Sunny Open House!

We just arrived home from a big day at Bear Lake with our tennis friends and closing up all the fridges and houses for the season!  Sad but true.

I just realized that since Tal and Anita are leaving for Africa on Thursday, if I don’t get some of these Open House pictures posted right now, they might not be able to see them for a long time!

What an afternoon and evening we had on September 19th!  Tal and Anita were received with open arms by so many wonderful people!  We had a sign-in book on the table at the entry with wallet sized pictures of their engagement and wedding for people to put messages around. Also one of Eva’s spectacular photos and a picture of the two Humanitarian projects that they are about to embark upon! 

 

 

We displayed pictures along the window ledges of the wonderful wedding day, compliments of Eva and Shawni:

 

As mentioned earlier, Lindsay, Lenna and Jess came a few hours early and helped with the flowers, which turned out to be so fun!

They were joined by husbands, children and other members of the Carver Clan who stayed to visit and eat and enjoy the evening. 

One of the higlights of the evening was that the girl who introduced Antia to the gospel came:

 

With husband and her children:

and her parents:

Also one of Anita’s roommates from BYU and her family:

 

What fun to have Tal’s great buddy Anthony Kunz who flew in from AZ especially for the occasion:

 

It was so exciting to see another era of Anita’s life:

As well as dear friends from Tal’s basketball teams:

Even his coach from Weber State, Coach Cravens, whose wife Debbie has an 81 year old mother living just outside NYC and has offered to let them store their “stuff” in one of her unused bedrooms!  They’re on their way there tomorrow to “pack it in”.  Totally serendipity!!! (sorry no picture)

Here is another great surprise:  Margaret Archibald showed up at our front door from Maryland!  She had come to help Ashley move into her home and was going hiking with a friend in Jackson the next day!  How excited we were to see her!

The food was great and included Swiss fondue, roasted vegetables with pork, fruit bowls, rolls and lots of lovely little desserts:

So many beloved people came:

Including charity:

The weather was perfect outside and it was only dark for about the last hour!  Then an hour after everyone left there was a veritable cloud burst! Someone was watching over us from above!

Charity’s roommate Dani even took a few minutes to put her feet up by the fire pit!

It was fun to show people some of the fun we had in NYC through pictures:

We were all delighted that Kevan brought Grandma:

Even the kids had a great time:

In the waterfall, and at the “big screen TV” downstairs.

And in the secret Narnia Closet:

 

We dearly wish that Anita’s family and our other seven kids, spouses and grandkids could have been there, but we have to admit that we stuffed in an enormous  load of fun together in NYC!

People were so generous with their love and their contribuitons! I don’t know how we could have had more fun!