daddy-daughter dance

Whit and I line dancing

Cute pic of Grandma with Whit and B

This was so cute.

These are our three college freshman.

I had Reaggie stand up on a ledge.

And look what happens when she steps down. Ha!

At the end, they had a sparkler send-off,

with the LONGEST sparklers I have ever seen.

So cool!

Pretty!

What a fun way to send off the happy couple.

So grateful we could share this special

day with our family.

December: The first three weeks

 Dixie State opened up a new Human Performance Center

which includes a new climbing gym. B-train got a second

job there that he LOVES. One of his classmates,

who writes for the school newspaper, came in and

took some picture of him climbing.

The article doesn't quite match the photo--

"I am a woman with strong emotions..."

Hilarious.

 Some of our gratitude notes from this year:

It was fun to have my seminary students

and other friends add their gratitude to ours.

Peek-a-boo Hunter!

Whit's chorus performed at the Festival of Lights

in downtown Greensboro. They are so good!

Since they performed for an hour and a half or two hours,

Caroline and I walked the streets and took in the sights. 

Fun Christmas Story window.

Thought of B as we walked past Social Status.

It was a great evening for some holiday festivities.

Andrew took a work trip to Bangkok, Thailand.

It was his first time there and he liked it!

Cool architecture.

Inside of a mall.

Lots of rivers and waterways through town.

Throughout town, there are lots of these Spirit Houses,

where people leave offerings to the gods.

Interesting to learn about other cultures.

The shopping district where he went out to dinner with his team.

He brought us home some cool pants!

We went to the Christmas Parade with Gina and Sarah.

The weather was not bad, but we ended up in the shade,

so it felt CHILLY by the end. 

We scored lots of Cook Out merch.

 The Greensboro Stake had a float with a 

Nativity in the parade.

Since we traveled for Christmas this year,

I worked it out for Whitney sing a solo 

of Silent Night before we went out of town. 

I invited several friends to come listen to us. 

Bea made it!

I loved having her there. 

Love accompanying her beautiful voice.

Our friend, Cindy, from church gave C

some holiday nails. So festive!

As this year comes to an end,

so does Caroline's time in primary.

Since she's 11 now, she moves up to the youth

program at church in January. Her Activity

Day leaders put together this candygram

for her to say good-bye. She'll miss Activity 

Days, but is SO excited to be in YW.

Adams Farm tennis celebration dinner!

First place feels so good!!

Fun to hang out with these ladies for the evening.

We got a phone book on our driveway.

I didn't know they still made these things.

It has been years since I've even seen one!

After months of rehearsal,

it was finally time for the real deal:

A Christmas Carol the Musical. 

I invited Marianne and Patrick to come up and watch with us.

It was so fun to have them and E there!

Whit did a great job.

She LOVED performing with High Point Community Theatre.

We weren't allowed to take pics during the performance,

so here are some screen shots I took from the 

HPCT Facebook page.

Abundance tapper

At Fezziwig's party, in the back row, toward the right.

Abundance tapper, all the way on the left of the photo.

A drunk.

Hilarious.

At Fezziwig's

Kind of hard to see it,

but she is one of the Wings of Death here.

Harassing a bystander with the other drunks. Ha!

The whole cast.

It takes A LOT of people to run this show!

Me with my girl!

We stayed up late playing games with Patrick and Marianne.

I love having them out here!

Marianne and I came up with the same pun for one of the categories.

What are the chances??? 

The High Point Enterprise wrote an

article about Andrew's new calling.

Kind of cool that one of my tennis friends

who doesn't go to our church was the one

who texted me about it.

Care Bear had her first chorus concert.

My phone was being lame and wouldn't

take a pic of her onstage. 

But here she is with Sister Newman afterward.

I was so impressed with how much the

sixth graders have learned in just one semester!

They sounded really good.

Saw this at Sheetz, where we stopped for

a post-concert treat. Love it!

Christmas came early to NC! 

Before we left for Utah,

we had an early Christmas here

at home so we wouldn't have to

travel with all of our gifts.

We're missing B-train!

Funnest stocking stuffer:  little NFL players.

I got Sam Darnold, who was one of SEVEN 

QB's I played on my fantasy team this year.

AND Christian McCaffrey, one of our favorite Panthers.

Andrew and I had picked up this cool bracelet for 

Whit at the NC Folk Fest earlier this year.

An artist makes them out of bicycle spokes.

So creative!

Caroline is obsessed with SLIME.

She LOVED this gift and has 

gotten MANY hours of enjoyment out of it.

Tickets to My Fair Lady!

The gift I was most excited to give Andrew:

A personalized Panthers shirt.