Brian and Makenzie's Wedding

A few months ago my family and I had the great privilege to travel down south to attend my cousin Brian's wedding down at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple down in South Jordan. And we almost didn't make it!

Originally I was going to travel to the early morning wedding that Saturday morning and Kristy and Logan were going to leave the night before with Lynn so they could attend a Girl's Night Out Party. But the weather was once again not cooperating with us. The snow came down fast and was piling up quickly and I thought it would be better to have a bad night's sleep than to have to travel through the snow in the canyon so early in the morning. So Lynn and her daughter Jessica came over and I drove them all down to Kristy's parents home. 

The drive was harrowing to say the least. The snow was coming in hard and fast and the roads were not clear at all. And it was worse driving through Logan Canyon. I could barely see the road from all the snow and to make matters worse our heater was not working. The stupid thing only blows out the front and you cannot turn it on to other places, like the windows, to help clear them up. So I could not see out my window either! I had a small space to see through and unfortunately for everyone else, I was forced to roll down the window to help clear the window up.

Logan: "It's cold in here!"
Me: "Well, you can either freeze or die."

It was horrible. We got up this huge hill and we saw this semi in the middle of the road and it didn't look like it was moving very fast. We realized that the semi was actually backing up down the hill. We decided to follow the car in front of us and pass it on the left but as we headed that way, the semi was backing right into us! And we could not get any traction and I couldn't move further away since I was so close to the median-blocks that I could touch them. Thankfully, we managed to swing around. We made it through the canyon and stopped at a gas station to clean the windows up and the thankfully the rest of the drive went normally. 

The next morning we awoke early and went to the beautiful Oquirrh Mountain Temple and it was a joy to see my aunts and uncles and cousins. The ceremony was awesome, both the groom and bride were stunning and the officiator had a fantastic sense of humor. After the wedding we hung around and chatted and went back to Kristy's home and got Logan and took him over to Renae's. Then we cruised down to Orem to meet the family again for lunch. We had a fun time killing ourselves with food and also with laughter. We then went back to Kristy's home to grab Logan and then head back down to the reception.

The reception was very nice. The food was good (I cannot believe I ate more food) and the company was great. My mom and sister came down for the reception and we all hung around the Anhder table. That is until it was time to decorate the car. And Logan was way excited to see and to participate. My cousin Kari asked Logan to come along and of course, I had to see what was going on. I only wish I had some lunch meat to stuff under the door handles. Logan was quite proud of himself that he showed everyone that he could.

Brian's sisters getting revenge.

We are so thankful that we were invited to the wedding and to hang out with my family. I appreciate my Uncle Mark and his neat family for allowing my family to attend. And a special thanks to Brian and his cool new wife Makenzie for inviting my wife and I to the wedding ceremony, that meant a lot to us. 

The drive home was a lot better than the drive down thankfully. It was worth it almost being squished by a semi in a blizzard!

Friday Flashback: At the Anhder House

This must have been taken at the same time as these ones that I blogged about earlier. I still get a kick out of finding these old slides.

This must be the Girl's Table.

Brad.

And this must be the Boy's Table. You know, the cooler one?

Jeremy and I look a little guilty. Like we were caught doing something mischevious.

And the girls found it funny that we were in trouble!

Mark and Susie with Emily.

Kelli and Hunter's Wedding

I have had so much stuff going on lately, forgive me for not blogging the past few days. Yesterday I had the great privilege of attending my cousin Kelli's wedding down at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

My family and I awoke very early in the morning to get down there in time for the ceremony. We were on the road at about 7:30 in the morning. The roads were very wet and it snowed/rained/snowed the whole trip down but the roads were relatively bare and traffic was at a minimum. We made it to Renae's house with plenty of time to get to the Temple. Renae and Gregg were kind enough to have Logan come over and play with their kids while Kristy and I were at the wedding.

We then hopped on the road and made our way to the Temple. The night before I used MapQuest to get directions but instead of printing out pages of useless directions, I copied down just the main turnoffs and points thinking that once we saw the large Temple we could find our way there. Well, it was real cloudy and we couldn't pinpoint where the Temple was and time was running out (we had to be there about a half an hour before). Just when we were about to hit the "panic" button, the Mount Timpanogos Temple popped into view.

