Happy days!

Wow! These past two weeks have been a whirlwind, but we’ve loved it! We were able to fly to Utah for Matthew and Shannon’s wedding on the 17^th in the Jordan River Temple and spent a week there, visiting with everyone.  We had so much fun celebrating that when we finally returned to Nauvoo I needed a vacation from the vacation. 

We are extremely happy and excited for Matthew and Shannon.  The temple ceremony was beautiful and they make an amazing couple.  The open house, luncheon and reception were perfect, thanks to so much help from kind family and friends.  We certainly couldn’t have done it alone.  That was one of the many heartwarming parts of the whole experience.  In the temple we covenant to live a Christlike life.  To “pause to help and lift another”. That’s what Matthew and Shannon promised to do for each other.  And that’s what we witnessed throughout our week home.  People were willing to do all that they could to make our burdens light, every step of the way.  Our hearts are full of gratitude to each person who made the week a memorable one.

What a great surprise!  A visit from Elder & Sister Williams
(aka. Dee & Roxanne) on their way home from St. George.
It was soooo great to see them and visit for a bit.




Thursday night we had a bridal shower for Shannon...

The bride to be and her mom working on the quilt.  

The Stevenson bunch.  What a blessing to be surrounded by family!

The original Crump bunch.  They're always there for family support.

Many hands make light work.




We're waiting on some actual wedding pictures, but here are some from the awesome day:

All smiles after tying the knot in the Jordan River Temple.

Matthew and some of his buddies;
Kaden, Brady, Josh & McKay.

The happy couple at the luncheon.

At the luncheon: Cami & Judd, Kim & Gene Player, & Zachary.
Slightly love this family of ours!

Scott and my favorite mother-in-law :0)

At the reception: Scott gets a visit from the
Bingham High School Social Studies Department.

Surprise, surprise!  At the Open House on Friday evening in Logan who
should come through the line but Marianne Murray Siler, my mission
companion in Peru a hundred years ago!  She knows Shannon's family. 
Needless to say we had a great visit!

The perfect end to a perfect day!



Our flight back to Nauvoo took us to the St. Louis Airport.
So of course we had to make a stop at the Arch.

Old Courthouse and Arch.

From the top of the arch looking east across the Mississippi River.

Looking west.  Busch Stadium is the red building, for those
of you who are Cardinal fans :0)

A panoramic of St. Louis from the top of the Arch.

Gotta love the obligatory selfie :0)

Pictures from the preceding two weeks...

The best "Sunset by the Mississippi" cast you could ask for:
Crump, Warner (together in the back row), Richards, Draney, Nash, Kidby, Flanders1, Whiting, Swanson,
Willmore, Cornwell, Barrow, Thatcher, Davies, Barney, Flanders2, Moyes, Bingham, Paxman, Rollins & Keeton

Finally got the roping thing down...
well, not really.  But I did get it to go
round and round for about 15 seconds!

No, that's not sand that was accidentally dumped in the parking lot...
it's the disgusting remains of thousands of mayflies that
were attracted to the parking lot light the prior evening.

Right.  1:00 in the afternoon and the
humidity is higher than the temperature.

One of the great surprises of the previous week.  Scott and I had just
started our shift serving in the Blacksmith shop on a Sunday afternoon
when we heard voices outside.  I threw open the door to the shop and there
was Tanner Sharp and his buddy Scott! They are doing summer sales in
Chicago and decided to come down for the day.  They stayed for
quite a while as we reminisced about the good old days when Tanner
and Zachary were best buddies and skied, built forts, camped,
water skied, and made lots of great memories.  I was so
happy to see him!  I'm sure the grin stayed on my face the
entire day.

The happy Andersen kids!
It was so awesome to have the whole
family visit!  They were able to spend some time
visiting Nauvoo and Carthage and feel that
Nauvoo spirit.  We loved having them here!

A first!  Michael Rasmussen had me as a teacher in 3rd grade at
Rosamond Elementary and Scott as a teacher at Bingham High.
Poor guy got stuck with both of us!

The flowers at the Visitors' Center are in full bloom.

Saying goodbye to Elder & Sister Corder.  We will surely miss
them.  And so begins the season of goodbyes as some senior
couples and a large group of young sister missionaries complete
their missions and head for home.  A bittersweet time.  We are
grateful to have rubbed shoulders with each of them.

The Shaws stopped by to say hi.  They're friends of Scott's sister, Cindy.
Each of their kids had Cindy as a teacher in 3rd grade and one of them had Scott.

A visit from Elder Lowe who served in Nauvoo with us last summer.

And just like that, it's all come to an end.

Pageant Season 2019 is in the books and now it's all just a memory.  But boy do we have some amazing memories!  Singing in the British Pageant finale, doing our pageant parking responsibilities, sharing it all with family and friends and just enjoying the pageant ourselves have made this year memorable.  But, for me, the most amazing part was the feeling I had on the last evening.  Scott and I were doing our parking assignment and had the chance to hear the end of the Nauvoo Pageant.  When Rob Abney, who portrays Joseph Smith, stood at the front of the stage and spoke the words of Joseph, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all that we give of him:  That he lives!  For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father." I felt, like I never had before, that Joseph knew in whom he testified.  The Holy Ghost testified to my heart that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration, that he had been chosen to bring forth the Book of Mormon for us, and that it's all true.  This IS the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Another beautiful night on the banks of the Mississippi.

As the pageant wound down we still had plenty of guests in town so Scott and I were pretty beat each evening when we got home.  One day when Scott was serving in the blacksmith shop over a thousand people went on tours there.  And another day for him at Browning Gun was almost as busy.  That's a lot of tours! But still a lot of fun!  It's the sharing that's the awesome part.

This week Austin, Jen, Carter, Henry and Jones Haws came to visit. It was so fun to have them here.  The boys loved hanging out at the barn with the horses and playing at Pioneer Pastimes. Then Saturday evening we saw some friends from the 15th ward at the country fair before pageant, Lydia Williams Larsen & Tanner Larsen, along with his parents and brother.  It was great to connect with them all!

Carter, Jones & Henry,
Austin & Jen Haws

Hanging out with Scott at Browning Gun

Jones, riding in style

Early Friday morning we watched as the horses

came in to the barn from the pasture.  They are some 

big horses, especially from my point of view! 

Doing some shoe repair :0)

Tanner & Lydia Larsen at the country fair.

Elder Davies is making an attempt at showing me how to
twirl his rope.  I didn't get it that night, but I'm going to
practice until I do! I'm sure the tongue sticking out
is really helping :0)