My Brother's Wedding

The last two weeks have been very busy as I'm sure it was for many others. Curtis and I travelled to Utah on Thursday the 17th to attend the wedding of my brother Colby to Cindy on Friday the 18th.  Originally we were going to take our whole family down to the wedding but decided it would be better to leave them at home because of Covid not allowing us to do much of anything. Nikki is nearly 17 and we felt she was ready to take on the responsibility. She too felt like she could handle it. We also had my mother in law check in on them a couple of times. Curtis and I decided to take our truck since it looked like there would be snow in southeastern Idaho and Northern Utah.  We did run into some slick roads and slush and a few semi trucks that slid off but we made it safely without trouble. I was unsure if I should be wearing my snow boots for the trip but thankfully I did because at one stop they came in handy with walking through the parking lot. 

We drove straight to our hotel and got checked in, then picked up Stillman and Michelle from their hotel and drove over to Olive Garden where the ladies went for dinner with Cindy as sort of a bachelorette party. After the party we drove Tamara to her hotel.

This is the gift that Tamara picked out that was from most of us Norton girls, including grandma. She included a little gift for Colby as well in there.

Michelle, Tamara and I were the only ones to make it from our side of the family to the restaurant. The rest were Cindy's family and friends.

                                      

Friday morning we had some extra time and went shopping to Walmart. We bought some groceries, a wedding card and some stocking stuffer items for our kids. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed and watched a movie on TV. Around 4:15 we headed over to the church where the wedding was to be held. Stillman was busy leading the car decorating group, or should I say truck? I jumped right in to help. They had decided it would be much better to decorate before the wedding when it was light out and warmer. Very smart decision!

The wedding ceremony was scheduled to start at 5pm but didn't start until about 15 or 20 min after. Thanks to Covid and technology many people were able to view it from their homes, including our daughter Nikki. It was a nice little ceremony and I'm so happy I was able to be there in person.

Colby and Cindy during the ceremony. They hope to get sealed in the temple soon.

This is how you celebrate a wedding Covid style.

Of course we had to take off masks for some pictures.

Cutting the cake. I think most people actually missed this event because many had left already and many there weren't paying attention. I was glad I was able to witness it.

They had fun smashing cake into each other's faces.

They are so cute!

Saturday we went to breakfast with Stillman, Michelle, Tamara and Katelynn after we picked them up from their hotels. Tamara was staying with grandma in a room at the same hotel as Melissa, Livvie, Dad and Laverne. They were all leaving to go home that morning but Tamara and Katelynn booked a room at our hotel for that night so that they could stay longer. Our plans were to go visit my mom that evening. After breakfast was over we drove Stillman and Michelle to the airport as they were flying home that afternoon. Since we were in Salt Lake we decided to drive by the Salt Lake Temple to view the temple renovations that are taking place. They are in the process of making the temple better to withstand earthquakes, etc. It is a 4 year project.

We just did a drive by since it's all closed up.

We decided to try going to the Planetarium but found that the only part of it open was the gift shop. So we walked around to the Gateway Mall and were trying to think of what we could do. The theater was there so we decided to see if it was open and it was! We were the only customers in there and there were only 2 employees. The movie we decided to watch was the 2nd Croods and it was pretty good. We thought we were going to have the theater to ourselves for awhile there but then a mother with a couple of kids walked in and sat way down below us. Those were the only other people who came in. However, after the show we did see a few more people coming in to watch movies. It was still pretty quiet compared to what it used to be.

Before we figured out about the theater being open we found these big teeter totters and had a little fun. 

After our fun at the mall we took Tamara and Katelynn to the hotel so they could check in to their room. They had to wait until 3pm. Then we headed out to Springville to visit our mom. We stopped at a sub sandwich shop right there in Springville and bought our mom a sandwich also. Then we drove over there to eat dinner, play Yahtzee and visit with mom. We wore our masks most of the evening to help prevent any spread of covid since aunt Karen's mom was staying there for a couple of months and she's older and has some health issues. Gilbert and Karen were downstairs but did come up to say hi and take a picture for us.  It was a great evening and I'm so glad we were able to visit. Katelynn was our winner that evening in her first ever game of Yahtzee. I say it was beginner's luck 😆 

We were all too tired when we got back to our hotel that we went straight to our rooms. Curtis and I fell asleep watching a movie. The next morning we were able to watch our ward's Sacrament meeting from our hotel room on the computer. Curtis was even able to bless the Sacrament for us. We had to use tortilla chips instead of bread because Tamara can't have gluten but it worked.  After the meeting we packed up and hit the road to go back home. On the ride home we were also able to listen/watch Tamara's ward meeting online at 11am. The weather for the ride home was much better and it was smooth sailing all the way home with some beautiful scenery.

There was snow around us as we crossed into Idaho but as you can see the roads were very clear. Thank goodness!