My girl is getting so big!

Jon and I were looking at Hannah last night and just shook our heads at how big she’s getting! Here’s a share of the new pictures of our girl.

Hannah Summer 2009

I love Phineas and Ferb!

A new favorite find of mine is a Disney cartoon that seems to be on all the time…at least…it seems to be on every random time I happen to be able to sit in front of a tv and work. I have to admit that it’s not the best ‘white noise’ sort of choice just because it’s so entertaining and clever. Still…it makes me smile!..and the commercials make great spots for me to get things done.
My favorite video of theirs to date.

It’s official…Wedding Season OVER!…and we SURVIVED!!!

The last two weeks of wedding season for us didn’t peter out, or slowly wean us from the work with fewer and fewer gigs as the dates got further along. No. We went out with a massive bang! Between the two of us, Jon and I did seven weddings in two weeks…some of those overlapping and some of them solo…but seven in two weeks. Ack! (Yes, I had a mental break during the cleanup of the last event.) They ranged in locations too from Ogden to St. George, and it was a LOT of work.

I’ve already mentioned the doings of two weeks ago with events in Manti and Riverton. Well, THIS last week, we spent several nights awake until 3 a.m. or later just getting things done for the upcoming events. Wednesday night, I was up that late putting all of the flowers together for the Thursday wedding the next day. Normally, I get a lot done but then get some sleep and finish up in the morning. Since I had to work on Thursday this time, I needed to have it ALL done so I could get to work at the law firm on time, but not worry about the flowers. Jon was up and out the door with Hannah to take her to grandma’s house (She saves our bacon SO often…bless her…bless her…bless her!), and then he picked up all the flowers and drove up to the temple to photograph the couple with my flowers in his hands. He’s amazing! He was even early enough to get a good parking spot, and the cooler weather was a blessing because it makes it less crazy when we leave things in the car.

The big brain freeze of that event was a combination of things. First of all, the bride and/or her mother never returned a floral contract to me, so I was going off of old emails and notes in my files to finalize everything and while I was putting flowers together. An email on Wednesday night mentioned flowers for the cake, which confused me because that had never been mentioned in emails before. Crap. They needed me at the reception hall at 4 to put flowers on the cake. I had a few extra flowers, and Jon took them to the reception hall for me, so that was fine, but I worked until 3:15 and then still had to go pick up the flowers for the other two weekend weddings at two different wholesalers who both close by 5, as well as pick up the enlargements from our print lab for Thursdays’ bride to display at her reception. How was I going to get all of that done in half an hour?! I also realized later that the bride had wanted a cascading bouquet, which was not in my notes, and which was not in the emails, and which mistake on my part annoyed her mother. Apparently, they liked the bouquet I did bring, but it wasn’t what they’d wanted. Again, I had some extra flowers and I could make it work…just give me a minute. In talking with the mom, she mentioned having called me to confirm everything and mentioned the cake and cascade on that phone call. That was possible, but I usually take calls while I drive, and I don’t write from behind the wheel…which is why I like final contracts that detail everything and that we’ve both signed so that everyone is clear and on the same page. Like I said…mutual miscommunications there.

I ran around my office getting everything done for my boss on thursday and then at the stroke of 3:15, dropped work on Kristy’s desk, said goodbye and bolted for the door. I’d contacted one wholesaler who gave me the code to their door and said that they’d just bill my card and let me come pick up my flowers myself after they’d closed. They’re SO good to work with! The second wholesaler was open on Friday early and I could get the stuff from them on Friday if I needed to. I have Friday off, so that would work. The photos were the important thing right now, so I headed there first. I got to my car and was just getting on the freeway when I looked down at the clock to see the time. 2:30. Huh?! I checked the clock on my phone, and it said the same thing. What the….?! I must have read the clocks at work wrong! I left an hour early! Ack! But I’d stopped at my boss’s office and I had finished all that work?! How did I do all that and still leave with an extra hour? I called my boss and apologized (she hadn’t even notice the hour and had assumed I was leaving on time), and let her know that I’d make up the work. She was totally cool with that (as she is usually pretty cool all-around) and I continued on my way to the print house. I realized that with the extra time, I could hit both of my wholesalers after all, so I stopped at the first one and filled up my car with flowers. I got the pictures next, and then hit the second floral wholesaler last. Everything I needed. Boom! I ran home and got everything in water, and then started towards the reception hall to put flowers on the cake for the Thursday wedding as well as to deliver their pictures for display. It was still only about 3:15 at that point…ironic that it was the time I really should have been leaving work and I was already done with all of my errands and was leaving HOME at 3:15…and I asked Jon if it was worth the time for me to go pick up Hannah and bring her with me since I wasn’t expected with the flowers until 4. He said yes, so I detoured all the way out to West Jordan, got the baby girl, and ran uptown to the Deveraux Mansion.

Jon ran around with Hannah for a while as I put the flowers on the cake and then turned the rounded bouquet into a cascading bouquet, which floored the bride AND her mom. I love being able to smooth feathers and give good customer service. Spin control. Client Care. We like making people happy, so as long as you communicate with me and give me a chance, I’ll do everything I possibly can to make it what you want it to be! A quick burger hit the spot and then I took Hannah home to get her to bed and start on the flowers for wedding #2 for Friday.

Wedding #2 was all painted flowers. It made me a bit nervous because this bride had been sweet enough, but at the same time, she was absolutely certain of what she wanted. She had a very specific idea of the flowers she wanted, and I had to live up to that expectation. Instead of having some favorite flowers for me to create something beautiful and surprising from, I had to meet a specific design idea, and there were no spaces in that to wiggle. I spent hours that night painting white stephanotis purple and cream, and half of the cream roses got painted purple. Everything was to be dark purle and cream, and no exceptions. The Stephanotis is a testy little flower…tough in its own way, but delicate too, and I wasn’t sure how paint was going to affect it. The cream looked great, but the purple was watery and streaked a bit on the steaphanotis as well as on the roses, and it made me nervous. I ran out of purple paint half way through and freaked out a little bit because it meant I was going to have to run to the store first thing and get more paint, and then I wasn’t sure everything would be dry in time. Ack! I took a break and went upstairs.

