Chelsea and Darren's Winter Wedding

We had an amazing but busy Christmas vacation. My youngest sister Chelsea got married just a few days after Christmas. Darren’s parents arrived several days early and stayed a few days at my parent’s house. On the day before they got married Darren’s mother surprised us girls with pearls.

Chelsea and Darren decided to separate the wedding festivities by having the wedding dinner the night before. We spent most of the day setting up the church and preparing the food. My parents are rock stars and like most of our family weddings made an awesome meal of Mexican fajitas, Spanish rice, and chips with guacamole and queso. The weather was horrible making traffic a nightmare for those attending the dinner. Needless to say the dinner started an hour late but the turn out of friends and family was amazing (so good that we had to set up more tables and chairs). While the family cleaned up, Chelsea and Darren returned to my parents and made their own wedding cake. Impressive, I know.

The next morning was cold and snowy. Chelsea and Darren chose to be sealed for time and all eternity in the Draper, Utah temple. This sealing would be the first time that my whole family would be together in the temple (all 8 kids, their spouses, and my parents). Tina and Ben were suppose to fly in from Missouri the night before, but none of us had heard from them and wondered if they would make it to the temple on time. They also had the assignment of picking up the flowers. Luckily their flight arrived the night before and they slipped inside of the sealing room with time to spare. My mom and dad’s faces glowed with pride (the righteous kind of pride). It must have been an amazing feeling for them to look out and see each of their kids in the house of the Lord. I look forward to this day in my own family. The sealing was amazing. I still can’t believe that Chelsea is married! It was definitely cold, wet, and snowy outside, so the wedding pictures couldn’t go faster. Chelsea and Darren were champs and stayed a little longer to take some couple pictures around the temple.

After a few good shots, we all got in our cars and headed toward American Fork. Since the whole family was in town and no one knew when the next time we would all be together would be, it was decided we would get family pictures out there. One of my Dad’s elementary school photographers took them for us. After that we went home to attend to the last minute details for the reception. The reception was amazing and beautiful. The refreshments were divine. Who doesn’t love a variety of freshly baked, hot cinnamon rolls, hot cider and hot chocolate, and fruit. All of which are my favorites. Everything turned out picture perfect. I love these kinds of events because I get to see so many people that I normally would not see including the Cramers, a family I use to baby sit for. The best part was knowing that Chelsea and Darren were so happy.

At the end of the night when everything was cleaned up we returned to my parent’s house, everyone but Chelsea and Darren, and did our sibling exchange of presents since we had all been gone for Christmas. Jill and Brian had us and gave us a book of some of our wedding pictures and our engagement/wedding story. I love it. My favorite part of the gifts was how sad Ethan was that he didn’t have a gift to open. Tina luckily had something for him. It was a lump of coal. He definitely wasn’t crying any more, but he wasn’t sure what to make of it. This holiday season has been fun, but I am ready for a rest. Thanks family for the great time.