The Menascos: May 2012

On April 12, I turned three days older than dirt again. I ask my young friends how old dirt is and when they tell me that they don't know, I tell them that dirt is three days younger than me. Anyway, here are some photos of my birthday. It was extra nice this year because Shelly and the girls were still in town and celebrated with us.

If you look at the cake top you can see how old I really am, but let me tell you- some days I feel much older! That's okay though, I usually act much younger, ha!

Aubree and Isabelle with that 'what he get?' look.

Kinzie even got into the celebration.

Aubree just being Aubree.

Shelly and the girls got me lots of different snacks to eat. Yum! My favorite, pistachios.

I got some SALTED peanuts in the shell. Another favorite.

I also got some different flavored bags of pretzel nuggets. The jalapeño flavored ones where hot and had a real kick. They sure were good though.

In grandma Clara's card I got some money folded up like pants.

Of course the girls had to help shove presents and cards in front of me in a hurry so they could see what was inside of them.

Isabelle and me posing with the perfect card.
Shelly always puts lots of thought into 'picking' cards!

Here is the birthday card that Isabelle wrote to me.

Aubree looking at one of my birthday cards.

Katie and Heidi got me shirts.
First this blue one...

... then this yellow one.

It was a fun little birthday party and I enjoyed all my gifts- especially the ones I could eat!

The End.

The last week of March, Katie, Heidi and I flew out to Utah to attend Brian and Brittany's wedding and reception. While we where there, we did some other things and visited friends too. We flew out on a Wednesday evening and flew home on a Tuesday afternoon/evening. Brian and Brittany were married on Friday, March 30, two days before Heidi's and my 32nd wedding anniversary on the first day of April. Michelle and family could not come because she just had a baby girl on March 13 and her new baby had to spend a week in the hospital. (But if you read a previous blog post, you already know about it.)

Here are some pictures of our trip. There are several pictures of friends here, and I have purposely not named them because I felt to do so I would need permission, and I didn't want to go through all that.

Killing time at the Philadelphia Airport before the long flight.

We stopped in this little place in the airport for some sodas and nachos.

Then of course you have to have dessert.

On the plane getting ready to take off.

Yeah, I got stuck in the middle.

The flight left late... standard procedure in Philadelphia.

After a change of planes in Denver, we finally made it to Salt Lake City just before midnight. Can you believe the car rental place made us wait till midnight to give us our car? Hardly anybody was around, but they had to follow company policy and not give us the car before the date we officially rented it!

Brian spent the day with us on Thursday. Here he is testing out the bed to see if it meets approval.

Katie and Brian playing on the Mac.

We went to Salt Lake to do some shopping and while the girls were in the clothing stores Brian and I took some fun photos and ended up in the Apple store. Surprising, huh? (Yes I took this picture of tree limbs coming out of Brian's head on purpose).

Brian found a friendly family to share this Kodak Moment with.

Photo op.

Another photo op.

We went to a restaurant in the mall for lunch.

In the afternoon, Sue and Adam and their baby Tyson arrived and came over to our hotel. Tyson liked teething on Brian's chin.

All of us relaxing in our hotel room before heading over to to the church to decorate for the wedding reception on Friday night.

Tyson gets around by crawling all over, but pulls himself up to stand.

I hope he's not thinking of gnawing on my knees while I take his picture.

Tyson and me.

My turn to gnaw on Tyson.

Thursday night we went up to Brittany's family's church building to decorate it for the wedding reception. They had all the decorating planned out.

Getting the 'tent' ceiling ready.

The tent ceiling would cover the entire room.

Brittany getting part of the tent ready.

All done. Just need to hoist the entire thing up now.

Going up!

Tying up the corners.

Brian and Katie having fun while holding the ropes of the tent.

After the sides were all tied off, we used this wire down the middle to keep the center of the tent up.

Still getting the tent up to its correct height.

This is what the flowers on each table looked like.

Starting to look like a reception would be held here.

The flowers.

Getting things ready are Katie, Sue Heidi and Brittany's mom.

A trip out west is not complete without a stop at In-N- Out Burger. We stopped here after decorating for a late dinner.

Mmmmmm! A shake, fries and burger, so good! Pay no attention to the person to my left.

We all enjoyed our meal. Except Tyson, he was asleep in his carrier on the table.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and Katie and Brian went in the hot tub.

Wedding Day! Brian acting calm and cool like it is just another day.

Brian and one of his buddies from his mission in Northern California.

This is Sam and Amber's little baby girl, Evelyn. She was born on Christmas Eve and her nickname is Eve. This is the first time we ever saw her.

Katie looks good as a stroller mom. She took care of the little ones.

Sue, Tyson, and Adam in his cool-guy shades.

Tyson just hanging with his big bow tie.

Here they come!