While I was doing some dishes, I noticed a can of paint on the counter that looked the same as the can I’d just thrown away. I picked it up, and it WAS the same! I realized then that I must have bought the purple paint a few weeks earlier in anticipation of testing it on some extra flowers before the big day so that I’d have some experience with it! I’ve used so many other paints at this point, I’m not sure why I felt like I needed practice with that one, but bless the inspiration to buy a can that would get put aside in the fury of other events and only be found at the exact moment I’d need it! Jon got home and helped me paint some more flowers (being the sweetest husband ever, he was also carrying a big piece of the wedding cake for me from wedding #1) and then I got vases prepped for centerpieces and cut pins to put into the stephanotis blooms (regular pins are too long and I have to use industrial wire cutters to shorten them). Yes, it was another 3 a.m. night, and then I was up at 7 to get things going again for a delivery at 3 p.m. in Bountiful.

Hannah was a trooper and let me work while she watched tv and then she took a perfectly timed nap to let me finish the flowers and load up the car. I even showered and dressed before she was up and needing to be changed. We jumped in the car and pulled into the Eldredge Manor at 3:00 on the dot! I love that!

Hannah ‘helped’ me unload and place all the flowers. The centerpieces looked great and only two of them had to be refilled with water. The bouquets and boutonnieres were placed on display by the time the bride and her family were ready for them, and then I was in the hall, setting flowers on the cake before I knew it. I was feeling much better too by then because so many people were talking about how much they liked the flowers and how pretty they were…even the bride mentioned that they were better than she’d hoped. YAY! I think the overall effect of a beautiful bouquet made up for any little bits of streaking there may have been. I think too that she was prepared for the paint to make the flowers look funky and unnatural, so the extra time I’d taken to paint them in thin layers was worth the natural look it lent! Whew. I got paid the final amount for the work and loaded Hannah back in the car to head home.

Jon’s wedding in Ogden that day (wedding #3 for our weekend) was for an adorable bride, Candace and she had told us that they expected to be done early…the invitation said reception from 4 to 6, and then they planned to leave…we were happy about that! Well…fun families tend to hang out and talk longer than what it may say in the itinerary, and this couple were definitely FUN. They even rolled down the hill at the temple in their dress and tuxedo. I think Jon finished at their reception and was to his car by about 8:30. In the meantime, I had loaded my car with vases, flowers, bags, and supplies for wedding #4, which was the next day in St. George. I worked on mounting photos until Jon got home and then I changed Hannah into her pajamas, put her in the car and then grabbed the last minute things for the road. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the keys to my car to hit the road. We rummaged the house top to bottom three times looking for keys and spent half an hour in the frantic search. Jon said a prayer, and Hannah sat patiently in her carseat, and I finally realized that I may have dropped them while loading the trunk. Luckily, the car has a button on the inside, and upon pushing it, I grabbed the paper bag, and voila! Keys! We’d nearly resigned ourselves to unloading my car and transferring it all to Jon’s car, but his tire had a nail in it and we didn’t want to risk driving all the way to St. George on that. Whew! We jumped in and headed out by 10.

Jon sent a text to our friends in St. George to let them know that we’d run long (not at all shocking to them) but let them know that we were still on the way and wouldn’t roll into their driveway until around 3 a.m. They thanked us for the news, but said (rightly so) that they wouldn’t be waiting up for us. Aaronee and Vaughn left the back door open and a light on, and after an extremely LONG drive, where Jon and I had to trade off driving several times because one or the other of us was too tired to keep going, we were SO happy to see that light. I carried Hannah in and we made another trip to the car to bring in bags, but tumbled quickly into the welcoming beds that had been set up for us. We love Aaronee and Vaughn!!! It was soo cute too because there was a note on the bed that said “Sweet Dreams” and each pillow had a little bundle of Junior Mints. Aww! I also noticed that I’d received a text message on my phone. It had come in at around 1:00 a.m. while we were driving and it was the sweetest thing ever! A note from my bride of that day with the painted roses, apologizing for the late hour, but wanting to tell me again how much she’d loved my work and that they’d so appreciated everything I’d done. Awww! YAY! As tired as I was, you can bet I fell asleep with a smile that night!

Hannah was awake at 7:30, which meant that I was awake at 7:31. We let daddy sleep and went upstairs to say hi to the family. Vaughn was the only one home and awake at that hour, so we got to chat with him for a bit while Hannah explored her new surroundings and I worked on tying earrings to the photos I’d mounted the night before. Aaronee got home with Asia (she’d had to go to work and Asia went along for the ride) and then Hannah and Asia had a blast learning to play together. It was adorable! Vaughn took the girls outside to the chicken coop and they harvested the eggs for that morning. Hannah loved it! Jon woke up soon after that, and we all had some tasty home grown eggs for breakfast!

We all hung out for a while talking, but then Vaughn suggested visiting the Farmer’s Market to see his brother play in the stage area they had in the center of all the booths. Cool! We loaded up and headed out. Unfortunately, we missed his brother by moments (Vaughn ended up helping him clean up his instruments and speakers) but we still had fun wandering the booths watching the girls play together. We got some lunch and all ate at a park before heading home for some of us to get naps.

Me?…no…no nap. I tried, but Hannah was on one and would not settle down. When Jon came down to join us, he told me what time it was and I realized that even if I hadn’t slept, I had a bouquet still to finish before we needed to go. Ugh. Jon and Hannah got a bit of sleep while I enjoyed a quiet hour on the deck, painting flowers and de-thorning them. I wasn’t done by the time Jon woke up and told me that we had to go, but I loaded everything into the car and wrapped stems on my lap while Jon drove. The bouquet and boutonniere were done by the time we reached the reception center, and then Jon helped me to unload all the vases and even helped me place some branches before people showed up and were ready to have him shoot photos. I was swamped trying to get photos and jewels on the branches, especially with Hannah being 2 (she kept standing at the edge of the pool and would lean against the rocks spouting water…she was soaked and happy…but kept several of us nervous that she was going to go for a swim), but some of the family of the bride and groom stepped up and asked if they could help. Thank you! We really do work with the best people! We banged out the trees, and they looked awesome! The bride called to have me bring her bouquet and to help her tie the bow on her gown (you’d be surprised how many girls can’t tie a straight bow!) and we were basically done with the trees, so I left my helpers to finish up the last set of branches, and ran upstairs. Bouquet in hand, bow tied, BOOM! My job was done until clean-up at 9.

