Wedding Day

Congratulations to my youngest sister who got married this past Saturday in Nevada. It was a wonderful, wild, whirlwind of a weekend!

We drove out Friday and arrived in Sparks in the late afternoon...just in time to offer our help in wedding set-up and to find out it was already all set up. Timing has always been a point of pride for me.

So instead, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to wedding planning epicenter...my parent's house. It was chalk full of extended family members..including uncles and cousins I haven't seen in 7 years. Anyone acquainted with the Frey family will tell you that we're not a quiet, observant bunch so it was happy, noisy reuniting all around. A very loud and rejoicing pandemonium.

I got to meet my newest niece for the very first time...Danielle...who was almost born on my birthday. I'll never forgive her for that 2 hour lapse in judgment. Okay, she's very cute so I guess I can forgive her after all.

I chatted with my cousin Jessie who is significantly younger than I am. And now she is a college graduate and oh so chic. I am so old!

We had a rehearsal dinner scheduled for 6:00 and since we had well more than an hour to get ready to go, we were of course late.

The groom was out barbecuing at the church, and that's where I met him for the first time. It's a surreal experience to have your sister marry a complete stranger. I got married when my older sister was on her mission, so I guess my experience can't really compare to hers, but it's still weird. However, Brian seems like a very kind, good, hardworking person. I look forward to getting to know him better in the future. He understandably did not have a lot of spare time to spend chatting with me, so I moved on and continued catching up with other family. And began meeting the extensive family of the groom. We ate steak and chicken and salad and baked beans and conversation.

On Saturday we ran some last-minute errands until our "help" became too much. So we took all the kids out for ice cream to get them out of the way.

The wedding was at 4:30 and was simple and lovely. The sweetest moment was when Lenaya's 2-year-old daughter walked down the aisle in her "princess" dress and saw Brian and yelled out, "hi, Daddy!"

What followed would be described as "a million pictures" by my husband and children, but I think we were only actually in about 5 of them. Then the reception followed.

Now was my chance to see old friends from my home stake. Many of these people have been lost to me since I graduated from high school in 1994. They would say things to me like, "You haven't changed at all." And I would respond, "I know...can I introduce you to my nearly 13-year-old son?" Still, it made me feel young to see so many faces from my past. And Cory said only about 5 people confused him for my sister's husband. When they said to him, "Your new baby is so cute...you're sure taking good care of Larissa," he would respond, "Actually, I sent Larissa away to Colorado so I could live with her sister, Cami."

It was a late night. We all boogied. And ate...a lot...my mom made her now traditional wedding cheescake tarts. I personally had three of them. Along with what was the most delicious wedding cake I have ever tasted.

On Sunday, we got up and dragged our children to church, then went back to the now demolished wedding zone aka my mom's great room. We chatted with now dwindling numbers of family as one by one they headed out in various modes of travel. Finally, we pulled our own children away from Grandpa's pool table and headed out at the very practical hour of 1:45 (that's 2:45 Draper time). After a long drive home, we went straight to bed, knowing that school and work would wait for no wedding. Cory got up early Monday to go the airport for business that will have him in San Francisco until Thursday. And I began damage control...and unpacking.

I am so happy for my sister. I am so grateful for the chance to see so many people that I love in one weekend. But mostly, I am so exhausted.

Un-Spring Break

I would like to acknowledge that I have a murmuring problem. Not all the time, and not about everything, but there is one area of my life where I find myself endlessly complaining. So this year, I made a concious effort to overcome this fault. Oh the times I longed to grumble! But I just bit my tongue until it bled. I think I did pretty well...until Spring break...because my old nemesis decided to taunt me mercilessly. That's right...you know what I'm talking about...SNOW! It's one thing to be cheerful and accepting about winter while it's winter...but in April?

My kids had a short Spring Break...they got out the Thursday before Easter and went back the following Tuesday.

On Thursday it snowed.

They really needed to go outside and run off some energy. Seriously. For their own health. Or I was going to hurt them. But instead, I took them to an afternoon matinee of "How to Train Your Dragon." Cute. Fun. But zero energy burned.

Friday it snowed again.

Four children trapped indoors...day two.

Good times.

So attempt number two to get the devil out was to drive over to the local aquarium to see the brand new penguin exhibit. We found ourselves in line with every other child on Spring Break in the valley. Then we waited in lines to see everything from penguins to jellyfish. Fun? Yes. Crowded? Absolutely. A chance to de-ants the pants? Alas, no.

Friday night, my sister-in-law and her family came to spend the night, increasing the grand total of kids stuck indoors to 7.

Saturday...no snow.

Just really, really cold.

I love General Conference weekend, and it really was wonderful. However, Conference means we don't go anywhere all day, and my stir-crazy kids begin to implode. Callee wisely departed with her family early to return home south where the sun is more than just a mythical anomaly.

Sunday. Easter Sunday. Snow. Not just a light dust, but 6 heavy, icy, drifting inches. The kids woke up thrilled to find their Easter baskets, looked out the window and wondered if maybe they should be looking for Santa-filled stockings instead. I didn't even take a picture because I was too depressed. And I was trying to hold firm to my no murmuring resolution. Ha!

We still had a pleasant day with an egg hunt, Conference, and a nice holiday dinner. Of course, now we had 4 stir-crazy children with about 14 pounds of sugary candy inside of them.

Monday. You guessed it. It snowed.

I decided to run errands. I had become so snow-addled that this was an exercise in futility. I drove all the way to Costco where I waited in line to get gas. Finally, after 15 minutes it was my turn. I stepped out with my purse and noticed I had left my wallet at home. After driving back home, I now no longer had enough time to go back to Costco because I had to get kids to piano lessons. So instead, I decided to do the grocery store. Where I promptly forgot the 3 most important things on my list. I scurried home where I got my kids to lessons...late. I then needed to go pick up something I had ordered online that morning. It was that online ordering that had caused the wallet-less Costco episode. I drove over to pick it up, and discovered that somehow I had not ordered from the store closest to me, but from one all the way across the valley. So you know what I did? I started laughing...long...and hard. Maybe there's hope for this murmuring trouble after all.

Tuesday it snowed. The kids went back to school.

Finally, it warmed up this weekend. My trees are budding. The annuals are poking their heads out of the soil. We cleaned up the yard and cleaned out the garage. We pulled out our bikes and our sandals.

Today?

Snow.

And if you can't say anything nice, then you better not say anything at all