Camping Trip

When I was little my dad had a really cool tent- but we never really used it for camping. We only ever used it in our back yard for my birthday party, and watched movies, and stayed up late in there- but none of us could make it through the night haha.

When we realized that Sheldon had Saturday off of work this week SO, Sheldon took me on my first real camping trip. His cousin Kelsey and her husband Scott also came with us. First thing we did once we arrived in Bloomington was find a cute little place next to a quiet little stream and we set up our tiny tent. We didn’t have any trouble with that actually and we made it cozy with lots of blankets and sleeping bags inside.

I was in charge of food, so I cut up veggies and potatoes and hot dogs for tin foil dinners. AND I remembered a delicious 4- ingredient peach cobbler from girls camp that you can make over the fire, so I brought that too! And how can you have a fire without s’mores? You can’t! So we made sure those ingredients were available as well. Scott brought something that  changed the color of the fire so we enjoyed a blue-green fire most of the night. Pretty cool.

4- Ingredient Peach cobbler: Add the ingredients in this order, but do not stir them together so it can crisp up a little on top. Bring it to a boil to cook off most of the liquid, this takes awhile to cook on the fire, so just keep checking on it. It is really good to eat with vanilla ice cream, but we ate ours with thick whipped cream. still yummy!

• 1 large can peaches (do not drain)
• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 can of soda
• pinch of cinnamon

We really chose the best place to camp- the stream provided nice white noise and the views were beautiful! It was a little chilly at night and the ground was a little hard, but we actually slept pretty well.

The next morning we packed up camp and went to play in the lake! (Blomington Lake, not too far from Bear Lake.) The water was cold, so I only got my feet wet, but my crazy husband jumped in with the rope swing! He loves that.

Kelsey and Scott hadn’t been to Minnetonka caves, so we did that tour again. Our guide was very intelligent and though we just did the tour last month we learned a lot more this time around.

 

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*Unrelated to the camping trip- We are sure playing hard these last few weeks of summer before school starts. Earlier this week we also did another razor ride up Mt. Baldy and we went skeet shooting. I was so impressed because I actually hit a clay pigeon! My grandpa would be proud.

 

Wedding 04.22.16

Our wedding day. The day that we had been waiting for. That BIG day I dreamed of since I was a little girl. And it was all done in the right place, at the right time, with the right guy.

There are so many little details of our wedding festivities; rather than writing down the story chronologically I think I’ll break it down by explaining it piece by piece. (Sorry if I leave something out!) Here goes:

INVITATIONS

I designed the invitations with some inspiration from pinterest, then we worked with both Costco and Alphagraphics to get them printed and mailed out. Then the hardest part… we had to actually assemble the announcements with a strand of lavender tied with hemp. If I remember right it was like 400 total. We even made it into the Caribou county newspaper!

CRAFTS/ DECORATIONS

It was a busy week. After school got out in early April I left Rexburg to stay at my grandma’s house in Utah for a little while. While there I was the crafting woman. I painted, sewed, glued and cut all kinds of things to be able to have the decorations that we needed for the receptions. These ranged from frames, to tea-light flowers, paper pom-poms, burlap banners, and photo-booth props. Grandma was a good sport about having me take over her house and make a mess with crafty things. We also did lots of shopping which was fun. Grandma even took me to get my nails done with acrylics, they have never looked so fancy!

THE DRESS

I posted about this earlier (see HERE) but didn’t post any pictures because I didn’t want HIM to see! haha. Here are a few pictures of trying the dress on, it was the perfect combination of lace and tule. I felt like a princess in it, so thats what matters, right?

FLOWERS

My mom did an amazing job with my flowers! She made all the boutonnieres, corsages, floral decorations and the sister bouquets! We bought bulk baby’s breath from Costco and a few other loose fresh flowers from other florists. My temple bouquet we bought from Flowers on Main in Lehi, Utah. They did a great job to get the colors and flowers to be just what I wanted, while still staying in my price range. My colors: blush pink, lavender, mint green, and white!

FAMILY

My family all came out to Utah a few days before the wedding. We had several other family events going on from preparing for a mission, going through the temple, to College graduation. There are no dull moments. Luckily we were able to squeeze in a big family dinner at the spaghetti factory.

I didn’t have bridesmaids- BUT I do have sisters. They looked great in their matching white lace top and pink flowy skirt combo. My dad also bought the perfect lavender colored suspenders just for the occasion. (I wish I had a picture!) It was awesome. Grandma and Mom had similar silver lace dresses that looked just stunning on them.

BRIDALS

We took our professional bridal photos the day before our wedding. (Thursday 21) We had them done by Lavon M. Click HERE to view the next post with all those pictures; there were too many great photos to combine them all together in this post!

THE TEMPLE

We were married in the Mt. Timpanogos, Utah LDS Temple. It was a truly special day. Sheldon and I signed official marriage paperwork. We spent some special time together there. It was beautiful, all of it. We had SO many people come to support us, and even some surprises I didn’t expect to see. I knew this day would come, but I was truly touched to be able to make promises with both God and Sheldon that day. We were sealed for time, and also for eternity. I love him THAT much!

Camilla S did some photography for us of family and friends on our actual wedding day (Friday 22). She was great at managing so many people and took some artsy pictures for us to enjoy. She really captured the emotion and happiness we all felt on such a perfect day. Here are a few of those shots:

OLIVE GARDEN LUNCH

After the temple ceremony and family photos we all ate at Olive Garden for a late lunch. They did a wonderful job, their service was quick and they had a great atmosphere for us to enjoy each other’s company, and of course the food was amazing!

GRACE, IDAHO RECEPTION

After our wedding night in a Paris themed hotel, we had to race back up to the Thatcher Ward Building to start decorating! Thankfully we had lots of help. It ended up looking nice, my favorite part was the rustic doors and lights above. We served cake and punch along the back wall. Someone…. even trashed our getaway car… haha.

If you haven’t yet noticed we decided on a bike theme- because  marriage is like changing from a personal bike to a tandem. We are now doing this life journey on a bicycle built for two.

Many people had a lot of fun at our photo-booth: we provided a backdrop and props for a little extra entertainment. We encouraged people to share their photos on social media with the hashtag #ForeverTheLloyds.

ST. CHARLES, ILLINOIS RECEPTION

The Illinois reception was done at a park district forrest preserve nature center. It was an old mansion house. It was an unconventional location but allowed for a fun atmosphere. There were different rooms; one for food, another for dancing, for the wedding line, etc. We were very well supported. Many of our family and friends came from far away, so thank you for those who made the long drive!

Also HUGE thank you to the kitchen help! We had many people who came to help with both food and decorations before the event. We didn’t have much time to do it, but it was ready on time. So thank you!

We had a beautiful birch tree cake made by CocoaBean in Geneva. Notice the little tandem bicycle cake topper! and the flower sprigs my mom made. The details were perfect! Plus it was a chocolate cake with some lemon and white chocolate embellishments. Yum! When we cut the cake we both made sure to be very careful to feed it to each other without any mess. 🙂

One of the fun parts about our wedding is that we got to celebrate with so many people we love. It’s hard that Sheldon and I are from opposite sides of the country but it made for double the party, and twice the love. Thank you to anyone and everyone who helped make these celebrations so special for us! Each event was made memorable thanks to your support. Most importantly thanks to my special forever man who has been with me through it all! I can’t wait to spend forever with you Shel!

Wedding slideshow link: HERE