I ran Hannah out to the car and changed her out of her wet clothes and put a sassy little skirt on her. Bad call. She tripped and fell about thirty seconds later and completely skinned up both her knees. She was a trooper though and had herself composed by the time the ring ceremony started a few minutes later. She hated waiting for the food after the ceremony, and threw a bit of a fit when I told her it wasn’t our turn to load up plates. I usually wait until the end of the line…being on staff and not a guest…but a hungry little girl who’s been munching on displayed candy wasn’t happy about my patience. I realized then, that at some point that night, the bride was going to want a tossing bouquet. I had everything for the tosser in the car and just needed to put it together. Hannah welcomed the distraction for a moment and we retired to the brides dressing room/restroom area to put the flowers together.

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Hannah REALLY turned 2. Hannah knocked over the garbage can and then refused to clean it up. A stint in time-out had her freaking. She tried to get around me…literally…she kept trying to stand up and get around the back of me to give me hugs…which I love…but which wasn’t appropriate right at that moment. After half an hour of screaming and crying (included a moment while I was using the facilities and she kept opening the door to the hallway) we went down to the car and cried some more. I sat in the back seat with Hannah screaming on my lap for another hour. We opened the door now and then for a bit of air, and we had short sections of calm between those screaming fits, but we shared that back seat for a good hour. I didn’t want to give in and let her feel like she’d get a reward for bad behavior, and I also didn’t want to make a scene at someone’s wedding.

Hannah finally calmed down enough that we could go to the end of the line again and load up on some truly gourmet and stellar food! NUM! We ate well, and Hannah took several opportunities to join the kids of the family and ran around on the golf course. I called her back several times, and as it started to get dark, she pushed the boundaries further than I wanted her to. She didn’t go in the water again this time, but kept running off. She loved the little trails and soft grass, and though I’m sure it was safe enough, I wanted her to stay closer to home. When the other kids got reigned in by their parents, I reigned Hannah in as well. Other kids stayed on the lit patio after that, but as soon as I told Hannah not to go over the bridge anymore, she ran right over the bridge. Ugh. It was about 8:00 by now, and I knew she had to be tired. I took her to the car again, took her shoes off, strapped her into her carseat, and sat myself down in front. She just HAD to fall asleep, right?

Wrong. She was calm enough after a few minutes of tears, but she never fell asleep. She sat and read her Halloween book over and over again while I tried to catch a few blinks. No luck. I ended up playing dozens of more games of bubbles on my phone just to pass the time than I would have liked. Still, an hour later, when I realized that more and more of the guests were leaving, signaling the end of the event, I admitted defeat at the hands of a 20 month old child, and put her shoes back on. We walked back to the hall and I put Hannah down so that I could start cleaning. She burst into tears and kept begging, “Hod You! HOD YOU!” After screaming at me all day and hitting me every time I tried to reason with you, NOW you want me to hold you?! I picked her up and walked into the other room and started crying myself. Hannah was taken aback, and then cried again when she started wiping the tears from mommy’s face and couldn’t figure out why they were falling.

I calmed down and made a deal with Hannah to let her be my helper if she would stay by me. One of the gradmas gave her a cup of puffed corn too, and she was just fine after that. Jon was right there to pile up trees with me, and we wrapped the vases in paper and loaded them back into the car with only one vase broken (a record). I don’t think we were off the property of the golf course before I was bawling again. It was just such a relief to be finished, at the same time as just letting the stress of it all go. I was so tired too. I just had to cry. I was finished after a short time, and then we were able to visit with Aaronee and Vaughn again for a while before all of us went to bed.

Sunday morning we were up early and out the door by 9. Jon was amazing and drove the entire length of road home. Hannah and I slept for most of the ride, and by the time we pulled into the garage, everyone was SO ready to be finished with the wedding season. We all heartily agreed with Hannah’s sigh of, “HOME!”

I showered and dressed quickly, and since Jon and Hannah weren’t feeling well, I left them home and ran to lead the primary music at church. Everything seemed scattered for me, but our primary president assured me that it went just fine. I just know that our performance at the sacrament meeting for the ward is coming up and these kids need to know these songs! The next week was going to be a conference where we didn’t have class, and then it is only two weeks until we perform. It’s going to be nutty! As soon as class ended, I went straight home and Jon and Hannah and I spent a totally quiet night. Ahh. A much-needed breather after all the insanity.

Now, I’m actually still stressed with work at the law firm, getting Christmas into full swing at the same time as finishing special projects on top of normal work, as well as getting the wedding things caught up…the post-production work part of the business…but it’s SO much better than it was two weeks ago. Whew! I’m SO grateful to the amazing people we worked with who were so helpful, as well as to Jon who puts up with my weird moments (though, I guess it’s only fair, eh love?) and to Hannah for making it worth the surviving! Thank you all again for keeping our heads above water! Love you! And, just so you know, we don’t have another wedding on the calendar until December right now. Ahh! Maybe that break will give us a chance to get caught up and breathe for a while. Yeehaw!

Love of shoes

Yes. I love shoes. I own fewer than 20 pairs, but I have always loved a lovely pair of pumps. At war with my love of sassy shoes was a frugal streak inherited from my father. Despite the love of artisan name brand work, I couldn’t ever bring myself to pay a lot for a pair of shoes, so the love was restricted to dreaming while watching Carrie Bradshaw sashay down the streets of New York in her Jimmy Choos.

Still, a few years ago…more now than I care to recall…I lived with the fabulous Britta and carried on a slightly vicarious shoe life through her. She had an eye for sassy sexy shoes, and being a petite woman with a size 5 foot, didn’t hurt! There are very few size 5 women out there, so those were always the ones that didn’t sell and eventually went on sale. She was a shrewd buyer and had the most amazing collection.

One day, Britta got a wild hair…I don’t even remember why…but it prompted her to eliminate nearly half of her collection! I think she gave it to charity, which seems slightly nutty now while looking at classics on ebay and nothing new being as good as what we used to know. Being a woman of slight feet myself, I tried on several of her shoes before they were sent away and actually found one pair of fire red Steve Madden penny loafers with a little fringe on the toe that weren’t too tight. Britta gave them to me with love, and I wore her shoes with a great deal of happiness at least once a week (usually three or four times a week) through the intervening years.

