The Main Event....Courtney and Morgan Get Married!!!

The guys are ready to go!!! As Caitlin and I primped, they set a goal to be ready, ties and all, in 6 minutes. By the thumbs up, you can guess the outcome.
Before the wedding

Caitlin and Briana gave out the wedding programs. Aren't they beautiful?

Caitlin, Briana and their Grandma Fuller (a.k.a. the shortest member of the family)

Mike and Chuck escorting Marilyn down to the wedding area. The wedding was held in a garden area. The weather and temperature couldn't have been better if they'd hand picked it!

Sam heading down to the ceremony. He was in charge of taking the gifts and took over the programs after Caitlin and Briana were escorted down. He's lookin' good!

Here Comes The Bride! A beautiful one at that....

Courtney and Morgan....The Siegals

The party begins! After cocktails and appetizers outside, we went in the reception hall for a sit down dinner. Sam's picture taking pose is catching on with Megan!

A dance with the Father of the Bride...ahhh :)

The beautiful Tanaka girls...Ann, Briana, Alison and Megan

Chuck and Marilyn (the shortest of the crew) and five of their seven grandchildren.

Courtney and Morgan and the Tanakas.

Mike and Courtney are all grown up! They were 5 and 3 when I first met them. Seems like just yesterday that I watched Mike throw a silent tantrum in the underwear department, and talked Barbie dolls with Courtney.

Chip and Caitlin dancing the night away. She taught him a few hip-hop moves and he taught her to Western Swing.

Sam and Briana dancing, laughing, dancing, and laughing some more.

Ann, Marcy, me, Caitlin, Briana, Alison, and a few groomsmen in our version of a mosh pit.

It looks like I'm doing some ancient tribal dance, but I'm actually taking off my shoes!

Sam finally got his Grandma to dance with him, after many attempts. He's getting a kick out of what is now affectionately known as "The Grandma Dance."

Ann and John......not too bad for 20 plus years of marriage!

Chuck and Marilyn...not too bad after 55, yes 55, years of marriage! I've never known ANYONE who's been married that long!

Two of our beautiful nieces Bri and Meg.

In Courtney's words, this was an absolutely "magical" wedding! It was a true celebration in every sense of the word and such a tribute to the commitment that Courtney and Morgan are making to one another. The ceremony was led by a favorite Pastor from Courtney's childhood in Littleton. There were scriptures read and several prayers given as part of the wedding ceremony. I listened closely to the vows spoken and thought, "They have no idea what these words actually mean." I thoughtof my mom and Rich dealing with Parkinsons. I thought of Chuck and Marilyn being married 55 years. I thought of my Dad and Theo finding such contentment with one another at this time in life. I think of many couples I know who have literally loved one another through sickness and health, for better or worse, in good times and bad. I include Chip and myself in this. Marriage is so incredibly hard, but so incredibly wonderful. It isn't easy, but it's worth it.

This is the first grandchild's wedding on the Fuller side of the family. Here's to many, many more to come!

The Day After....

The day after the big event, we all headed to Marcy and Dick's home in Conifer, which is about two hours from Estes Park. Ever the over-achievers, Marcy and Dick decided that in addition to putting on a wedding for their daughter, they could turn around within 24 hours and host a family reunion....in their home no less! We started the evening on their incredible wrap around deck, surrounded by beautiful Colorado mountain scenery. Chip, Marilyn and Sam are getting cozy and enjoying a good laugh....one of many over the course of the weekend!
Marilyn's 76th birthday was on July 3rd, so we used this opportunity to celebrate. Here's Marcy bringing the cake (Courtney and Morgan's wedding cake) over to Marilyn. What we lacked in tone and pitch, we made up for in volume as we sang Happy Birthday to our Mom, Mother-in-law, and Grandma.

Lookin' good for 76!!!! The night continued with lots of storytelling, laughing, and taking turns lying on the self-inflating air mattress and it inflated/deflated.....it doesn't take much for this family!!!

Mt. Evans...As Close to Heaven as You'll Get on Earth!

After excellent Mexican food and margaritas in Evergreen, we headed up to Mt. Evans with Marcy, Dick, and Chip's parents. It was one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. The sign shows it at 14,130 ft. at this point. The rest of the gang isn't shown because they'd already headed down due to issues with the high altitude. We didn't escape unscathed ourselves, as Caitlin ended up feeling light-headed and extremely tired, and I felt a profound tightness in my throat. Any high altitude symptoms were well worth the view which was spectacular....beyond description!
Sam and Chip hiked to the actual peak which is 14,260 ft. in elevation. He's the King of the World!!!

