The rest of engaged life

 

At the end of July, Mark decided that the fence was ugly and that it needed stained. And so the project began. First, the power washing, then taping newspapers and magazines over the poles and then the staining. It was a lot of work and we were definitely sick of it by the time we were finished, but it does look much, much nicer.

 

In preparation for the honeymoon (location requirements being somewhere warm and with a beach), we decided that it would be fun to be able to go SCUBA diving. Since Mark was already certified, Amanda got to go take classes by herself. Class was two evenings a week for almost a month. For the open water dives, we went to Quinn's Pond in Boise. It is about 25 feet deep and pretty murky and gross, you could only see about an arm's length away. Apparently people have put quite a few things in the pond including a trampoline, a coke machine, statues, etc. I saw the coke machine and we spent quite a bit of time on the trampoline. Mark came by in the afternoon to watch for awhile. SCUBA was pretty easy, except that I had to concentrate really hard to clear my mask, I don't think it is something that most people have a hard time with.

 

 

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Star Valley, WY where Mark's Grandma Pope has a cabin. Mark's sister Mary and her family, Isaac and Lincoln, came up too. While we were there we did lots of visiting, played games, ate food, floated the Salt River, Golfed (Mark and Isaac, who apparently were a little rusty and didn't do very well), and enjoyed several power outages (we resorted to hanging a flashlight from the chandelier so that we could continue playing our game.) It was fun to be able to spend time with everyone.

 

On Labor Day we were in Logan and Maddie and my Mom came up so we could do Bridals. Mark's dad being the photographer, took the pictures. We went several places, Central Park, the temple, Lundstrom Park and the studio. Clark took lots of great pictures. (Thanks!) It was fun to be able to be the bride and see the reactions from other people. After pictures, we all went out to lunch at Fredrico's together.

 

 

Between work and church and scuba, etc. we worked on wedding plans. It consumed a lot of our lives. Wedding was almost always on my brain. One of the first wedding plans to be worked on was dress shopping. I found some good options in Utah, but kept shopping in Boise. There were several stores that I was not a fan of, but I finally tried on a dress (probably not what I would have picked) that I loved. I always heard people say that they just know when they find the dress, I guess I understand now. I had my roommates come and see it and sent pictures to my Mom and sister. After a few weeks contemplating it and talking about it (saying things like "my dress") I went and bought it. One of the things that I liked about the dress is that it lent itself quite nicely to a sash. So I got fabric (hot pink) to make a sash (which although Mark was with me all through the fabric buying and sash making process, he couldn't figure out quite what it was, it was mostly just fun to tease him.) I also wanted hot pink shoes, I couldn't find any good ones in Boise, but Mom and Maddie found some down in Utah that were very adorable (though kind of tall.) I also had three bridal showers that were all fun. One in Boise, one in Logan and one in South Jordan. Other wedding preparations included ordering flowers, making bridesmaid skirts, making, printing and sending announcements, planning decorations (thankfully we were able to borrow most of them from Mark's co-worker/neighbor), going through childhood pictures, printing albums, photos and posters, deciding on food, reserving tables, chairs and tablecloths, etc, etc, etc.

 

Amidst all of the planning we found time to buy ourselves a wedding present. About a month before the wedding my roommate heard of a piano sale at BSU and wanted to go, so we tagged along. We found one that we liked and decided that it would be nice to have and that it would make a good wedding present from us to us. Now we both need to practice a lot.

 

The week before the wedding we moved all my stuff over to Mark's. Moving is always such a big job, but at least I had someone to help me this time which was so very nice. We got all of the furniture and everything but what I needed to live for the next few days moved by Tuesday. I slept on an air mattress the rest of the week. The Saturday before the wedding we headed down to Utah. That day (Sept. 19th) I went through the temple (Oquirrh Mountain). What a neat experience. Mom and Mark were there as well as his parents and sister, Mary, too. Kadie and Pete were able to meet us at the end (their flight came in that evening.)

 

Mark and I worked remotely Monday through Wednesday so that we could work on wedding preparations in the evening. Mark's aunt and uncle were nice enough to let us work at their house so we could have a good internet connection. I am glad that we had those few days before the wedding down in Utah so we could finish things up (like getting a marriage license.) It was really nice to have Kadie there because she was able to work on wedding stuff during the day while the rest of us were working. Some of the bigger projects that Kadie worked on included making the cake (which turned out quite nicely (pretty and quite tasty (funfetti, carrot, chocolate)) and working on a brain child decoration of Mark's which we called "nemo vases." It was a little bit of challenge for us to get the right balance and get them to work how we wanted, but we finally figured it out. The night before the wedding we took all the decorations and food (Costco cheesecake) over to the Campbell's. My uncle and cousins and Mark's friend, Tyler, got to South Jordan too, so they took the tables over and set them up. Mark and Ty went to his uncle's house and I am told that Mark and Tyler and Kevin (Mark's uncle) spent the evening playing Risk among other things on the iPhone. The girl spent some time doing things like pedicures before going to bed.