Day Trip to Mt. Vernon

Dave, James, Julia, Andrea and I took a day trip to George Washington's home in Virginia. It was a warm, pretty day.

Mt. Vernon is a favorite day trip of mine.  There is so much reserved land there--just minutes from the nation's capital, but you can get a sense of what it looked like when George Washington kived there.

This painting of Washington praying at Valley Forge was painted by Mormon artist Arnold Friberg.

Here we're standing at the back of the house that overlooks the river. This architecture has stood the test of time. Our house model is a Mt. Vernon.

Happy Birthday Dave!

Happy Birthday to my handsome hubby!  This year he celebrated it with Julia, Andrea and me.  Dave is sporting a tie that Andrea sewed for him.

Erika and Tyler's MD reception

A week after Tyler and Erika were married in Idaho, we had a reception for them in Maryland.  We had family come from out of town, and well as Tyler's parents. We had dinner together at our house the night before.

Dave's parents, brother and three sisters were able to attend, as well as many of our friends.

It was great to have so much of our family together to celebrate this festive occasion.

Erika and Tyler are Married

Erika and Tyler were married in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) on Saturday, August 7, 2010.

Our family (David, myself, Julia and Andrea) flew to Gooding, Idaho on Wednesday. James, who was at Kara and Luke's house in Denver for 10 days after finishing his summer semester at BYU-Idaho,  drove to Idaho on Thursday with them. My parents also came--from Utah and California. The only immediate family member we were missing was Daniel--who is in Nevada on his mission.

On Thursday we  helped Tylers' family with set up for the reception.

Friday many in our family attended the Twin Falls temple with Erika, who was attending for the first time, and in preparation for the wedding the next day.

Then Friday night we had a barbecue outside at Tyler's house--complete with fireworks.

Tyler and Erika answered questions from the group that Kara had prepared--seeing how well their answers matched.

Saturday morning was the wedding at the temple.


April, a family friend kindly offered her back yard for the reception. It was very pretty with a fountain, covered deck, lights, decorated tables, room for dancing, etc.

I was able to visit with three of my good friends from Emmett/Boise, Idaho who I've known since high school, and who were also college roommates.





It was a beautiful ceremony--seeing them wed for time and all eternity. The whole day was a great celebration. We were all almost as excited as Tyler.

Elder Meiners heads to his mission in Nevada

On Tuesday August 3, 2010, Elder Meiners flew from the Mission Training Center near Salt Lake City, Utah to his mission.  (This was the day before the rest of the family flew to Idaho for his sister Erika's wedding.

There Elder Meiners met the mission president and his wife,

and his first companion.  Though we were sorry he couldn't attend his sister's wedding, we felt that he was in the right place serving a mission and helping other families.  He does appear to be very happy, and we are so proud of him!