Chip and Sam at the peak.

We were lucky to have made it to the top of Mt. Evans when we did, as there was an amazing thunder storm shortly after we left. It was such a great experience. We headed back to Marcy and Dick's house in Conifer for Happy Hour, dinner, a lot of laughs and great conversation before leaving the next morning.

Cherry Days 5K

Every year for the 4th of July, North Ogden City sponsors a 5K Run/Walk. I first ran it about 5 years ago, and Chip and Sam ran it together last year. This year Chip, Sam, me and my friend, Mary, ran it together. Actually, Chip and Sam ran together and I ran with Mary. This is our pre-race photo, taken by Caitlin, our dedicated photographer, who got out of bed at 6:15 a.m., after a late night of scooping ice cream at the dairy. Chip and Sam crossing the finish line. Sam has been training with me since school let out. We run together every other day. He got up to 3.3 miles before Race Day, and his goal is to be able to run 5 miles by the end of the summer. I can tell he's giving it his all here as he's finishing. He's like his mom in the sense that we pick up the pace when we "smell the barn. "

Here's Mary and me crossing the Finish Line, with Sam high-fiving us. This was Mary's first race since sustaining a serious running injury last winter, when she slipped on some ice while running and broke her ankle in three places. I think it's fair to say she's impressed pretty much everyone who knows her with how well she's healed and how quickly she's returned to running. Her tenacious attitude and love of running are to credit for her quick recovery. I was so happy to be able to run her first race with her post-injury!

Post-race photo....a little sweaty but feelin' good!

I have a picture of these two in the exact same shirts, race bibs and all from last year. The big difference is where Sam is in terms of height. Last year's photo shows him barely at Chip's shoulder. I can't believe how much he's grown in one year. I'm betting in next year's photo Sam will almost be the same height as his dad!

My buddy, Mary. Together, we have laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. I respect her immensely and love her to pieces.

Bryce 2009

Before leaving on our trip to Bryce National Park we took Caitlin to the dance studio where she left with the Performing Troupe for a trip to St. George. They were going to perform in a Pre-Show Performance at Tuachan. While there, they got to participate in a dance workshop at Tuachan with some of the performers, see the plays "Footloose" and "Annie," and go shopping at the outlet malls. Caitlin thought all of this preferable to camping and hiking with us in Bryce.....go figure?
Sam is going to miss his big sister!
Camp is officially set up! We like to camp at Ruby's Inn Campground. The campsites are nice and shady, you can use the indoor and outdoor pools, there's a great store, a rodeo every night, and most importantly (for me) the bathrooms are extremely clean with large, spacious showers that are not crowded. We even had internet access on our laptop from camp.

Breaking in the campsite with a glass of wine on our first night.

Sam is breaking in the campground with a root beer on our first night.

First day of hiking. We did three hikes this day, logging 9 miles total. The first hike was Peek-a-Boo Loop. This was BEFORE the rain.

Sam is imitating the tourists we saw from Eastern Europe. There was a whole bus full of them and they all felt compelled to stand as close to the edge as possible, throw their arms in the air, and have their picture taken. Why not? It's amazing! One of the things that we enjoy about visiting the national parks is the fact that you have the opportunity to be around tourists from so many different countires and you hear such a variety of languages. Although you might not always understand what they're saying, you know from the tone and inflection of their voices that they are awestruck by the beauty and vastness of this country.

Me and my hiking buddy. I love hiking with Sam.

Our attempt at the Leonardo da Vinci guy. Pretty lame attempt.

It rained. It hailed. It blew. Rivers ran down the trails. Fortunately for us, our sherpa, a.k.a. Chip, had the foresight to pack rain ponchos.

Even hiking in the rain is enjoyable and beautiful in Bryce.

After our rainy hike in Bryce we decied to head to Kodachrome Basin State Park, which was about 20 miles away. It was much sunnier there. We did two hikes....the first was to Shakespeare Arch, the only natural arch in the park.

Sam is in character as Moses. Hmmm....somehow I don't remember Charlton Heston doing this in The Ten Commandments.

Our second hike at Kodachrome Basin. It was actually very pretty there, but you definitely wouldn't want to be there on a very warm day.

Our second day of hiking begins. Sam and his new friend. Actually, the critters there are professionals at begging for food. This little guy sat there looking absolutely adorable and pathetic at the same time. All he got was a photo op out of us...no food.

