Beautiful and bittersweet—Marv’s wedding

On Tuesday, my uncle Marv got remarried.  He married a woman who he has known since she was a child, a woman who was a very good friend to my aunt Joyce, and a woman who will make Marv very happy.

We went up to Prescott on Monday afternoon, and met up with Jason and Janae, who had spent Christmas in Vegas before heading to Prescott for the wedding.  We went out to Marv’s house to join the family for a delicious pizza dinner.  Marv’s two daughters  and their husbands, and three granddaughters were there, as well as Jane and her two kids (yes, Marv is now the step-father to a 14 and 9 year old!) and her parents.  Ava was excited to see her best buddy, Gracee again.

On Tuesday, we got up and had breakfast at our hotel and then took the kids swimming in the indoor pool.  After that, we had the kids nap a bit before getting all dressed up for the wedding.  It was a picture perfect day in Prescott with the sun shining and not a breath of wind.  The wedding was actually held in the new home that Marv is building—the one that Joyce helped to design and furnish, which for me, was one of the hardest parts of the trip.  I couldn’t help but feel immense sadness while I was there, thinking of this amazing home that she was such a part of designing, yet didn’t get to see. The home is really only a shell of what it will be in a few months, but was still a spectacular site.   

There was a cocktail reception in the house before the ceremony, and most of us spent that time outside enjoying the view and taking photos. 

I’m not sure who was taking this picture, but I think it might have been the wedding photographers.  I love how it turned out, and I look forward to seeing the picture from the camera we were looking at!  I should point out that I was wrapped in a hug from Joyce all night, as I was wearing one of her shawls, and a necklace she had given me for Christmas about 4 or 5 years ago. 

Here is one view of the house from the roof of the guesthouse/fire pit area.  The part of the house to the far right would have been Joyce’s yoga studio.  I’m not sure what the future holds for that room now, but I’m sure it will always be a special space.

Here is a panorama I made out of 4 pictures of the house.  The perspective might be a bit off because of the angle they were all taken, but you get the idea.  It is quite the place indeed!  You might need to click on the image below to see it enlarged.

Here we are inside the living room where the ceremony was held.  How about that view out of your living room windows?  They walked in on a walkway of rose pedals, as you see below. 

This is Jane’s daughter, Gus, who is quite the violinist.  She is a very mature, polite, and friendly 14 year old, who you would swear is much older.  She walked down the aisle playing her violin, and has put on quite a few performances for us.  She is very talented.  Sorry, the picture is a bit blurry….

There was also a bagpiper and drummer who walked down the aisle playing, and then proceeded outside to the patio.

Sorry again for the blurry picture, but it was the only one I have of Marv and Jane walking in. 

One of the most special moments to me was when they included a reading in memory of Joyce during the ceremony.  Karen read about how “Falling in love is like owning a dog,” which you can read by clicking that link.  It was a light hearted and humorous reading that Joyce would have loved!  I am proud of Karen for making it through the entire thing with a smile on her face!  And I am so appreciative of Jane for including this special tribute. 

Marv has two grand daughters, Kaitlin and Gracee, who are amazingly talented singers.  They both sung during the wedding, and you’ll see Kaitlin below, as well as a few other pictures from the ceremony.

Afterwards, Ava had fun playing in the huge pile of rose pedals, and Tyler filled his pockets with them!  We’re still finding dried pedals in the wash.

The ambiance of the house just after sunset was so beautiful.  There are no lights yet, so it was lit with candle light, making for a very romantic setting.

This is the main entrance to the house, and a shot I grabbed as we were walking away. Next time we walk up this path, the house will probably be done!

We headed over to Talking Rock (the golf club where Marv is a member) for the reception.  We’ve been there several times with Marv and Joyce over the years, with the last time being her memorial service.  It was quite different to be there for a celebration like this, and it was filled with beautiful floral pieces and more candlelight. 

The newlyweds walked in to the reception to a greeting of confetti poppers, which was a surprise to Marv!

During dinner, we were all serenaded by a selection of songs from the talented children and grandchildren.  Gus performed on her violin with two schoolmates from her orchestra, and then she also performed with her brother Charles. 

