The week of the wedding . . .

It didn't take us long to decide that we wanted our wedding to take place in Spearfish. With many of our family and friends living 7+ hours away, we figured it would be a great opportunity for everyone to see where we call "home." And a PERFECT opportunity it was!!! We were beyond blessed with so many of our friends and family taking the time to drive out and celebrate with us.

It started 3 weeks prior to the wedding when Josh's sister Betsy and her 2 boys drove out from Iowa to help with last minute wedding plans (truth being, they had major construction being done around their house and it was going to take approximately 3 weeks to complete - but I like to think it was because she wanted to be my personal wedding planner :).

It continued when Josh and Cayel and I decided to take a short trip to Minnesota over Labor Day to escape the wedding planning and have some time away. For our trip back to Spearfish, we were blessed with a train of people (okay, maybe not a train :) that followed us back for the wedding festivities. In 2 vehicles, we crammed me, Josh, Cayel, my mom, my 2 sisters, my 2 1/2 year old niece and my 6 week old nephew (my dad was smart and decided to drive his own vehicle out a day later - hmmmm . . . good idea dad)! We made a pit stop in Sioux Falls and took the kids to the zoo, which was a request by my mom - it was all of the kids first time at the zoo and she was determined to have them experience it with Nana!




After the zoo, the "Brady Bunch" hit the Interstate and made the remaining 5 hour drive to Spearfish (by the way, the kids did a better job with the drive then Nana did. Josh told my mom if she asked one more time "when we were going to be there," he was going to make her walk - of course he was kidding :).

Although it was a long drive, it was a great time - lots of conversation, lots of laughing and most of all, lots of memories that we will cherish forever!

This was the first time that either of my sisters had been to Spearfish (and I got them all to myself for 7 whole days!) - during the week we took a night to have a campfire in the backyard, we took the kids to the park to feed Cayel's famous duckies, we sat up talking about "old times" and enjoyed watching the kids run around the house giggling and playing.


In the days to follow . . . friends and family members slowly started trickling in. Josh got the pleasure of getting a few rounds of golf in with his buddies and I soaked up every last second of "girl time" with my friends and 4 sisters - which of course included a day of pampering (manicures and pedicures)!

It truly was an amazing week . . . seeing all the different friends from different areas in our life (childhood, high school, college, work, church) and then bringing together our families (some of which had just met for the first time) - it was what you would call a GOD THING!!