Family Dinner

On Friday the 13th (we had all the bad luck the day before, luckily, ha ha), we got up around noon after a short 6 hours of sleep, and headed out to the ward building in Snohomich where the family dinner preparations were underway.  It was a gorgeous day in Seattle with blue skies and warm(ish) temperatures.
My mom had the decorations well in hand, and we pretty much just followed her instructions and before long the primary room had been transformed.  Ben and my brother Abe and I went to Taco Bell and picked up tacos for everyone, especially my mom who would work through the day without eating a thing if left to her own devices.  :-)
By 4:00 all the decorations were finished and my sisters and brothers and mom and I practiced the musical numbers for the program that night.  I really love singing with my family.  I wish I could get my boys to sing so we could be a singing family, too, but so far that's not exactly happening...  :-)
After that I went outside with my sister Rachel and her husband and baby girl and took a few family pictures for them.  Snohomish (and the Seattle area in general) is so beautiful, all we had to do was walk out the doors of the church and there was the perfect place to shoot pictures.

(looking at these pictures together, I see my white balance was way off on this one-- better fix that...)

This is my sister who was a Rose Princess for the Tournament of Roses back in 2002.  She is so pretty. 

And she has clearly passed her looks on to her gorgeous almost-one-year-old Rosalia (with a little help from her also-very-handsome daddy, Jonathan).

Then, it was time for the dinner!  My grandparents and several aunts and uncles came up, mostly from Utah, but also from Portland and Sacramento, as well as a lot of Shayla's friends and family.  The primary room was full-up!  My mom arranged for Chinese food in honor of Shayla's mission to Taiwan, and then apple strudel for dessert, in honor of Benjamin's mission to Germany. 

Mosey was wielding the camera that night and caught a couple of candids of Brigham and me.

 (That's my genius brother Brigham, namesake of my Brigham, looking suave in the background.  Brigham and the twins also share the same birthday!)

The food was great, but the program was better.  The musical numbers went well, and then my parents and Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, and Abe stood to give tributes to Benjamin and Shayla.  Benjamin is such an awesome kid (sorry Benjamin, you'll always be a kid to me!), and it was so fun to remember him as a little child and teenager.  Shayla's brother put together a video with music and pictures of Shayla and Benjamin growing up.  Her parents stood to give tributes to Shayla, and then her sister Hannah and their friend stood up and sang one of Shayla's favorite Beatles songs.  Shayla and her family love the Beatles-- they have good taste!

Like I said, Mosey was the camera-man for the night, and he shot some video of the musical numbers.  Thanks, Mosey!


This was a fun song that we sang mostly for Benjamin, since it pretty much sums up how he feels about Shayla.  :-)  Rachel's husband Jonathan is our accompanist.

 This is a traditional song that we sing at all of my siblings' weddings.  At Rachel's wedding, I cried most of the way through it.  It was 5 days before my bone marrow transplant and I was more than a little emotional.  I managed to keep hold of myself this time, though.  My Ben is the accompanist on this one.


And this was a genius song that Rachel and Jonathan came up with.  I need to get the lyrics from them, it was sooo funny.  You have to know Shayla and Benjamin, but trust me, it is fuuuunnnnyyy!!

After the festivities, I took Naomi and her baby and the boys back to the hotel and Ben stayed behind to help clean up.  The boys were asleep almost before their heads hit the pillows!
It was a really fun evening and a great first day of our trip!