Karen's Big Day

Brian's sister Karen was married to Jonathan Skarda yesterday in the Salt Lake temple. It was a lovely sealing and a beautiful day on temple square. Congratulations Karen and Jonathan! It has been a wonderful weekend spending time with family. All of Brian's siblings made it out for the wedding. It is so great to be part of this Ashton family!

Oldest to youngest there is Melinda, Amy, Ed, Wendy, (parents Lorraine and Arden) Karen, Brian, Kevin and Scott. Here is our little family: I tried to snap a picture of Brian and I, but someone kept squinting in the bright sun. Here is the result of telling him to keep his eyes open. I gotta admit, he does try to please.

It was sweet to be back in the Salt Lake temple where Brian and I were sealed together for time and eternity back in June of 2008. That was the best decision of my life and I thoroughly love spending my life with Brian. He is the sweetest, most patient, funny, thoughtful and amazing man! I'm a lucky gal!

Elliott handled the day wonderfully. He didn't last too long in the stroller, but he has started this clingy-to-mommy phase and so didn't wander away from me. There are great walls for climbing, walking and sitting all around the temple. (p.s. I was pleased to notice that no one had on a brighter top than me - go orange!) It's so hard to get a picture now of Elliott since he doesn't hold still ever, unless he's crying. He kept trying to jump over the cement blocks and drains and bricks. Forget the flowers, the sidewalkes are cool to 18-month-olds! After the wedding, we had about an hour and a half to chill out before the reception. I had hoped Elliott would take a nap, but dirt must be explored. Luckily the dirt just wiped right off his cute little suit. You do not have to lock any gates to contain Elliott. Just give him the power to open and close and he will be there for hours, opening and closing and opening and closing the gate. Such a big guy! Then at the reception, he followed his favorite cousin Saffy around, but mostly hung out with Mom. At the end of a long day, Elliott needed to relax. Ok, so his diaper leaked all over his pants and we were waiting for Dad to get extra pants from the car, but he looked so cute in his shoes and socks and vest that I couldn't resist sharing the moment.

You've probably noticed that I actually posted with pictures - well we decided that to do Karen's wedding right, we needed a camera. We bought a nice Canon powershot 1300. We love the small Canon point and shoots. And as always, the entire post and most of the pictures revolve around Elliott. I can't help it. He is my focus all day every day and I find him so darn fascinating and adorable, I must share.