Strange things happen when you're planning a wedding

So today Steve was making some hotel reservations for us and my extended family for the wedding. When getting the reservations all sorted out, the woman asked him if the rooms were for business use or personal. He told her that our daughter was getting married and they were rooms for some of the people attending the wedding. She asked him if he had ever heard the song "Butterfly Kisses", and then proceeded to tell him that it was a perfect song for a wedding. She then asked Steve if he would like to hear it. Surprised, he said that he would. Well, she started singing the song for him, right there on the phone--all the way from the Phillipines.

Steve said lucky for him she had a beautiful voice.

PS If I were technological adept you would be able to click here and listen to this song, but I am continuing to work on that....

Olympics, Trains and Hupcakes

Katie and Cameron came to visit for the weekend while their mom and dad were on a little vacation in San Francisco.  Grandma came along for the visit--but we promised her she wouldn't have to work!
On Friday night (February 12) it was the opening ceremonies of the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver.  We had our own olympics kick off party in Modesto!


We had olympic ring placemats (all the right olympic colors)...

And Olympic ring pizza.  We also had gold medal apple cider and olympic antipasto salad (for the grown ups).  For dessert, bunny slope white chocolate fondue.  (Lesson to self:  fondue and 3 year olds--not a good combo)  Our "Olympics Party" was complete when Cameron and Katie put on their snow-themed pj's and we were able to enjoy the opening ceremonies together. Actually, they drifted off long before the opening ceremonies really got underway, but it was a nice effort!

Katie, of course, had to make a visit to Boomers. She was driven around by Michael, who is quite a good race car driver--and she also got to drive herself around on the mini cars.  Michael used his amazing golf skills to try and teach Cameron the game. Cameron has a whole new technique for golfing. You swing at the ball with the club, and if you don't make it--you run, pick up the ball, and dump it in the hole. Works well for miniature golf, I'm not sure if it would go over very well for Michael at a tournamant!

ALL ABOARD! Cameron LOVES trains!!!! So on Saturday we took a trip to the train museum in Sacramento. He was like a wild man, running from one train to the next. He couldn't believe there were so many trains! So many things to see and touch and climb on...He was in little boy heaven!

After the train museum there was the requisite ice cream--which of course was delicious!

But, best of all was Cameron and his cupcakes--in Cameron language they are HUPCAKES. Cameron is not a good eater. In fact if sugar is not the main ingredient, he is not interested at all. I had these cupcakes I had made and if you told him he could have a cupcake if he ate all his dinner--he would eat all his dinner--it was that simple. But watching him eat these cupcakes, it was pure focused joy for him. At that moment in his life there was nothing more perfect or more enjoyable than that simple cupcake!

Wienermobile

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener...Good times at the new SaveMart!

Wedding Plans

I visited Jessica last weekend to make the wedding plans. We were very, very busy AND very, very successful.

She has a beautiful site for the reception--the Wasatch Room of The Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We picked out linens, chairs (who knew I cared if it was a bow or a knot?) and a delicious buffet menu. They have a fantastic wedding coordinator who made the whole process a lot easier.

Then.... it was off to meet with the florist. I used the words simple and small and hopefully that helped. She seemed to get the idea that we didn't want this to be really over the top and came up with some great ideas for purple flowers which is the color Jessica chose (and which also are not very plentiful)

Then....the bakery! She chose to have a cupcake tower with one small cake that she and Adam can cut at the top of the tower. It's going to be beautiful--the one task I have...to find purple cupcake liners.

On Friday our one and only task was to find a wedding dress. I thought this would be easy, but as beautiful as Jessica is, not all the dresses were equally as beautiful. At the third place we looked she found it! The perfect dress, she fell in love from the moment she put it on. (Jessica apparently missing a hand is the result of having to "take in" the dress--it's a little big)


What a happy girl! To have this big job finished!

Then....it was off to look for purple shoes. Turns out this is no easy task (unless you want purple suede 5 inch heels) We looked everywhere with no luck--She'll keep looking...

I was going home Saturday night so it was crunch time on Saturday. We found her temple dress first thing and then headed back to Salt Lake. More looking for purple shoes (still no luck) and then ordering the invitations. She had already picked out the ones she liked, so it was easy to finalize all the details (and as with all other plans there are apparently a lot of details that I was unaware of) But they were selected and ordered and we're on our way!

So after an exhausting 48 hours I believe the major parts of the wedding are all planned. Small decisions left to finalize and some little things here and there--but for the bigdecisions--checked off our list!

The New Savemart

The NEW and IMPROVED Savemart opened in our neighborhood this week.



We have shopped at the OLD and WORNOUT Savemart since moving to Modesto in 1992. At that time, the spot where the NEW and IMPROVED Savemart is now located, was a huge watermelon field! We visited the NEW and IMPROVED Savemart on Thursday--here are my impressions:
1. It is very crowded--where did all these people shop before last Wednesday?? It was definitely not at the old Savemart.
2. No running in to grab some milk. The place is huge. I hear that on opening day they were handing out maps so people could find their way around.
3. The cream cheese is located with the cheese products by the produce section--which is not by the butter and yogurt which is by the milk section.
4. The milk, butter and yogurt section is separated from all the rest of the food by the drug store section--NOT a fan of this layout.
5. They do have a pretty cool olive bar--if you are an olive lover, which by the way I am.
6. They have some pretty unusual produce. Not quite sure how to cook it, they need to hand out recipes.
7. They have a "sample kitchen". They prepare samples here instead of at the card table at the front of the old store.
8. The old store is now an empty building, just what we need in Modesto--another empty building.
9. No one seems to know my name, or care if I've already been in once that day and obviously have forgotten something, or wonders if I'm still going to the gym, or asks about my kids, or asks if I need help unloading my cart.
10. I almost forgot the best part--the exterior of the store is ugly. They could have done much better. First, it is in parts, a kind of ugly orange. There is a huge metal?? facade with a Salvation Army sign?? AND best of all--the teleports--these bizarre neon glass cases that obviously transport you to the mother ship....

I wish they would transport me back to the old store, I miss it.....