Thursday, January 12, 2012

The weeks after Christmas were busy for Eric and me. He worked hard to get all his stuff moved in (with his brothers' help, thank goodness.) We both planned for our upcoming absence in getting aunts and grandparents to watch the girls. I planned the wedding details....The hardest part of that was getting stupid invitations done.  I was working on those late into the night on the night before we got married.  (Thank goodness the open house wasn't scheduled for another few weeks!)

It was nice focusing on happy things. My friends all got together on several occasions in-lieu of the various wedding showers that are so common amongst new brides.

Even Michael's friends' wives took me out to dinner for a little "thing."  It was awesome of them to do so.
I will admit the last week before the wedding was filled with much emotion, though, and I was certainly reminded (not that I needed to be) that I was not a new bride by any means.
Nevertheless, I felt very grateful that week to have the opportunity to start new things...better things than what I would have found myself doing otherwise. 
I know it's awfully cliche to say this, and I know it might not always be 100% true for everyone, but I really believe Eric and my meeting was not an accident.  I feel so very grateful.

The night before the wedding I received these from Bethany.

Beth made me a bouquet!  Actually, two.  One with fresh flowers, and one with silk.  The best part about it was the letter she put with them.  I was astounded at her love and support.  Not an easy thing to do.  How I love her!  And the bouquet was something I was so very grateful she insisted on making, because she was right....I needed it for the pictures.

So, on the morning of January 12, 2012, I woke up a little shakey, a little scared, maybe even a little sad, but mostly just HAPPY.  I got all ready, got Andi ready, packed us up, and went to my Mom and Dad's to drop Andi off.  That morning my dad gave me a hug I won't forget. 

Harry on his way to G&G Allen's--The big day :)

I then drove down to Orem and dropped Harry off at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's.  (I think they were super excited to have him.  :)...But I knew I could count on Grandma Joann to love Harry the only way a true dog person can!)  Ron and Joann gave me a card and I remember feeling so touched by their message.  In it, I think Ron offered his congratulations, and then said something like, "Enjoy your day and enjoy each other, knowing that you are each an answer to many prayers."  So nice.  They continued to give after I left....They visited Andi at my parents' during my absence and they even sent a friend down to St. George with a camera just to be sure I photographed the day.  (Ha ha....I'm not the most detailed person, it's true, but I did  get a photographer.) 

Continuing on, I met Eric at his in-laws.  We packed the car up and headed out.  We left Provo around 9 or 9:30.  The drive went fast.  We joked around a lot about the weirdness of all this...It's kinda' how we deal...But we were also super excited and eager to finally be a family after those few months of dating.  They were fun times, but the drive between Farmington and Orem (and vice versa) got old, for sure.
  
Here we are in the car...


In front of the St. George temple, just before we went inside to get hitched.

