Why are the beef lips in our food?: Summer wrap up- June

Summer officially starts when we say goodbye to the school year so this picture of Will and Miss Hinckley will kick off our summer wrap up. All smiles May 30.

Another hard goodbye was the end of the baseball season. The last game followed by a tearful last team huddle was June 11. Will had a great year as a Pirate

June 17th took us to Burley to get braces! (In wedding colors of course.)

Abby wanted a picture too so here she is showing off her cold sore:)

June 18th was ward temple night and of course the Little League closing party. Garrett and I were planning to go to the temple and my friend Julie said she would check on the kids at the party throughout the night. Emily went with Will and his friend to help supervise. They had a great time and especially liked racing each other through the obstacle course bounce house. Since Emily was undefeated Will made a special effort to beat her and launched himself out the end of the bounce house to secure the victory. When Garrett and I finished at the temple we had several missed calls from both of the girls. Abby had called most recently so I called her back and could hear Will sobbing in the background. They said he hurt his arm and was back home now. Since Emily couldn't get a hold of me or Julie, who was putting her baby to bed she called Abby and her friend's mom drove down to pick them up. Luckily we were only about 15 minutes behind them. Will was on the couch with an ice pack on his arm and when I even hinted at taking him in to get it checked out he would scream "I just want to go to bed!" (Hindsite tells me he was a little shocky.) I decided I would watch him through the night and decide in the morning about a Doctor and when I talked to Julie a little later she also said to save the ER bill because even if it was broken they would only splint it and send us home. (She had just gone through a broken arm with her son.) It was good advice. I got pain meds in Will and let him sleep with me that night. He did pretty well through the night but did not move his arm all night. By morning he still would not move it away from his side, as if he was wearing a sling. I decided we needed to check it out, especially with a long road trip 3 days away. Sure enough, as the X-Rays plainly show he had broken his arm. Treatment required a double sugar tong splint (yes I really love saying double sugar tong) for a week followed by a hard cast for 4 more weeks. BUT after all of that, the most important thing to remember is that HE WON THE RACE!!!

On to Missouri! We left on June 22 for Missouri, spent the night in Wyoming and arrived Monday June 23. We had less than a week to pack in as much stuff as we could. Lauren went through the temple Tues morning and in the evening we went to a Royals game.

The next day we set off to see a few Church History sites. The first was Adam ondi Ahman. This was a very beautiful site with a special spirit about it. I was most impressed with how large it was and all in pristine condition of course. I later found out that my Brother in Law's father, Leslie Boyce, was called to design and landscape the entire site in the early 70's. I've been reading some of his history and it was an incredible story of how he ended up with the calling and how they fulfilled it!

Next we visited the Hixson's, friends from our former ward who had moved to Missouri. It was good to see them. On the way back to Kansas City we stopped at Far West and at a pioneer cemetary in Richmond. It was a lot of driving but beautiful countryside that's for sure.

This interesting thorn tree was at Farr West.

We noticed it because Chris Hixson had just been describing a terrible thorny tree that makes clearing land in Missouri nearly impossible. Apparently the thorns can puncture tires of even heavy equipment. It was funny to happen upon the tree at our very next stop.
The next day, Thursday, was wedding prep day. We spent most of the day decorating the church for the reception.

Most of our time was spent fluffing tissue balls!

The guys hung them from the ceiling and I must admit the effort was worth it because it looked great.

There were occasional breaks to tune in to World Cup action.

Friday June 27th was the big day of course! The wedding was at 1:00 so we had a nice leisurely morning to get ready. When I was heading down for breakfast I shared an elevator with a couple of well dressed young men. When I asked where they were headed one said he was getting married! At that point I saw the garment smile and I knowingly asked oh really where? He said in the Kansas City LDS Temple. They were the 11:00 sealing and we were the 1:00! He and Dylan met in the lobby and had a great little chat. Dylan kept saying that it just made his day to meet that guy! (I guess they had an instant connection as nervous grooms:)
Parents of groom ready to go!

Dylan having a "this is it" moment.

Waiting...

WooHoo!

Dylan kept saying "I'm married!"

The original Taylor kids.

Version 2.0

After the wedding we ran back to the hotel where I whipped up the "Groom's cake". I've never heard of a groom's cake but apparently that's a thing. Dylan had requested a Peanut Butter Pie for his Groom's cake, I know kind of weird, but it turned out that a pie was actually doable in a hotel room. Thanks to Walmart and some creative measuring devices from the hotel breakfast bar I pulled it off.

I thought it turned out very cute!

Best man and sidekick. Garrett did a great job giving the Best man speech and announcing some of the goings on of the evening. It was a proud mama moment to see that Timberline leadership training paying off. He has become a very capable and confident young man.