This is at Bryce Point, where we began our first hike on our second day. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We hiked to Hat Shop, which was a much quieter hike than the our previous day's hike at Bryce. This one was about a 4-miler and had lots of Bristlecone pines. You weren't right amongst the hoodoos, like our hike the day before, but always had them in sight. After this hike, we hiked to Tower Bridge, which started at Sunrise Point. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! You were right down in the hoodoos. It was a little more crowded, but well worth it. We hiked a total of 17 miles on our trip, saw lots of amazing scenery, and replenished both body and mind. Chip and I are heading to Glacier National Park the last week of July, but are really itching to get to Capital Reef as a family sometime soon.

Serving With The Youth

Last week the Youth Group (Jr. High aged) participated in a service project at St. Anne's Center (one of two homeless shelters in Ogden). I had the opportunity to go along with the group as a chaperone. I believe there were a total of 18 of us that attended. We were all asked to fast for two meals, if able, work at St. Anne's for a few hours, and then back to the church for tacos. We were given a variety of jobs to do. Here some of the youth are taking large packages of diapers and making smaller packages to give to families with babies.
One of the more time consuming jobs was putting together mens/womens hygiene kits to distribute.

These lovely ladies were in my group. We were given the task of washing all the doors down and they did a great job. As you can see, they are clearly enjoying their work :)

More ladies in my group, washing doors. They worked hard...there's a lot of doors at St. Anne's and we washed EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! I told the girls this would get their arms buff for summer. I don't think they bought it.

This was a great service project to be involved in! Based on the conversation I had with the youth, and the conversation I overheard while working there and on the drive, I believe it was a meaningful experience for them. We are fortunate to have people at our church who are very committed to the youth and take the time to organize activities, like this, for them to be involved in. Sam absolutely loves his Youth Group and has lots of friends there.

On another note, my mom had a pacemaker put in last weekend. After her physician gave it a few tweaks on Friday, she seems to be much better. Unfortunately, right around the time she had her surgery, her husband, who has Parkinson's disease, took a turn for the worse due to a virus he'd caught. This resulted in him having some severe hallucinations, which can be quite scary not only for him but for all of us! Due to my mom not being able to drive post-surgery, I've taken them to quite a few appointments this past week and I think we're on the downhill slide from a very stressful couple of weeks.

Sam is running the local 4th of July 5K this year with us. He has started training with me, and I must say he has improved exponentially since last year when he trained for the same race. We started out by doing 1.5 miles around our neighborhood and he never even broke a sweat! We went out today and bought him a new pair of running shoes, so I hope I can keep up with him tomorrow!

I've finally been assigned some Hospice patients to work with. Fortunately for me, all three are in an assisted living center close to home. I'm looking forward to meeting them all tomorrow and Tuesday. I have no idea what to expect from this volunteer work, but I'm sure it will prove to be an interesting experience!

Our First Official Weekend of Summer

Yesterday Chip had the day off so Sam, Chip, Cloe and I went for a hike. Every summer Chip and I like to hike to Lewis Peak a few times. Sam wants to do it with us this year. The first 2 miles are all uphill and quite steep, but after that it levels off nicely and the rest of the hike, the other 3 miles, to Lewis Peak is like a rambling little trail compared to the first part. We took Sam up the first 2+ miles so he could get a feel for it. He did great but was a much happier kid on the trip down.
That's Sam up ahead, once we got past the steep part of the hike. This picture shows all the wildflowers that are in bloom right now, but it doesn't do justice to the real beauty. In addition to the copious amounts of yellow flowers in bloom, there are numerous purple lupine scattered amongst them. The contrast is spectacular. The last time Chip and I did this hike was the last weekend of September and leaves were changing.
It was breathtaking.The guys on the way up.

The girls and "the guy" on the way up. Our other girl, Caitlin, was home asleep. It was her first official day of summer vacation, after all!

Cloe will follow Sam anywhere, and she did. He wanted a picture on this rock and as he was getting himself all set up for it, she bounded into the picture. You can tell she took him by surprise and almost knocked him off the rock!

Sunday afternoon after church we drove down to Salt Lake and went to a Bees game. It was great fun. We haven't been to a ball game in a long, long time. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event. We actually stayed the entire game. That might not seem noteworthy to a lot of people, however, every game we've been to in the past 15+ years we've had young kids who lost their sense of humor way before the 7th inning stretch. (The novelty of a tub of popcorn only lasts so long.) The Bees won 8-3, by the way.

We had a great time! The Humane Society was there with pets that were up for adoption. It was "bring your dog to the game"day, so lots of people had their dogs with them. We were thoroughy entertained by the beagle "sitting" in front of us. (I should've taken a picture! Darn!) I can guarantee not one of these pictures would've been taken if we'd brought Cloe with us.

My family!