As time wore on and the shoes wore out, I glued heels back together and threw away small bits of the lining as it tore out. Finally, when the outside of the shoe began to crack and wear away at the bends, I started searching for another pair of the same shoe. I have looked for those exact Steve Madden pumps for three years now…all while still wearing my gift from Britta…adding fringes of loose strings where there originally were none. No luck. I might have broken my frugal nature and paid way too much for the shoes if only I could find them again, but they were nowhere. Ebay, Craig’s List, Overstock, even the Steve Madden site! Nowhere could I find my pumps.

Finally, just this summer, I looked sadly at my continually disintegrating shoes with a right heel that made a different sound from the left when I walked, and felt a renewed need to find replacements. I found a site, SmartBargains.com because of a random Google search, and there were my shoes! They were missing the tassel, and they were a slightly brighter red (cherry instead of fire), but they were my red Steve Madden penny loafer pumps! And they were less than $30!!! Ack! Fate! Kismet! Joy! I bought them immediately and have been wearing them for a few hours a week to break them in right ever since that little box arrived in the mail. As of last night, when I wore them to a party, they were soft, exactly molded to my feet, and felt as comfortable as the old pair. Yay for perfectly broken in shoes!

YAY! for perfect pumps!

Hmm…maybe I should hit the site again and buy five more pairs right now so that I’m sure to always have a pristine pair in the wings…even when I’m 80.

Cutest baby ever!

Jon has been teaching Hannah how to ‘wink’ and it’s the cutest thing!

It went better than I had any right to expect!

We had planned to be in New York this weekend, and I was really looking forward to visiting the Big Apple again! I’ll admit too that telling people that a bride was flying me out to do a floral delivery was pretty rock-star. It was disappointing when Jenn let me know that the flights weren’t working out and that we were going to have to coordinate something else for her flowers. Still, it turned out to be a good thing!

Jenn and I had agreed that she would pick her flowers up first thing on Friday morning when she was on her way to the airport herself, so I had set my schedule of three weddings that weekend to have hers done first, but not early. If these flowers were supposed to make it through the flight to New York and be beautiful for the wedding on Saturday afternoon, I wanted to wait and make sure that they were as fresh as they could be. Then, surprisingly, Jenn stopped by at about 11 p.m. on Thursday night to see if she could pick up her flowers. Apparently, she’d emailed earlier, but I’d already left work and was running errands all day and so hadn’t gotten the news that she was going to try and get a really late flight. Doh. Sorry! No, the flowers won’t be done for another hour! She looked a little bit worried, but realized that she’d sprung something on me, so said that she’d go see what she could do and be back in an hour. Deal! I really was in the middle of her flowers, so it would work out fine for me if she wanted to come back at midnight…I planned to be up most of the night with wedding #2 anyway. She called later to say that the red-eye flight hadn’t panned out for her after all, so if she could switch it back to a 5 a.m. pickup, that would work for her. Sure.

I finished Jenn’s flowers, putting her bouquet in a vase to travel and her corsages and boutonniers went into a little disposable cooler with some frozen packets to keep them cool. If TSA wouldn’t allow those through, I also included some Ziploc bags that she could fill with ice once she was through the gate. Jon calls me a genius for that, but I figure that it was just covering the angles.

The next project was to paint about a million branches of curly willow. Maree had a very stark and cool eye when it came to her wedding, and she agreed to let me attack some details for her flowers within the color choices she’d made. Black, Turquoise, and White. Her only request was on the bouquet…black roses with white curly willow and some peacock feathers peeking out. We had three events over two weeks that her centerpieces were going to have to work through, and she didn’t want to waste a lot of money on fresh floral arrangements that were all going to die and cost more and more for every location. My solution for that whole process was to use curly willow branches in some tall vases and hang some of their most amazing engagement pictures (thanks to Jon!) from the branches. I mounted about 100 of their photos to black and turquoise paper with contrasting black and turquoise ribbon and came up with a great way to use earrings to hang the pictures from the tree branches…but…being me…I had to go the extra step and paint the branches white to bring in all three of Maree’s color choices. Jon was sweet enough to hit WalMart for me at midnight once I’d run out of paint from the first bottle I’d bought. I’d had no idea how many cans of spray paint it was going to take, but after getting started, we realized that it was going to take about ten. No lie. Jon hit WalMart, and we both spent the next hour and a half spray painting branches…breathing in too many fumes and cursing the cold weather. Jon had a sore trigger finger the next day, and my arms were so sore that I had the hardest time holding a pen. I needed to hold the pen though to write a note to Jenn and leave it in the door to let her know that the door was unlocked and she could come in and get her flowers. I left the instructions on the Ziplocs too, and that turned it into a much longer note than I would have preferred with my handicapped hands. Jon and I went to bed at around 3 a.m. and when I got up at 7:30, the flowers were gone, so I hope that Jenn had a great weekend and that the wedding was beautiful!!

Friday morning, I loaded everything, branches, vases, photos, and more, into the truck we’d borrowed and then got my little family showered and out the door. The wedding was taking place in Manti, and we had a long way to go. It was a beautiful day though, and we had a nice drive. I dropped Jon off at the temple to shoot, and ran down the street to set up the centerpieces for the dry-run at the luncheon site. Hannah was a huge help…or at least, she didn’t get into any craziness and keep me from getting things done quickly. She even attempted to drag a few of the branches over to me, which was completely adorable. Branches went into the vases, and photos were hung on the branches. I’d also found a fun thing…black jewels that looked like giant diamonds, and five of those went onto each tree…I think it turned out perfectly, and I was happy to finish about two minutes before the family walked in the door for lunch.

Hannah and I sat off to the side, not sure how many people were going to show up and so, unsure of where to sit. It was fun though to see everyone wander through the hall and look at every picture on every tree and ask members of the family if they had set all of these arrangements up. He he he. Nope…that was me! I giggled quietly in my corner and felt good that everyone seemed impressed. Once lunch was over and people started leaving, I began breaking down the arrangements again to pack them up and take them to the reception taking place that night in Riverton. Eek! Jon had a few more shots he wanted to get, and I figured that with his help we could set everything up in Riverton in about an hour, which was cutting it close since he wanted about 15 minutes back at the temple, and we needed to drive the two hours back from Manti. Luckily, I hit on the best helper well. Flower-girls! Little nieces watched me as I started to take photos and jewels off the trees and put them in the boxes for transport. Quickly, one of them brought me a couple of the jewels from the tree on her table and I smiled and thanked her. Then, I let her know that if she wanted to help me with the rest of the trees, one of those jewels would be hers to keep! I had two helpers in seconds after that, and they rocked out the clean-up process! They not only brought me jewels, but photos too, and then they started stacking the branches where I’d laid a few bunches down, as well as carefully placing vases in groups for me to repack! It was awesome! I ended up giving them an entire box of the jewels to split between them, and thanked them again for the help.