What a gorgeous Temple! It was much larger than I thought it would be (I am used to the Logan Temple) and the closer you got the more impressive it became. We entered the Temple and we were greeted by my cousins Kyle and Brian (Kelli's brothers). Soon after my Uncle Kurt and his family arrived. Then we all went to one of the many Sealing Rooms and waited for Kelli and her soon-to-be husband Hunter. The Sealing Room was just so peaceful and beautiful. The reverence and silence was so thought-provoking and it made you reflect and think about life and what comes next. It reminded me of my own wedding, even though I hardly remember it. We waited for a few minutes and other guests came in. And then in walked my Aunt Julie and Uncle Jerry. I have not seen them in years and it was wonderful to see them smiling and in the Temple. As I looked around the room and looked at everyone, I felt this deep appreciation for my family and the support they give me. Soon my Uncle Mark and Aunt Barbara came in (Kelli's parents) and then shortly after that Kelli and Hunter came in. She looked unbelievable, so pretty and she was glowing. I may be biased here but I think I have the best looking cousins in any family.

The Sealing Ceremony was something you just have to see. Words cannot describe the feeling you feel there as you watch a couple be sealed for time and all eternity. For those that don't know, in the Latter Day Saint religion we believe that when you get married and if you are worthy to be married in the Temple, you can be married (sealed) together forever.

After the wedding it was great to catch up with family and chat. We waited outside (close to the Temple doors since it was cold outside) and finally the new couple came out and they looked so happy. They had a photographer to take some pictures. I felt bad for them since it was a little drizzly and cold but I remember the feeling of just being married. Kristy and I were married in the cold, cold winter and it was foggy. But it didn't matter to us since we were still on Cloud Nine.

I got all of my cousins in one shot. But minus the new guy.

Kelli had these bright green (it matched his tie) flipflops that you couldn't see because of the dress.

The Anhder Family. Brian and his wife Kari, Barbara, Mark, Kelli and Hunter, Kyle and Brian who was paying attention to someone else.

After taking pictures we were invited to attend a luncheon at Golden Corral down in Orem. There we ate a ton of food (mmm... liver*) and a ton of dessert and chatted it up with my family. I am so thankful for my aunts and uncles. It was great to sit with them and talk about family, life and pretty much everything in between (sorry Aunt Julie... I am just not a Stones guy). After killing ourselves with food, Kristy and I left to go back to Salt Lake and pick up Logan.

We visited with Renae and Gregg and the kids for a little bit and then we dropped in on Kristy's parents. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because we had to leave already to make it to the reception. We were making good time that is until we tried to find the Bella Vista Reception Center. Funny thing is that both of Kristy's parents were there the night before at a reception. Good thing too since they told us what to look for because MapQuest sent us somewhere else. I am surprised that we actually found the place and if we weren't looking for an office building (like Kristy's mom said) we may not have found it at all. But we did! We went in and were greeted by Julie and Jerry so we sat with them and ate a ton of donuts and food. And get this, they had a lime drink. Right up my alley!

I didn't know a soul there outside of Mark and his family, Julie and Jerry.

But that changed when I met Jerry's older brother and his wife along with some other friends. I am horrible with names, I cannot remember Jerry's brother and wife's name but I remember Dave and Sue. (I think I got that right) It was fun meeting new "family". It was also nice to see my other cousin Wes too. Unfortunately I didn't get much of a chance to chat with him.

Aunt Julie was teaching Logan tricks here.

And there is the happy new couple!

Finally, it was time for us to go. We packed up our stuff and Mark made sure we got some extra donuts and we headed back to Logan. The drive was long but fortunately the weather was great. The roads were barely wet and the canyon was absolutely clear. I am so glad that I took the time to go down to the wedding and reception. I am seriously blessed with a great family. I appreciate Mark and his family for letting my family take part of the festivities and I appreciate Julie and Jerry for letting us hang out with them. Some day we will visit them in Colorado. And a special thanks to Kelli for inviting Kristy and I to the Sealing Ceremony at the Temple. We had a fantastic time and it means a lot.

Sam's Farewell

I forgot to note yesterday that my family and I took a small road trip up to my old hometown of Richmond to attend my cousin's Missionary Farewell.

I have been in and out of sickness that last couple of weeks and unfortunately I woke up Sunday morning feeling really clogged up and sick. I barely went to my Church meetings before coming home to medicate and rest up before we all headed out to go up to Richmond. Luckily, I felt a little better on the drive up and was feeling the effects of the medication by the time I went and picked my mom up.

