vacation

On Monday July 13th we hit the road for a vacation in the mountains. My parents and brothers and sisters minus Jonathan are all here. It was too late to do much the first night, but I did take the kids swimming while Andy snapped this shot of the sunset off of our deck. On Tuesday we went hiking. We chose a trail that had a waterfall and set off. Unfortunately, the group got separated. Savannah and I found ourselves on the wrong trail and took a strenuous path toward a waterfall (the wrong one). It was about 6.5 miles round trip, and we were really scooting trying to catch the group, but we figured out pretty fast that there was no way Wyatt and Julia managed that trail. I don't know how close we got before we turned back to find the group. As it turned out, Andy, Wyatt and Julia got separated from Zach, Tara, and Joshua. Zach turned back, and Tara and Joshua were the only ones to make it to the falls. We found an easier trail (the right one) further up the road, so hopefully, we will try it again.

We did get a few good pictures, and the drive was pretty scenic.

along the drive

the name of our cabin

The day ended with the older kids joining Grandma, Uncle Joshua, and Aunt Tessa for some black light miniture golf and a mirror maze. They said it was very cool. We are all staying up too late and sleeping in too late. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Hopefully, we will get out for some fun earlier in the day.

a wedding revelation

This picture brought a surprise to me. I did a double take because, though I knew it was not a picture of Zachary, I thought briefly it was. Zach has always, always been thought to be a little Andy. When he was little, I took him to see Andy at work, and a hostess there took one look at him and said, "that is little Andy." She had never seen Zach before. I knew he had Andy's coloring but thought his features were more like those in my side of the family. I never thought he looked like Jonathan. Apparently, Jonathan's friends saw it differently. They picked him right out and said he looked like Jonathan.

more pics from the wedding

These are pulled from the website Jonathan and Danielle have so that guests can share pictures.

the bride and her dad

the bride and her mom

The wedding was beautiful, and the weather was great! It was predicted that we would have scattered thunderstorms, but they held off. When we were driving home, it was clearly overcast. However, as we got closer to home, we passed our home church and saw the most amazing sunset over the church---if only we had stopped for pictures. This was a day that started off hard but ended up great!

Jonathan and Danielle marry -July 12, 2009

Okay Folks, you are opening the longest blog post I have ever done, but I plan to tell the story mostly in pictures, so this should be fun.

Jonathan and Danielle Wyatt, Zachary and my nephews were ushers. Wyatt took this job very seriously after much whining about all the pictures and being outside in the heat. He would take the man's hand and lead him and the family to their seats -very cute.

Wyatt was beaming when we had him fitted for his tux. When he went to pick it up, he tried it on and was disappointed that he didn't get to try on the cuff links too. Andy said he wanted to wear it home.

Julia said she would be embarrassed to be a flower girl. I couldn't see her coming down the aisle because she was so short, but she hopped into her place at the alter. I have heard that the musician behind kept poking her with his bow and appeared to get a kick out of her.

These two say they want to get married which tickles me because I know this will change over the years.

Danielle's brother was her man of honor, and the rest of her attendants were these five beautiful and sweet girls. Three of them are sisters (her cousins), and well, you know the other two.

My beautiful girls. I was worried a little about Savannah because everything has to go as she is told it will go, and we did not account for the musicians when we placed the girls for the wedding. However, Savannah did just fine.

my handsome boys

they clean up all right, don't you think?

wow, what girl wouldn't want a date with this funny and handsome young man?

The Todd grandchildren

Page- party of six

my parents

Logan and Austin

My sister Tiffany with her husband Tony and the boys

my sister Tara

The reception was held in a gorgeous old theater

We were greeted with several posters like this one with pictures of Jonathan and Danielle. The kids really got a kick out of the favors - a box of M&Ms with pictures of Jonathan and Danielle on the candies.

I just missed the kiss, but I like this picture -sorry I am on vacation, so I haven't cropped or fixed any of these pictures yet. I also felt like my pictures that showed off Danielle's dress were too dark, so I don't have any on this post. Trust me, it was beautiful.

My brother Joshua gives the toast. He is a very quiet guy who doesn't like attention. Yet, he did a great job!