We made it to Riverton right on time, and the flower girls were there again. This time, they weren’t sure of the process, and Hannah was being charming, so they pretty much just played with her while we set up the trees…which was the best help at that point anyway! Jon graciously accepted some help from a couple of family members that had come early and had nothing to do, and with everyone working together, we had the tables decorated in about half an hour! YAY! It looked awesome! A whole new group of family and friends came to this event, and the tour of the room happened again and again as people wandered around looking at every picture, commenting on the design and the pictures. Whew. I’m so happy that it worked out so well. Cleanup that night took a little bit longer just because the flower girls had already gone home, and Jon was talking to some fans. (The flower girls did ask if they could help, but I told them that the party wasn’t over yet, so I wasn’t planning on taking things down yet, or I’d certainly allow them to help again. Such sweethearts!) Still, the father of the bride took some of the supplies home with him for transport to the next event in a week, and we realized that everything else will fit nicely into our car, so that’s a bonus we hadn’t expected.

We got home around 10:30 and put Hannah to bed before crashing early ourselves. We slept in a little bit on Saturday, but then Jon ran errands and Hannah took a well timed nap while I worked on wedding #3. Jon got home in plenty of time to drive me up to Log Haven for delivery on Amy’s flowers. It was fun to be right on time and in advance of the bride! It’s always more impressive when you beat them to their own wedding. Jon helped me lay out all of the arrangements, and I coordinated with the staff, letting them know that I’d included shears for the extra flowers that had been requested, showed them the nametags on all of the boutonnieres and corsages so that no one would have to question what went where. They were actually pretty impressed, which was fun to see too! I didn’t think that being clear and prepared was all that unusual, but I’ll take the pat on the back for being out of the ordinary in that way! I had everything done, and was headed to the car when another car pulled in behind us with a cute young girl in white sitting in the passenger seat. Hi, Amy! I walked Amy inside and went through the flowers with her before giving her a hug, wishing her a great wedding, and heading home.

Whew! Three weddings in one weekend…check!

I’d wanted to join my family for a Saturday night event, but Jon was slammed and fell asleep as soon as we got home, and Hannah had a terrible-two’s evening and freaked out to the point that I couldn’t get her back to the car to go out to my parent’s house. Sorry guys! I realized I was so tired too, so I ended up throwing on some jammies and joined Jon and Hannah in an early night.

The fantastic shocker of the weekend was that Jon and I slept in on Sunday, and Hannah let us! I rolled over at about 11 and was totally awake as soon as I saw the clock! I went right to Hannah’s room, and she sat up and said a bright, “Hewo!” He he he. Her diaper was so full that she’s soaked through her pants as well as her pillow, but she didn’t seem in the least concerned about it. What a fun baby I have! We spent a lovely leisurely day, and now it’s time for a little more sleep before jumping into another crazy week!

Thanks to everyone that helped, complimented, and supported this week! It was most appreciated!!!

Hannah’s first time at the Fair

We had SUCH fun at the Utah State Fair this year! Hannah was wide-eyed as we walked up the first road of booths full of people hawking their wares and suggesting that we try all kinds of strange foods. At the end of the row we found a kids ‘farm’ where children could wander through a reproduction of a working farm and they could plant seeds, harvest vegetables, milk a cow, and sheer a sheep. Everything was fake, but Hannah liked looking at all the toys they used to recreate the procedures and she was a trooper to do all of the actions that they asked the kids to do, even though she had no idea what it was really about. At the end of the path was a little co-op store where the kids traded in their goods (the toys they’d collected along the path…empty milk bottle, plastic veggies, bags of seed corn) for fake money to trade in for any object that they might want in the store. It was adorable. We traded in her dollar for a little box of cereal and she bolted out the door to look at the next amazing thing!

First stop was the big yellow slide right next to the ’store’. It cost $2 a person (age made no difference on the price) so Daddy and Hannah walked all the way to the top of the slide while Mommy stayed below with the camera.

She was a little nervous on the way down, but jumped right up and headed for the top of the slide again. Jon had to grab her and bring her away, which just made her so upset! She wanted to go AGAIN!

After the slide, we wandered south through more booths and then over to the animal pens. I wasn’t sure how well Hannah would react to the live animals…she’s generally good with pets, but these guys were show-animals. Show animals = HUGE! First were the pigs, and although I had to pet a scratchy ear first and assure her that it was okay…she ran through the pens looking at every piggy and laughing at how big and fun they were. She had no problem petting or just touching the ones that she liked, and I really was proud of her for not being scared.


At the end of the walk through the pig pens (they were surprisingly clean!), Hannah said a big bye-bye to the cute piggies.

Next were the sheep.

The cows were enormous, and the goats made her laugh when they bleeted at her with their tongues out. Finally, we rounded the corner to the tiny horses! Having petted and laughed at the other animals, I was hopeful that she’d like the horses too. Still, I was surprised when I asked her if she wanted to ride one of the horses, and she answered me by sprinting to the row of ponies and waiting to be lifted up into the saddle! She rode a nice horse named Thunder, and although I walked around the loop next to her a few times, it was pretty clear that she didn’t need me, so I finally let her go on her own. She had great use of her thighs to keep her on the saddle, and she even bounced a little bit as though she wanted to gallop! Go Hannah! She loved it, and I was seriously so proud of her for having no fear!

Unfortunately, the video of her actually RIDING the horses was too long and Jon couldn’t get YouTube to take it, but here she is, giving Thunder a goodbye pat after her ride was over.

Mommy got to wander through a floral barn where prize winning specimens were on display. The Dahlias were AMAZING!…there were some funny little attempts at arranging flowers at the fair as well, and the ribbons were given to the best of the bunch…but…some pride in me took over and I asked about a professional submission for next year and the cute lady said that I could certainly do it. I wouldn’t get a ribbon because professionals can’t be judged, but having it there on display with my card would be welcome by them. Hmm. I’ll think about that.