Brittany and Brian emerge after the wedding ceremony.
Brittany and Brian where married in the Oquirrh Mountan Temple.

The newlyweds.

Brian and Sam.

More of Brian and Sam

These friends used to live in Delaware with us. The ones on the left live in Utah now and the one on the right lives in Washington state.

These friends standing with us live in Utah. Heidi was roommates with her in college.

Sam and Amber.

Tyson and Katie.

Tyson, Katie, Adam, Suzie, Heidi, Sam and Amber.

This one also includes me and Brian and Brittany.

Group shot. Brittany and her family.

The boys: Adam, Tyson, me, Sam and Brian.

Me holding Evelyn and Heidi holding Tyson.

Another picture of the same. Those are the Wasatch Mountains in the background.

Our family shot.

And of course the funny picture.

Heidi and I with Brian.

Oh yeah- gotta give the wet willies.

Our kids.

Another wet willy shot.

Brian and Evelyn.

A funky girl pose. I don't know what this is all about.

Suzie, Brittany, Brian, Adam and Tyson.

Katie with Brittany and Brian.

Brittany and Brian.

So next up was lunch at Brittany's parents house.

Lots of yummy food.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to chill for awhile before the wedding reception that night. Here is a picture of Katie and Sam with dueling Macs.

Let the wedding reception begin!
Long-time friends from our rafting days in California. They live in Utah now.

Some of Katie's friends came to the reception.

Some of the decorations at the reception.

We all stood in line to greet the guests.

Lots of people helped in lots of ways. Here are some of the people that helped out in the kitchen,

And more helpers.

Some of the food that was available.

The 'live' band.

The cupcake tree, or whatever its called.

Lots of gifts.

The guest book.

One of the gifts.

Heidi peeking around the decorations.

One of my good friends that used to live in Delaware and now lives in Utah.

Time to cut the cake. You know what that means...

... Time to shove it up the nose!

Me with another one of my friends. She lived in Delaware, but has since moved to Utah.

And another one of my friends... ditto with the Delaware/Utah thing. What's the deal? Maybe it's me.

Time to chuck the bouquet.

And yet another friend with the Delaware/Utah thing. (Man, this is starting not to look good for me).

Me and Heidi at the reception. (She is still in Delaware with me, imagine that).

On Saturday, Sam and Amber had their baby blessed while most of both families were in town. Here is a picture of Heidi holding Evelyn.

Katie's turn to hold her.

The family shot.

Samber (Sam & Amber) with Evelyn. Sam did a great job blessing his daughter.

Brittany and Brian came to the baby blessing too. Here is the getaway car.

While we were in Utah it was conference weekend. Every six months our church holds a General Conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. It is broadcast all over the world and we usually watch it on TV. This is the first time we got to see it live. The conference center seats 21,000 people.

Here is a picture of our friends from Oregon that we met in New York state a couple of summers ago when we participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

Here we are at conference.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings here.

This is my friend from Oregon. We had a great time while in the pageant in New York state. Katie thinks she is her friend, but she is not, she is my friend. (ha!) Anyway I have a lot of fun with her and she even laughs at my jokes. I conned her into posing on this bench so I could take a picture of her yellow tights. Have you ever seen anyone wear mustard-colored tights? Me neither. Wow, what a trend-setter!

Sam and Paul. Best buds though high school. Paul drove up from his home in the Provo, UT area to see us.

Katie with her friends. This is trouble x3.

Conference has five sessions and we went to a few. On one of the days it actually tried to snow. Here we are trying to hurry to get out of the cold.

Brian and Brittany came with us to one of the sessions.

Who is that Czechoslovakian lady that is walking so fast? It's Heidi trying to keep the wind out of her ears.

Katie in the parking garage.

While we were in Utah, Heidi scheduled a tour of Brigham Young University (BYU) for Katie, since she will be going there next school year.

Katie on campus at BYU.

We also traveled to eat dinner and visit with some more friends that we met at the pageant a couple of summers ago.

Katie worn out after a long day.

On the day we were leaving, we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to visit while we waited for our afternoon flight back to Philadelphia. Brian and Brittany came with us because we were going to have an open house for them in Delaware.

It was a real nice day and the grounds had lots of pretty flowers in bloom.

That is the Conference Center in the background.

Flowers, family, and the towering Salt Lake Temple.

Heidi and I on the grounds of Temple Square.

The Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

The Tabernacle.

A view of the temple through the trees.

Another view of the temple through a flowering tree.

Here is a view of the temple in the reflection pond.

This picture of the temple was taken in front of the church office building.

The church office building.

Video of the church office building area.

Oh yeah! In-N-Out Burger again! Gotta get some for the road, er... flight.

Yum, always good!

So on the Friday of Easter weekend we had an open house for Brian and Brittany at our church in Delaware. Brian is hooking up some tunes while we decorate.