So, why the St. George temple?
It fell into place for us. 
The Salt Lake and Bountiful temples were off limits for obvious reasons, so that left us with either the West Jordan or Draper temple.  Neither one meant anything to us.  While that might not be a huge deal, when the St. George temple idea occurred to me, it just seemed to click.  Eric has often said how much he likes it down there.  He's enjoyed many hikes and stays down there with his in-laws.  And I can't blame him...I've grown to love it down there myself.  (I've decided when I strike it rich someday, I'm going to have a second home down there...ha.)
I knew if we chose St. George, though, that would limit our invite list.  But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of being able to get married on our own.  Inasmuch as I wanted to share the day with the people we love, I also knew it would be a day filled with many conflicting and powerful emotions.  As such, I wanted Eric and I to be able to experience those emotions on our own.  Besides that, I'm not so good at handling such emotions under pressure.  :)  Thankfully Eric and I were on the same page with it all, so we agreed that St. George was the place.
In making that decision, we planned a nice open house that would be a way to gather all of our families together to celebrate and get to know each other.  I made a point of emphasizing the importance of the open house because I knew it would be an important time for us all to gather together after we got married.  That was two weeks after St. George, though, so we'll talk about that later...
In the meantime, we did make it into the temple.  Of course the workers were waiting and eager for us.  I must say that the bride's room was absolutely beautiful.  I will not forget it.  Just stunning.  And my escort was this beautiful lady from Payson.  She was so kind.  I could tell she didn't want to be nosey, but it was clear she was wondering what our story was.  We visited for a while and she was so sweet about it. 
My brother-in-law, Isaac, knew his former mission president was a sealer in the St. George temple, so Isaac arranged for this President Blake to marry us.  It was a kind gesture, and it certainly made it nice to have someone there that had connections to us and knew of our stories.  As such, President Blake made a great point of spending time and talking to us.  Before we were married, he took us alone in a room and just talked with us for about 45 minutes.  We shared our stories with him and he shared some of his own personal stories....We were able to connect in such a way that as the conversation continued, President Blake offered much counsel regarding our personal situation.  He allowed us to ask questions.  We talked a lot about the nature of life after this life and what we know about how families are organized.  I asked him questions about some of my concerns...About how we might answer our childrens' questions regarding the meaning of an "eternal family" and how it applies to us.  I'll always remember how he emphasized to us that we need to look at our family...those here and those beyond the veil...as "we."  He emphasized that God is loving, that the family organization is important, and that the sealing ties are strong.  He also acknowledged that the connection that Eric and I will share in this life matters.  He of course encouraged us to continue to  "mutliply and replenish."  I think that was Eric and my favorite tip, for sure. :)  He continued to talk about the sealing nature of those possible upcoming children.  Very interesting.
And while those details can be quite interesting, Eric and I have often agreed that we have to be careful in not spending too much time thinking about those details.  This is a complicated situation. 
Eric and I have often heard people emphasize our relationship as "temporary" or "earthly."  And that is exactly right.  When we are reminded of that, I know it reminds us of our gratitude of being forever sealed with our spouses that we miss so freaking much.  But it's also a little confusing to the soul to get caught up in all this stuff.  We love each other, we love our eternal spouses, we love our children.  All we can do is trust that God loves us too and that he'll allow for us to love each other and be a family, now and in the future. 
As a woman, I think I have to be more careful than he does because my emotions run deep and I can definitely over think it all.  My love for my entire family is so very real and strong. 

Alright, so, back to the temple:  After we talked with the President for a while, we were led to the sealing room.  President Blake offered us further counsel and advice.  He told us of a story of President Monson and how even he still takes the time to take his wife on dates.  He encouraged us to remain patient with each other and to "take a walk around the block" when we need to.  And then he married us.  Such a sweet experience.
Afterwards we joked around about different our first wedding was from our second.  :)  This time around, it was definitely more low key.  And it was great.  We walked outta' that temple and spent the next five days in St. George, worry-free and without pressure.  It was much needed for the both of us.

We stayed at the "Inn at Entrada" at Snow Canyon Country Club.  It was beautiful!

During our stay, we went on a five-mile run up Snow Canyon.  We spent time at the Sand Dunes.  We ate out, did some shoppin', made some good dinners at our place, worked out, and got some good R & R.  We celebrated my 30th birthday, too, on the Sunday we were there. 

Workin' it in the workout room

We also got dressed up in our wedding garb again to get some fun wedding pictures taken.  I was pretty happy with how they turned out:

I loved my shoes.

Loved these red rock ones.

In front of the temple.

This was my all-time fave.

I love our rings and I'm so glad we took the time we did to pick them out.  I have this picture in our room.  Good reminder of what those rings mean.

This one was a picture I won't forget...We kept telling the photographer to tone down the "cheese," but she insisted on doing this super-cheesy pose.  We were happily surprised that it wasn't too bad...Well, it could have been worse, at least, right? 

Here we are at Snow Canyon when we visited the Sand Dunes.

When we came home, we were refreshed and ready to see our girls.  Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Andi and for Melysa who watched Abbey and Ava.  I think it was a successful wedding, and we came back excited to start our new life.

The night we got home, Eric had a "party" for my birthday.  :)