John and Helen, Norma and Kimo

John and Helen came back from St. George on Friday night and stayed until Sunday morning. They caught a flight back to St. Louis. Then we went to church and did our Sunday stuff and in the afternoon, guess who Rinar went and picked up at the airport?

Yep, that is Norma and Kimo. They stayed over for dinner and some games and were taken to the airport Monday morning. Pretty cool, huh? Here is a picture of Norma and Kimo looking at my blog on my computer. I thought that was kind of funny so I had to take a picture and put it on  my blog.  

They say that Salt Lake City is the crossroads of the west, but I think they are wrong. It is right here at my house.  So stop on by. We will pick you up at the airport, feed you dinner, and let you sleep in a comfy bed.  The house may not always be clean but it is loved-in.

I have also been working on a musical number with some women from my ward.  It is going to be fantastic. I am anxious to perform it this coming Sunday. We are going to sing, "How Can I Keep From Singing?", and American folk hymn: 8 ladies and me, Christina, Leanne, Jonna, Rachel, Jen, Keri, Lenore, and Cyntha. It is such a joy to be able to make beautiful music with people. I forget sometimes how much I love it.  By the way, Sally Deford writes gorgeous music and arranges classics and you can get them for free!  If you are looking for a musical number to do for Christmas, Easter, whatever you should take a look at her site. It is fantastic.

Las Vegas Renaissance Festival

 John and Helen stopped by for a visit from St. Louis. It was great to be able to spend time with them.  The kids love them also. It was a fun surprise this week.

On Friday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Las Vegas. It is a big deal and people take it very seriously. I was glad we could go this year because we have been reading about this stuff with our school work and it is nice to see it in action. There are a lot of hands-on activities for the kids. It is definitely not a museum. They could touch the armor and hold a battle ax. They were also able to watch a rope-making demonstration, a joust,  juggling, pugilism, play an over-sized game of Jenga, and lots of other things.

Zach especially liked all of the torture devices. Does anyone know where you can buy a good stockade? I think it would come in very handy at my house.

On the other hand, this festival is a magnet for strange people.  I would call it the land of the geekazoids.  Yes, that is my new word. I thought I would give it a test run on my blog. But seriously...every band nerd you know was at this thing.  Strange, strange people.  But they were enthusiastic, though many were scantily clad. Whoa! That is all I am saying. I am very glad my boys are too young to notice. That may not be the case next year.  Good thing we went this year.

 This is Zach with our friend Xander.  We went with his family to get some pizza at Verrazzano's when we were done with the festival. 3 hours was plenty for me and for Xander's family.

Jousting...

The rack!

St. Louis Wedding

One of the advantages of having a husband that travels a lot for work is all the free rewards you get from airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies. Hence, Rinar and I decided to go to his cousin's wedding in St. Louis for one day. We left early yesterday morning and arrived in St. Louis at 1pm. Then we grabbed a quick lunch, changed in the bathroom and went to the wedding with 2 minutes to spare.

It was at the Second Presbyterian church in the downtown area of St. Louis and it was gorgeous. The stain glass windows were from Tiffany's and there was an incredible organ as well. Really cool.

The wedding was quite lovely and Megan looked amazing. Everyone had these huge smiles plastered all over their faces. It was wonderful to see so much joy and to be a part of it.

Her cousin Allison from Washington sang "The Prayer" with some guy and it was A-MAZING. Wow. Plus the accoustics in the church were truly heavenly. I wish I could sing in that church, just for the pure joy of it.

Here is the happy father with Mitchell and Michael. But apparently Mitchell is now Ben and has been using this assumed identity for the last few months. Don't ask me which one is which because I have no flippin' clue.

Here he is...Mitchell/Ben/Michael/Harvey...something like that.

This is Rinar's other cousin Angie. She looked so beautiful in her bridesmaid dress. Don't you love the flowers.

Funny thing...Megan has another sister, Morgan. I watched the entire wedding: procession, ceremony, grand exit, the whole ordeal and I didn't see her anywhere. As we were walking out, I mentioned this to Rinar and he guessed that maybe Morgan was at camp or something. I told him he was completely nuts. Do you really think she would miss her sister's wedding? Come on!

Guess who that is?

Yeah! Morgan. I couldn't believe it. We both felt a little silly. We just think of her as a perpetual 9 year-old for some reason. She is all grown-up people.

The happy couple leaving the church. Isn't that so beautiful? Amazing. Then the pastor accidentally stepped on her very long veil and it almost got pulled completely out of her hair. Whoops!

Look at that sweet ride. What kind of car is that anyways?

Rinar with his Aunt Helen. She is one cool lady.

At the reception, cutting the cake. I chose this picture to illustrate that there were A LOT of pictures taken of this moment in their life. There must have been 15 people photographing this as you can see by the blinding light. I hope their eyesight is okay still.

Dad dancing with his newly married daughter. The song was "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.

Rinar and Paul meet for the first time.

"This is cousin Rinar!"

We made it into the official photographs because we were the only people who came from John's side of the family. I am glad I liked my dress. Rinar's tie even coordinated with it. That's what happens when you have been married for 14 years.

After the wedding was over, we headed over to John's house to play 8 and Back!!! That's right. I actually got to play 8 and Back. It has been at least 3 weeks since I last played it. I almost forgot how to play. But luckily, John and Helen invited over their friends, Chris and Jenn to play with us. They have improved the rules and we actually played with 2 decks. These two were hilarious and I do believe that Chris never stopped talking the entire time we were there. No, that's not true. He did have to swallow once in a while.

It is amazing how funny things are when you play until 1am, going on only 4 hours of sleep. Things were really funny. I laughed a lot. Then the guys decided to play ping-pong for another hour, naturally. I was upstairs waiting with Jenn and Helen and as I was answering a question she asked me, I watched her fall asleep with her face in her hands, sitting on the fireplace. It was quite funny. Poor lady. I hope she gets some sleep tonight.

It was a wonderful little trip and I am grateful we could spend time with our favorite Missourians.