A fair April

March was met with repeated minor but exceedingly irritating illnesses. April has met a fair start, but has had its frustrations. Thankfully the frustrations are melting away and leaving behind a month of good memories.
The first being the wedding of a college roommate,one Susan Bevan, now Susan Baker. Janice (another roommate) called and asked if I was going. I really hadn't intended on going - especially since I didn't get an invitation and didn't know the date, but I couldn't pass up the chance of seeing both Susan and Janice and spending the whole time hanging out with Janice. We arranged our flights on the same days so we could split the rental car and hotel. After meeting up in Kansas City Missouri we drove to Macon, MO on the 14th. The 15th was setting up for the bridal shower, the bridal shower, and cleaning the building for the wedding/reception. The 16th was getting up to unlock said building and set up the food, arranging everything in nice circles on platters - this wedding would have been impossible without us, I'm pretty sure :) - then the wedding and reception. It was nice and went smoothly. The only glitch I can think of was the veil falling out of Susan's hair. And of course the weather was windy and cold all weekend. I stood in the group of desperate women and excited little girls to catch the bouquet, but was rather unwilling to throw elbows or risk fractures so mainly just stayed back out of the way. After a few quick pictures Janice and I drove out to Nauvoo, Illinois to the church historical site there. We were able to see see a few places before it closed at five. We went to the brickyard, the blacksmiths, the bakery, and very quickly in the gunsmiths. It was a short experience but a good one and we were both glad we went. We took a picture by the Nauvoo temple and headed back to Macon to pack. On the 17th we headed back to the airport early in the morning, which of course was beautiful. It was a nice 4 day, 3 state trip. Fritz spent that time at Aunt Linda's house playing with Katherine. I don't think he was quite as pleased with his weekend, but he loves Katherine, so he dealt okay. It has started a habit where is actually gets in the car when I ask him too. He used to make a game out of it.
Then of course is the annual Easter party, where I became nominated the meat/cheese slicer. Linda had bought 2 hams that she wanted sliced deli thin, which was possible thanks to mom's machine. It worked great and thankfully no accidents were had. So once again I got to arrange meat and cheese in circles on plates. Then I was the Easter egg hider and photographer during the rest of the day. Our count had a total of 106 people at grandma's that day. It's always good to spend time with family, and in addition to the Bunn's and some Romriells we had Adam with his family in town. which brings me to event number 3.
On Easter Sunday I joined the Bunns and the Kohlers for church. It was a regional broadcast from Salt Lake with President Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard from the first presidency and Quorum of the 12 apostles among the speakers. Even bigger than that was Robert was ordained an Elder by Adam. It was a very touching moment to see him ordained by his brother surrounded by parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. While sitting there I was touched by not only how large our family is and also how largely we have been blessed by the church. On an April day 181 years earlier the church was organized with no more than 30 people in attendance. We had a total of 30 people in that room, for one ordination, with only a portion of our family in attendance. That fact suddenly made our family seem so huge, and I was struck by how much of a part the church is in our lives, and how we have all been blessed by being a part of it. How wonderful it is to have a family, founded on Gospel principles and promised the blessing of being together for eternity.

So all in all, a pretty good April.