Daddy got to wander through the art display as well as the photo competition. Wonderful stuff! I’m so shocked that some of those people are still considered amatuers!…even the 12 year olds! Really, some amazing art. The photos?…not so much. There was some awesome stuff…don’t get me wrong…but some of the most boring and average work was listed by professionals! Jon could enter dozens of photos in every category and blow the competition away! It’s on his list of to-do’s (enter a photo in the fair…not enter dozens and blow people away) so maybe next year he will have something on display there.

By that time, we were getting tired, it was already dark, and Hannah needed a diaper change. We walked back towards the car and settled on one last food purchase before finally leaving. Jon just had to try frog legs. He kindof liked them and he said they grew on him the more of them he ate. Hannah loved them and kept asking for more, while grabbing the little drumsticks from daddy’s plate. I gave in and had a taste after some convincing. Hmm. Tasted like fish, but the texture was chicken-like. Odd. I guess that’s what you’d expect from a frog, eh? Aquatic foul? He he he. Still, for the rest of my life I will be able to say that I’ve had frog legs even if I never order them again.

My response to Jon’s order of the frog was an elephant’s ear. Okay…so it was basically just a big fried piece of dough with some cinnamon and sugar on it, but the name was what was important at that point. Together we ate frog legs and elephant ears and then we called it a night.

YAY for such fun at the State Fair!

Ahh…A day off.

I know that I have every Friday off from the law firm now, and Saturdays have always been a day away from the office. I know that when I tell people that I have three-day weekends, they must think, “OH! Lucky! Vacation days!”

Yeah….not so much. Anyone that knows me, knows Jon, knows what we do with our weekends, would not be surprised in the least to hear that I honestly can’t remember the last time that I had a lazy day. That’s why today was such a wonderful present! No weddings this weekend. Ahh. An honest to goodness day off! It’s been lovely.

I played with Hannah all morning and laughed so much. We shared lunch and both had a nap. YAY! I love naps!!! We got to go visit uncle Dave and played his new game…a game that he actually made up, built, and is in the process of having published!…and I won! We came home to some grilling by daddy and then watched tv all evening. Ahh. Seriously, just relaxing. I’m going to bed a happy woman right now.

More travel insanity

After all of the fun of Virginia and Philadelphia in August, September was just as nuts! We had the biggest travel weekend for weddings that we’ve ever experienced, and it was a blast!

Shane and Amanda were scheduled to marry on Saturday, the 12th. However, they got a bug of secrecy and excitement in their collective craws and decided to have a little fun by eloping to Glacier National Park in Montana on Thursday! Jon was already scheduled to photograph their wedding on Saturday, so they called him and asked if he wanted to join in on the Thursday event if they were to supply the plane ticket for him. SURE! Jon flew out first thing on Thursday morning and had a layover in Seattle. On the flight from Seattle to Glacier, he had the chance to chat with a fun and cute attendant who was impressed that a bride was flying him out to photograph her wedding. Jon felt pretty important himself and liked being able to say that this was normal for him now. Brides fly us all over the states.

Once arriving in Glacier, nothing else really went as planned. The couple picked Jon up at the airport and they drove to the designated spot for the wedding. They got dressed and waited for the officiant to arrive. They waited. They shot a few pictures within shouting distance of the car. They waited some more. Finally, they decided to drive back down a bit to a spot where they had cell service and at that point they found out that the guy had written down the wrong date! He was home, two hours away from Glacier. Luckily, he had a buddy in the same business that was only 45 minutes away, so he called and sent his friend on the appointment for him…many apologies included.

Jon and the kids shot a few more photos in the 45 minute waiting period and then hiked a short way to the location for the ceremony itself. Stand-in started in to his standard schpeel, stopping for a giggle among the four of them when he realized that he’d used a ceremony, speaking to the friends and family of the couple…none of which were present. Strangely, he didn’t have enough presence of mind to shift things around and just kept talking to an invisible crowd about their support and love of the newlyweds! Jon and Amanda and Shane just rolled their eyes and went with it.

Soon enough they were married, a few more pictures along the water’s edge of a mountiain lake that turned out beautifully, and then everyone got a short amount of sleep before taking Jon back to the airport. Shane and Amanda had their own car and took a leisurely drive home to Idaho, leaving Jon to fly back to Utah. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed and he couldn’t find a way to get home in time for the wedding ceremony he’d been hired for in Logan! Ack! Luckily, he’d hired a fantastic photographer friend of ours, Andrea, to be there just in case, and she was on the ball to just shoot the couple at the temple for us.

The one interesting thing that came out of Jon’s delayed flight was that when he DID get a seat, he ended up on the same flight as the same stewardess that he’d chatted with on the way to Glacier. Sunny was her name, and she was happy to see Jon and to ask him how his wedding shoot had gone. He loved being able to pull out our little Acer laptop (fits in my purse and is totally adorable!) to show her the photos as he was backing them up on our hard drive. She was pretty impressed and only then announced that she too was recently engaged, but wasn’t sure how Jon worked the whole travel thing. He explained that the Virginia couple we had just shot hadn’t wanted to deal with planning out our travel and had just paid a flat fee. Another bride sending us to New York next month worked for Jet Blue and could get us buddy passes for less money than we could ever coordinate on our own, and we were fine with that. Her eyes popped when she heard those options, and she asked if we’d be willing to fly on her buddy passes to shoot her wedding in Hawaii in February. Hmm…let me think about that one for a minute. YES! Jon gave Sunny a card and told her to look at his work and to give us a call if she wanted to schedule anything. That would be so fun! I’m guessing that if it works out, we’ll be GLAD that his flight home was delayed, eh?

Jon called from Seattle and we planned out the rest of the weekend time frames depending on what flight he was going to be able to snag. We realized that if it was just right, I could deliver the flowers I was working on a little bit early, and then Jon and I would meet at home, load up the car together and drive off for the rest of the traveling weekend. Previously, we’d been plotting out all sort of scenarios where I was going to meet him in a parking lot after delivery and we’d leave a car there for the weekend. There was one idea of his riding up with an assistant, but that assistant then realized he couldn’t be there to help Jon with that wedding. It was so much work to try and coordinate Jon’s wedding in Logan/Tremonton with my conflicting flower delivery in Sandy. Ugh. Well…having missed the segment of the wedding taking place in Logan in the morning, all that was left was the reception that night in Tremonton. If I could deliver early and if he could be a few minutes late, we wouldn’t have to drop any car off to sit lonely in a parking lot all weekend. It turned out beautifully!