It was strange walking into that old church building. This is the same church building that I gave my own Missionary Farewell and Homecoming talks in. What was sad is that I hardly recognized anyone from the old neighborhood. But I still felt a little like I was home again. We sat with mom at the back of the church and waited for the meeting to start.

I will say this, and it has nothing to do with church, Sam or anything like that, but I love watching kids and their parents. Back in the day, before I had kids, I might have been annoyed a couple of times with kids and how they act. Now that I have a kid myself, I am a lot more sympathetic to those that have kids. And now I am not nearly as annoyed by kids. I could tell that the mom that was sitting in front of me was having a devil of a time trying to keep her kids quiet and behaved. I appreciate that she was trying to control her kids but they were not bugging me at all. Actually, I was a bit entertained by them.

Sorry for the brief detour. Sam gave an excellent talk and shared some great scriptures. It made me reflect on my own mission farewell and how inadequate and how unprepared I was. The only similarity with Sam and I was how enthused we were about going on a mission. He was already above and beyond me. Kids these days are certainly more prepared, there is no fence sitting here. They are either for it or they are against it. It was great to hear his testimony. The people of Germany are going to be very lucky to have Elder Anhder serve them.

Deep down I am a bit jealous of Sam. He is going to the place I wanted to go and he gets to live a different life. One away from the worries of the world. Now don't get me wrong, I loved my mission and I have no regrets. I am proud that I was sent to New York and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had a great time seeing my extended family at the little get-together after. My uncle Kurt and his family have been a great support to me. I remember that Aunt Lisa would send me Christmas packages while I was serving in New York. Kurt would pay me and my friends very well for odd jobs, he would also escort me to the Temple and was a special witness when I got married. I feel a little bad that I am not closer to my cousins since they are so much younger than I am but I am glad that they are my cousins. And I will support them in all that they do. It was good to see my uncle Mark and his family and I look forward to seeing them at the end of next week for Kelli's wedding. I am blessed with a great extended family on all sides.

I look forward to hearing Sam's experiences and I am happy that my family and I can share in it. I appreciate the Anhder family for inviting us to spend some special time with them.

Friday Flashback: Goring Cousins

This new scanner is so awesome. Spending all that time scanning in those old slides and cleaning them has been totally worth it.

I look really uncomfortable here, I guess I didn't know what to do with my arms.

Can anyone clue me into who the guy behind me is?

I remember this visit I had with my cousins while my family was down from Canada on vacation. I had a lot of fun with my cousins. It was during this visit that my cousin Wyatt gave me PitFall 2 on the Atari (which I still have today).

Friday Flashback!

This new scanner gives me the perfect excuse to do some blogging. I have started scanning in the old slides that my dad found and I am going to share them here on the blog every Friday.

These bunch of slides/pictures are some of my all-time favorites. This is a picture of all the existing cousins on my mom's side of the family. It was taken in the back of Grandma and Grandpa Anhder's house in their beautiful backyard.

This must have been frustrating for our parents in trying to get all the kids to look and smile at the same time. And especially with an old camera so you don't even know if you got a good one or not! This is the best of the three that I found on these slides. You can tell a lot about the kids from this picture. I like to pose (and I will let you in on a secret at the end of this blog as to why I am posed like I am). I love how Brad is in the background, how Jaimee is folding her arms (apparently a pro at picture time) and how Angie is laughing.

Here is the same pic only this time the color has been restored.

The only one that is still posing is Brad and I.

Retouched again.

At least our parents got half of us ready for the picture!

Jennifer, Emily, Angie, Wyatt, Katie Jo, Misty, Matt, Jeremy, Jaimee, Josh, Wes, Blake with Brad in the background. I think I got it right, feel free to correct me.

I do like both versions of each slide. The retouched pictures definitely add some detail to the picture. But the untouched ones adds a certain old-school look to them. More than likely I will scan both types.

So why am I posing like that? Two words.

Forbidden Crush.

I had a major crush on my cousin Katie Jo. Notice that I am standing right beside her? That is no coincidence. And I thought I would pose with my hands on my hips to look tough and serious. And I made sure I held this pose in every take so she would know how good I was. Yeah, I was trying to impress her.

I had a old school picture of hers that I used to take to school with me when I was living in Canada. I would show all the boys and claim that she was my American girlfriend. I cannot believe that I just admitted that. I know that I am not the only one who has had a crush on their cousin. Don't judge me!