Pre-Wedding Photos

We took about 60 pre-wedding photos last night for our use for a matte framing for the wedding. This seems to be a cool tradition with Sue's family where you put out a large photo that has a matte placed around it for everyone to sign. What a neat idea. This photo with us next to the pinkish purple crepe myrtle is the one we are going to use.

Sue is absolutely "drop dead gorgeous" and can make any dress look like a million bucks. I really think she make a "burlap sack" look like and evening gown''''she really is that beautiful.

We are using Hugh Yancey as our photographer. He is a personal friend of ours who shoots tons of Southern California LDS weddings. he is the 2nd counselor serving in the Bishopric with me and Bishop Slack.

We are planning on shooting family photos on the day of the wedding too.

Moving Day

My friend Jeff and I moved just about everything of Sue's over to my house this past Saturday. The only think left at Sue's home is her inflatable mattresses, dishes, and computer. The dining set and living room furniture are still there too for the girls when they are ready to pick it up.

We have the house pretty well situated and Sue has done a great job of placing her things in the house. The new bedroom looks fabulous with her bedroom furniture and the new desk we bought her. Now we really have a nice guest bedroom.

The garages are packed with all kinds of boxes and knick knacks...needless to say we haven't been using our exercise equipment lately.

Sue will be moving in permanently on this Thursday when her girls arrive. We will have tons of people staying at the house and that should be a riot....I'm really looking forward to it. It will b e a great time for both of our families.

Busy Weekend

We went back up to Cedar City on Friday night to watch "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Shakespeare Festival. It was absolutely great. For those of you who may not know the story line...it is set in Russian in the early 1900's and is basically about a father of 5 girls trying to raise them in trying time....5 girls????? Are you Flipping Kidding Me? hahahahahaha... I am actually very much looking forward to being a step dad to Sue's 5 AWESOME daughters!

We planned our wedding, Sue's actual move, our honeymoon, the girls' visits, some things we need to do for the house. We ran allover town to do some shopping and window shopping and moved over most of Sue's photos and paintings since we are spending most of our time at my house now.
We cooked some burgers for dinner and they were great.

Sunday was an all day church day (wouldn't have it any other way) then I cooked some BBQ chicken with some pasta and a tres leches cake with strawberries for our weekly desert.

It was a very domestic and busy weekend. We still had a blast just being together though.

Dinner with Jimmy & Hollie

We went to dinner with Ray's son Jimmy and his wife Hollie and their kids, Gracie and Preston last night. We had a real nice time at the Texas Roadhouse and then went back to their house for a couple of hours. Gracie entertained us with her dancing and Preston with his laughing. Gracie just loves dancing to Elvis songs and she can really shake her little booty. We all had a great time.

Wet Weekend

We went up Cedar Mountain on Friday night to eat at Milt's Steakhouse. It is up Cedar canyon and has a real nice setting and some great steaks. So it was great for our weekly red meat "jonesing" While we were up there it rained like crazy with lots of thunder and lightning. That doesn't sound like a big deal but out here any time you get a sprinkle it's a big deal. Like, let's pull up a chair and pop some popcorn so we can watch the rain :o)

On the way back down the mountain we had to traverse through several mini landslides where, mud, rocks, and debris, came off the mountains and covered the road. The rain followed us all the way back home and when we got there, it rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain out here. Really cool.

On Saturday, Ray golfed in the company golf tournament in the morning and had a great time. Sue and Ray shopped for a computer desk for Sue in the afternoon and found a really nice one that will fit in our new guest room. We finished the night by having dinner at Olive Garden then chilling at home.

Sue came to church at Ray's Ward and will be coming there from now on. EVERYONE was very happy to see Sue there. We ended the weekend by having some great Greek style chicken and some grilled veggies...not to mention a strawberry/rhubarb cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream.....mmmmmmmmgooooood!

A great weekend, just not quite as busy. We're doing some serious planning and moving a lot of Sue's stuff over to the house. Just 25 more days till the big day. Yeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaa!

Fourth of July Weekend

We had a great and busy weekend over the 4th of July holiday. It all began with a wonderful meal on Thursday night at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant in Silver Reef. The Cosmo is owned by our personal friend, Imi Kun and his wife, Suzy. They are both form Hungary. It is one of the very few "fine dining" establishment sin Southern Utah. It is so good that we will be having our family dinner there the night before our wedding. The menu, food, and presentation is phenomenal. Here is a couple of pictures of Imi & Suzy at the Cosmo. Check it out at their website. http://www.cosmodining.com/
Silver Reef is an old historical silver mining town with lots of old structures form the 1800's. It is about 20 miles north of St. George.

We drove up to Cove Fort on Friday to see the LDS church's historical site that is there. Cove Fort is about 2 hours north of St. George. Cove Fort was built in the 1800's as a way station for pioneers that were traveling from Salt Lake to St. George. It was developed by President Gordon B. Hinckley's grandfather. Here are some cool pictures of the Fort and us having a good time.

We went back home and began painting one of our rooms at the house and cooked some Italian sausage with onions and peppers..mmmmm gooooood!

On Saturday, we went up to Zion National Park to attempt to hike the Narrows, which is the Virgin river that narrows down to less than 100' apart from steep cliffs, hence the name. The weather was potentially threatening (you don't want to get trapped in a river with no way out if it rains) so we went and hiked up the Watchman trail that overlooks the town of Springdale. Because we were ready for king in water you can see the need for our short shorts (and white legs hahaha). The hike was awesome as it was a steep climb and a 3 mile round trip. That doesn't sound like much but when you are climbing 1500 feet that's a lot and it took us 3 hours including our rest stop. Take a look at the pictures...awesome!

Sue then wanted me to take her on a plant tour of my business. She really liked it and enjoyed the visit. Since nobody was there that day she got the 10 dollar tour. Here are a couple of pictures of me outside the office...she made made do it :o)

We went out for pizza Saturday night then went to see "Hancock" with Will Smith and Charlize Theron...it was ok...not great, not gosh awful, but ok.

After a long day of church on Sunday we had my sons and their families over for dinner...whew...what a weekend.

Our adventures continue!