This is my Uncle Jack (Mom's brother) and my Aunt Janie

This is my cousin BJ with his wife Angela, and their son Jack. Jack is the sweetest baby. This was the first time I have seen him, and he kissed me goodbye. Can we say future heart-breaker? BJ and I were born just a couple of months apart.

Zach and Logan think they have the edge on the garter toss.

Zach put his cotillion experience to good use, and he pulled away from Savannah when I got my camera. I convinced him to let me get the picture --so glad he cooperated.

This boy loves to dance! Here he is busting a move!

This is my cousin Susie (Dad's side of the family) with her husband Eric, and their daughter Lesley. She lives a couple of hours away, so we rarely ever see her. Susie and her family came to an open house at our house a couple of years ago, and a friend of mine asked his wife who the other woman was who looked like one of my family members but wasn't my sister.

watching the kids dance is one of the best parts of attending a wedding

Andy took a break from dancing with Julia, and she was practically in tears. He danced (appropriately) to "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison with Julia. She was upset when the Cha Cha Slide was being played (one of her favorites), and he wasn't out there. Wyatt kept Savannah busy on the dance floor. I think she got a little tired of it, but that is her payback for wearing me out at a wedding four years ago because she wouldn't leave the dance floor.

my sister Tessa with her friend Chris - Tessa is on crutches because she needs a hip replacement, so she told him he would be her gopher at the wedding.

This is supposed to be the serious picture of my brothers and sisters and me. From left to right we have- me, Tara, Tessa, Jonathan, Tiffany, and Joshua. (Birth order would be me, Tiffany, Tara, Jonathan, Tessa, and Joshua.

This is Jonathan and his groomsmen. Jonathan, Patrick (my friend Stacey's younger brother -she and Patrick grew up across the street from us), Damon, Jimmy, and Joshua

It was a beautiful wedding and a fun and beautiful reception. Danielle was the most relaxed bride I have ever seen. She was ready to have fun and was not bothered by those little things that always go wrong at weddings. Fortunately, if I missed any pictures I wanted (and I did), I can get them from the website Jonathan and Danielle have for guests to post pictures.

They have dated for years, and we have hoped for this for a long time. I hope they have many years of happiness together. I love my new sister-in-law!

this is goodbye

13 years ago this month, I got Andy a dog for his birthday. He wanted a big dog, and I had my little Yorkie, so I found this dog through a local shelter. She was about a year old with plenty of puppy left in her.

We were amazed at how slowly she aged especially for a big dog, but the last year has brought on a rapid decline in her health. She saw the vet on Friday for routine shots. In preparation for this, we have to give her drugs because the vet makes her nervous and she snaps at him. Andy had to carry her in to the vet and repeat that procedure to get her in the house. For close to 36 hours now, she has been unable to stand on her back legs. We know she is miserable, and we know it is time. She will see the vet either tomorrow morning or Monday morning, and we will say goodbye.
This is one of my favorite things done by Bambi - she crosses her paws.

None of our children can remember life in this family without Bambi, so I took a picture of each of them with her.

Zach is taking it the hardest.

Savannah noted that she is the only person in the family who has had Bambi in her life since she was born.

Bambi has been a good dog with a few bad habits such as:

• tearing up a room if she is confined in it
• she does not like tall men and once ran one out of our house

She is like other dogs in that a good scratch under her collar is like sending her to paradise. She has made me feel safe when Andy has travelled as I am convinced that she would fight to the death for us if she felt we were threatened.

She is not like other dogs in that she has never liked to play tug of war with a sock.

The timing here is difficult as we do have a special wedding tomorrow, but Bambi has had bad days off and on for months now. She has fallen down the stairs several times, and she had one other episode for several hours where she was unable to move. She has slept more than she has been awake for the last few months, so it has been a slow goodbye. It is hard to even imagine what life will be like without this dog, but she has lived a good, long life.


July 12th morning update - she is gone. Andy is gone with her now. I need to calm down and get myself ready for the wedding. It is nice to have something fun to look forward to. I am anxious to see the girls in their princess dresses and the boys in their tuxes. Pictures coming soon....hopefully tonight if I am not too tired.