Jon drove from the airport to our house and I got back from my Sandy flower delivery about twenty minutes later. He had transfered some data and packed a bag…also getting a chance to change his shirt and get a little food. I finished packing up my gear and piled Hannah back into the car and then we were off! YAY! All of us together! Score!

We got to Tremonton around 5 and we spent some fun time playing on the family’s swings and jungle gym. Jon jumped into the photography, fully enjoying the gorgeous arrangements that the family had been able to create in their own back yard. I’ve had other brides ask about that location since that point too, so massive compliments to the whole crew for the insane amount of work that went in to how beautiful it all ended up. The only negative was the massive amounts of mosquitos that I had to kill every time the car light came on. Honestly. Legions!

Blayr and Brock danced with their friends into the night and planned no grand exit, so Jon finally gave in around 10:30 and let the family know that he was done and ready to leave. I drove for the first section of the next leg of the trip and let Jon sleep and then we traded back and forth, each of us driving for as long as we could and finally pulled over to both sleep for an hour in Twin Falls before ramping up and pushing through for the last leg of the drive into the Sawtooth Mountains to a little set of cabins in Stanley, Idaho. What a long night!

Amanda woke up at the sound of the car…she was on warrior alert!…and met us in the parking lot. By moonlight, we whispered a quick hello, she showed us across a large central lawn area to our own little cabin, and we all tumbled into bed. We woke up when Hannah woke up…much too early…but that also allowed us to get to work. The ring ceremony wasn’t until later in the afternoon, but I got started de-thorning roses and putting together the bouquet for the bride. We joined a couple of the wedding party for a meal atthe local diner and were sad to realize that we’d just missed the deadline for the breakfast foods. Oh well. The warm open-faced sandwich I shared with Hannah hit the spot on a cool morning.

The rest of the afternoon entailed decorating some of the set-up in the mountail field where the ceremony was to take place. It was all very simple and clean, which fit perfectly with the amazing view of the mountains around us. Back at the cabin I was able to finished a few boutonnieres and corsages and got everything on a little bit of ice before sneaking a quick nap with Hannah. Jon took some pictures of the bride alone as well as with her family before we all drove back up to the ceremony site. I pinned the flowers that needed pinning and then took a seat for the ceremony. Everything was short and simple, and so sweet…making me cry. Yes…even after all this time, I still love weddings! After the kiss, everyone took their chairs back over to the designated dining area and we were treated to the most amazing bbq on earth! Fantastic steaks, perfect chicken, heavenly corn on the cob. Mmm. Wonderful! The toasts were sweet and sincere, the cake was surrounded by pirouettes (if I had to do it over, I’d totally steal the idea for my own!) and the sunset was slow. There was a little bit of dancing, and I spent a good deal of time trying to get Hannah away from the course that the Baci Ball players were throwing…she was fascinated and wanted to hold all the balls herself…and the slide and swings were an added fun to the entire evening. I helped clean up, and was flattered that a sister of the bride wanted all of the flower arrangements to take home with her, but I kept getting interrupted by the need to track down Hannah and keep her from getting beaned by yet another Baci Ball. Most of the guests were very down-to-earth and ‘earthy’ people, adept at woodland skills and the like. Several of them had brought their dogs and Hannah loved that part of the day too. Petting puppies is her favorite!

We realized just after sunset that the one thing about an outdoor wedding in a nature preserve where there is no electricity…things end when the light’s gone. We were all back at our cabin by about 8:30 (strangely early for us!) and Jon, Hannah and I were all asleep by 9. Whew! Hannah woke up around 6 and cried out, but the nice thing about having two beds in the room was that I could snuggle into her bed with her and calm her down instead of having to cram her into bed with me and Jon. The bad thing about snuggling into bed with Hannah is that she stretches out…sometimes not realizing where the end of the bed is. She tumbled out around 8 and bonked her head on the side table on her way down. Ugh. Luckily, it was a short fall, she was calmed down easily, and we took a minute to chat with the wedding party who were already awake as well.

We showered and dressed and attempted to attend a sacrament meeting that we’d been told was up the road. As we drove up the winding dirt drive, I saw several cars pass the opposite direction, all driven by men in ties, and I had a feeling that we’d missed that as well. We had. We turned around and went back to the cabin and joined the family in a repeat, reheated meal of the bbq leftovers from the reception. I was able to take a good sized chunck of the wedding cake home, and we were given a bag of the lovely chicken as well. Our bags were already packed at that point and Hannah was acting a olittle bit tired, so we all said goodbyes, climed into the car, and started the 6 hour drive home.

We stopped a couple of times to stretch, once at a park where Hannah ran around the playground, just thrilled to be free of the car. We rolled into the drive at Jon’s parent’s house at about 6:00, brought the chicken in with us, and contributed to an impromptu dinner with the parents and sister Kim. Ahh. It was just so lovely to be welcomed and close to home. After dinner and some fun chatting, we did go the final leg of the journey to our own house and crashed again…just grateful to be home. Honestly, that was one of the longest weekends of our careers! Hannah was a total trooper and Jon is amazing!…not only for everything he went through and the lack of sleep, but for the fantastic photos that he continues to get dispite all the craziness surrounding them.

Ahhh. It sounds so glamorous when I write it out sometimes, but really…It just makes me tired. Time for bed.

Part 5…the end!

Our last day on vacation was sad and awesome at the same time. We got up on time and loaded up the car, making sure that our gps directions were set as well as doing a final sweep of the house to make sure that we hadn’t left anything behind for Britta to deal with (which didn’t work, she’s had to mail us a shirt of Hannah’s and a memory card for Jon). Ugh. Then the goodbyes. I hate saying goodbye to Britta. We still email and text and stay current here on blogs, but it was just so amazingly cool and fun and awesome and sweet to hang out with her and talk and laugh and kiss her babies and know that we’re just the same friends that we’ve been for years now. More kisses for the babies. Extra hugs for Britta. Everyone in the car, and then it was half-hearted waves as we pulled away and a couple of tears at the idea that I wouldn’t see her again probably until Christmas when she comes home for a visit.