Kaitlin and Gracee performed too, and as always, were amazing.  I love listening to these girls sing! 

They were so sweet to Ava, and she loved playing with them…especially Gracee.  Although, she can’t seem to remember her name. She keeps saying “who was that girl who played with me?”

After dinner, there was a bunch of festive Scottish dances happening out on the patio.  There was even Scottish guy in a kilt leading the dances.  Dawson had a great time, and did all the dances very well!

We lasted pretty late at the party, visiting with many of the wedding guests.  There were several people I knew, including folks from Williston and friends from Prescott who knew Joyce well.  It was a great crowd, and so nice to see so many who made the trip so close to the holidays. 

The next morning, we were invited back out to Marv and Jane’s house for breakfast.  We got this great picture of those of us from our family who were there. 

I took a few more pictures of this house as we were leaving, not knowing if I’ll ever have a chance to see it again.  I had a hard time with that, knowing that this is a place that Joyce loved so much, and where her influence and memory is seen in every corner of the home.  I was so appreciative and relieved to see so many pictures of Joyce still on the walls and the shelves of this home.  I have so many great memories from the recent years of weekends spent with them in Prescott. 

I have to be honest and say that this whole thing was very hard for me.  I am very happy for Marv, and understand that he has to move on with his life.  I am comforted in his choice knowing that Jane loved Joyce very much, and will always keep her spirit alive and present in their life together. She will never question Marv’s inclusion of Joyce’s family in his life, which is fortunate for us because I have worried that Marv would move on and we would lose touch with him.  I know that Joyce would absolutely have approved of Jane as Marv’s partner, and would have known that Marv would be happy and in good hands.  She is a very kind and loving person, and I look forward to getting to know her and her sweet children better.  Tyler has a blast playing with Charles too!  There were so many moments throughout these 3 days in which I was brought to tears by immense sadness I feel about losing my aunt while being surrounded by so many people, places, and things that hold so many memories of her life.  Ultimately, life goes on.  This was a celebration of lives moving on together, as this is a change for not only Marv, but for Jane and her children as well.  I wish Marv and Jane all the happiness in their new life together, and I thank them for including us and including Joyce’s memory as well.

Below you will find an album of all of my pictures from the wedding festivities.  Enjoy!

Christmas day!

The next phase of our Christmas festivities was with Dave’s family at his parents’ house.  This is always a crazy, chaotic, and fun time.  There were 11 kids under the age of 9 there, including Dave’s cousin’s two boys.  There ends up being about 40 people there, and everyone contributes to the meal.  The food seems to get better and better every year, and this year was the best so far.  We ate first, and then did the “white elephant” gift exchange.  There were several popular gifts that got ‘stolen’ quite a few times, including a $20 bill (in a $15 exchange!). 

Finally, after the kids waited very patiently, it was time to open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa, and from the cousin who drew their name.  Thankfully, we exchange names!

Here are all 11 kids just before they dug in to their presents.  My uncle Marv changed the way we did our gift opening in my family, and I might just have to try to do that one of these days.  He made us take turns, one by one we would open a gift so everyone could see what was received and know who it was from.  In this situation, a total of at least 29 presents were opened in a matter of about 15 minutes.  15 minutes of pure chaos!  I was trying to get pictures of Ava, but missed what Tyler was opening, and didn’t see a single thing any of the other kids opened.  One of these years, I will try to enforce Marv’s policy…one of these years.

Ava got another “eating thing”—some play food to go with her kitchen. She also got a buggy from Grandma and Grandpa, and a couple of Leap Frog electronic activity games from her cousin Aiden.

Tyler got a couple of space books and a homemade space book bag from Grandma, and an electronic space learning game.  Again, sense the theme?!  She also got the kids a new ornament. 

Do you have a feeling for the chaos?

He also got a couple of stuffed Angry Birds, a space shirt, and astronaut ice cream from his cousin Matt.

Ava and Lacy played around a little bit with her new food.  This is Ava’s third change of clothes for the day, in case anyone is counting.  That darn potty thing is just too hard to remember when there is so much fun to be had!

