Eric and Jenny Whitesides Wedding

Saturday, March 25th, 2023

They got married in the Draper temple. So it wasn't too bad of a drive. But we ended up getting there only like 5 minutes before the ceremony actually started.  But man was it cold. We stayed in the van, watched Brayla's son Lucas, and I ran back and forth between our van and Jason and Tami's car to check on their 4 kiddos.

Then when our family started coming out of the temple, and Mckay came to get Lucas, we got our kids out and dressed for the cold and went to line up to congratulate the newlywed couple. Then we took some group pictures with them.

Jake and I stayed to help Crista get the boutonniere on the guys, and found out she was hoping I would take pictures at the reception tonight. Initially I wasn't planning to really take any, because I just wanted to relax with Jake and the kids and enjoy the reception, that way I wasn't "working" a  wedding I wasn't getting paid to photograph.  I have done that at all of my extended family weddings so far and wanted to just participate this time.

So after learning this, Jake and I headed home to get my lights and extension cords so that we could light up the church gym. They were only going to have a string of lights going on the inside walls of the gym, so it was going to be very dark. And I was going to have to use my flash so my ISO stayed low.

After we picked up my camera gear, we headed to the church they were having the luncheon and reception at.

Before the reception, but after the meal my parents took our kiddos to the dollar store to get some toys to keep them entertained throughout the night.

So I did photograph the reception with a couple of other people from Jenny's side. And It wasn't too bad. I still played and took some photographs. I feel bad, because Jake once again was left to chase the kids while I did something I love to do. He didn't have a great evening, and that made me really sad, because I really did want to just hang out with him.

We stayed to the very end, leaving around 9 pm. My dear aunt let me take some extra cookies, that I gave to the teachers at Jim Bridger from the PTA.

Day trip to Heber-Sledding and Dairy Keen Tour

Monday, March 27th

It was the first day of Spring Break. Mom wanted us to come up because Shayla was giving her activity day girls a  tour of the Dairy Keen and she was inviting us up so the kids could get the tour too.

I had also offered to take Belle and Anna sledding during spring break, so I asked Tori if I could take the girls, go sledding, and go up to Heber. She said yes, so I picked up the girls around 11:30 AM. 

We headed up to Mountain Dell Golf Course to go sledding. We got there, the kids got all dressed up, and we headed to the hill, only to find out the snow was so deep, but no crystalized on top that we sunk a full foot into the snow. We could not sled! At all. So Lizzy and Anna made a snowball, William crawled around the snow, and tried making a snow cave, Sydney tried to help Belle make a sled path, but got bored after only a short amount of time. 

We eventually made a sled path, from the efforts of Belle, but with assistance from everyone else. So after 40 minutes, everyone got to "sled", which was a ten foot length of snow pressed down enough to allow the sled to slide. They all got a couple turns, and then it was time to go.

We made it up to Heber just in time to beat my mom to the Dairy Keen. So we hung out for about 15 minutes, before mom showed up. All the activity day girls were there. Shayla came out and took them on a tour and at the end of the tour they all go to make their own ice cream shake with any toppings they wanted. The kids loved that. 

Afterwards we went to my moms house to eat the food we ordered and let the kids play for about an hour before it was time to head home. It was now close to 5 pm and I need to get the girls home. 

The drive was pretty rough for me, I definitely kept dozing off at the wheel. And I was so tired, I got lost in Anna and Belle's neighborhood. Took an extra five minutes to get them home. I am really glad and grateful we all got home safely.

 
Camera pics uploaded last to first**