The drive into Philadelphia was fine. We got turned around once, even with the gps guiding us, and the toll booths were a flashback for me to the year I lived in New York, but it was pretty, and otherwise uneventful. Our goal was a cross-street in the heart of Philly where an overdose of Philly cheese-steak sandwiches was destiny!…and #5 on Jon’s to-do list. We’d seen a couple of different shows on the travel channel or the Food Network about a long-standing rivalry between two sandwich shops. Pat’s holds the record as the CREATOR of the cheese-steak while Gino’s claims to be the BEST cheese-steak. Pat’s and Gino’s sit opposite each other on a cross of two streets in a very densely packed residential area. Adam on the Food Network creatively avoided telling the world which he thought was the best, and the Travel Channel remained neutral, just explaining the history, not judging. Jon’s to-do was to eat a philly cheese steak in Philadelphia, and we expanded the appointment to trying a sandwich at both Gino’s AND Pat’s so that we could do our own comparison.

With all the one-way streets, it was sort of difficult to find our way there, and then because the streets were so small, we had to circle several times to get a parking spot. Eventually, we stopped two blocks away and had a nice walk over to Pat’s. We took some time staring at all of the photos from the 40’s and 50’s of ‘stars’ that had been nailed to the outside of the building. We studied the instructions on how to order a sandwich, but in the end, Jon just walked up to the window and smiled at the middle aged Italian man in a sweaty tank top who asked Jon, “Wadya want?” Jon told him to give it to us like it’s meant to be. Without missing a beat, Tank Top yelled behind him, “Cheese-wiz wid’ onions.” Alright! I think the idea that Pat’s was the original is secured when they know exactly what you mean when you ask for it the way it’s supposed to be. Jon brought the sandwich over to our table, and after some pictures of him taking his first bites, checking off #5, he let the rest of us have our first tastes as well. Hannah grabbed a handful of meat and then kept coming back for more as Jon and I shared the sandwich back and forth. The cheese-steak was perfectly grilled, had soft warm bread, and the cheese was plentiful, the onions well grilled. Mmm. Makes me hungry again, just thinking about it. When it got down to the last bite, Jon pulled out his camera to take a picture of that bite on the Pat’s waxed paper sitting on our picnic table. We roared as his first shot went out of focus because Hannah’s little hand popped into frame at the last second. The second picture shows those chubby fingers wrapped around the last bite, pulling it away to pop into her own little smiling face. He he he. I guess we know now that she enjoyed Pat’s!

Next, we walked across the street to Gino’s. More…many more…photos nailed to the outside of the building, and another middle-aged man, this one in a button-down shirt, asked Jon what he wanted. Jon decided to try it again, and told him to give it to us the way it was meant to be. Button-down looked confused. He started to list off several options and asked Jon again what he wanted from those options. Hmm. Well, I guess we knew what the right way was…Pat’s had taught us. Jon ordered a cheese-steak with American (cheese-wiz) and onions. He also got a drink and some fries at Gino’s, but, we decided that those didn’t really help the sandwich beat out Pat’s! The meat wasn’t as lean, wasn’t seasoned. Hannah grabbed another handful of meat, but this time, after ripping some apart and tasting it, she dropped it back on the paper and left it there. Hmm. The cheese seemed thin, and the onions were still white and crisp, so it just didn’t work as well for us as the sandwich from Pat’s. Well. I guess that answers that!

After lunch, we wandered around Philadelphia for a little while. We stopped for gas and then found a park where Hannah was able to run and play for nearly an hour! One little boy was rude to her and laughed when he scared her and made her cry. His mother was sitting to the side, but she was flipping through magazines and talking to her friends and didn’t acknowledge her son until her got in her face, and then she yelled at him and made HIM cry. Hmm. At least there were several other kids that hung out with Hannah, or at least let her alone while she slid down slides or ran around the playgrounds. It was a lovely quiet way to spend an afternoon.

Back to the car, and back on the road. Another couple of circles and we pulled into the rental parking lot, checked our car back into the fleet, and then loaded on to a bus which took us to the proper gate. We waiting at the gate for a while, chatting with the family next to us, thrilling Hannah because they had a cute little dog! She got to pet the little guy and the daughters of the family thought Hannah was completely adorable. Ah….true. We finally made it onto the plane, again thinking that we would be stuck in two seats with Hannah on our laps for the entire flight…though at least this flight was direct to Salt Lake. We were the last ones on the plane, and once we got to the very back of the plane we noticed that the row across from the seats where we were SUPPOSED to sit was empty! YES! We asked the attendant with expectant faces if we could spread out there or if she thought anyone else might be coming to take the seats. She looked forward to the door…which had just closed. No one else is coming. The seats were ours! Score! The passenger on the row where we would have sat, and the others in he row in front of her, saw what we were doing and thanked the attendant as well as they spread out, two people per every three seats. Ahh. We all got a break.

Hannah liked take-off, and thought it was so funny to look out the window from the sky, but she fell asleep soon after we were in the air. She woke up with half an hour before landing, and was smiling and sweet. We read books and had some fruit snacks and then prepared for landing. She was awesome…making our trip that much better and easier to handle! We had several compliments on her behavior from other passengers as well as the attendnats. Thank you! We waited to be the last off the plane, gathering up all our bags, walked outside, and met up with Erin as she pulled up to the curb and then jumped into the back seat so that Jon could drive us home.

Home. Ahhh. The most wonderful homecoming ever! Erin, in an attempt to thank us (unnecessarily) for some of our support, had cleaned the kitchen, dining room, and living room. It was beautiful and spotless! Ahhh. Seriously, so amazing! She’s even organized my pantry!!! We shared some stories and some pretzels, and then enjoyed a wonderful night in our own beds. It was fantastic! I think that traveling is awesome and I want to travel more, but I have to admit that coming home is one of the best parts of the journey.

Thanks so much again to Garrett and Betsy for including us in their wedding and to Tom and Britta for having us in their home and for loving us so well! We love you back. We will visit again soon!…but it’s nice to be home too.

The end of the epic Virginia/Pennsylvania journey has finally come. Sorry it’s taken so long! I’ll catch up on the rest of the last couple of weeks soon too.