Talon got this cool Razor Riprider Tricycle from Santa.  It was a big hit with all the kids.  They spent much of the day down at the cul de sac at the end of Grandma’s street cruising around.  It has castor wheels at the back that spin 360 degrees, so the can really get going and then spin around.  It was so fun!  This would be great at Grandpa Jon’s farm on his new parking lot! 

Lacy even got in on the fun.  She can just barely reach the pedals, but she still got going pretty good.  And, in a fancy dress!

I got this pretty picture of Sydney while we were watching the kids ride the Razor. 

We didn’t want to forget to get a family picture this year, so we walked out back to the park just as the sun was going down.  Ava wasn’t too excited about it…

The Horihan family on Christmas Day 2011…

Aunt Kathy got these pretty blue dresses for all 4 girls to wear for Christmas.  We couldn’t forget this cute picture of the girlies!

It’s so much fun—even through the chaos—to get all of the grandkids together.  They are so lucky to grow up together, and will have great memories of these holiday festivities throughout their childhood.  Here are more pictures from our day…

Christmas morning

When our kids finally woke up on Christmas morning, this is what they found….minus the kitchen, which was covered with blankets.

I should point out too, that Tyler woke up around 8:00 and came into our room to watch TV.  He didn’t even ask to go see his presents until around 8:30 when he asked if we could go wake Ava up to open presents.  When they finally made it out to the living room, Tyler found his space shuttle and markers, and Ava’s eyes went right to her purple princess scooter.

After Santa gifts, they wanted to check out their stockings first.  I love these beautiful, hand knit stockings that Joyce arranged to have made for us a few years ago. The one downside to having stockings like this is that it takes so much to fill them!  And as Ava found, it it hard to reach all the way to the bottom!

They opened a few more presents each, and Tyler kept going back to his space shuttle from Santa.  He got several gifts that were activities that he could do such as this ‘make your own airplane’ kit and a ‘make your own rocket’ kit.  He also got a fun activity from Grandma Jean called Snap Circuits that he loves!  It is for ages 8 and up, but he can follow the instructions with not problem.

They each got a little travel sized game, which is really the only sane way to allow Hungry Hungry Hippos to be played in your house. 

Ava loves her new tea set, which makes actual tea pot sounds. 

She also loved getting her very own box of wine…um, I mean, she loved the Play-Doh set that was stuffed into the empty wine box. 

Here she is again testing her new scooter, and trying out the cooking set that she got from Grandma Jean.  She sure has received a lot of gifts for pretend cooking/eating…or as she said that day “another eating thing!”  I wonder why that is?

This might explain all of the “eating things!”  She got her very own kitchen set from us and from Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jon.  It is the cutest little kitchen I have ever seen! She is enjoying it very much so far….

Both kids got new bike/scooter helmets, and Ty was trying his on while practicing on the handbells that he got from Grandma Jean.  The kids opened up their presents from their ND grandparents while on Skype, and Dave said to my mom “did you really just give our kids a set of hand bells?”  Those might be staying at her house while she’s here this month!  No, not really, they actually make a very pretty sound and aren’t too terribly annoying. 

Shortly after the kids were done, Dave and I opened up our gifts from each other.  I was the lucky one, and got a new Canon 430 EX flash for my camera, and this is the first picture I tried taking with it.  I have lots to learn to be able to use it properly, but it will really help me shoot photos in low light.  I’m excited to play with it some more!

Dave was not quite as lucky in the gift department.  I never know what to get him!  He ended up with a North Face sweatshirt that I picked up in ND and a back massager (and some stocking stuff).  He wants a bunch of stuff done for the house, so hopefully he can do some of those things soon. 

We had a very fun morning watching the kids open their gifts.  It sure is exciting to see this day through a child’s eyes.  They were spoiled again this year, even after I said I wasn’t going to go overboard on Christmas.  Lucky children, they are….

Here are a few more pictures from our morning.  After they were done, it was time to get dressed and ready for Christmas with the Horihan family!  More fun to come!