Durango Palmers

 6.9.12 was the day of my little sister, Kelly's, wedding.  It was a wonderful day!  In fact the whole trip was fun.  We certainly worked our tails off though.  Kelly is a Martha Stewart.  She pretty much planned and made everything for her wedding.  Which means the bridemaids help execute the plans the days before.  She did an amazing job!  Most everything she prefaced with "if you followed me on Pinterest you would see what I'm talking about...". :)

We drove up to Denver on Wednesday night and got to hang out with Mark's side of the family for a bit.  Had a great time with our niece and nephew and of course their parents!  None of the pictures I took from there turned out though.  Poo!  All too blurry.

Wednesday night we went to my folks' house and slept in my sister, Meghan's, camper trailer in the front driveway of their house.  It was a nice little "hotel" for us to stay in.  The price was certainly right!  That night there were tornado sirens and a warning until after midnight.  It was constant thunder and lightning until the wee hours.  Not the best night's sleep ever.  Although the kids slept through it thankfully.

Thursday morning I headed over to Meghan's house to help make frosting and decorate the 250 cupcakes they had made the day before.  She had a friend helping as well as my other sisters.  We were machines!

 The inside of the top tier.

 I learned how to roll fondant and color it.

I hung out with my little niece Lilah.  She was giving me the lips when I took this.  Cracked me up..her little sweet sass.

 Kelly and her friend Sara - the cupcake master.

 Then the bridesmaids hung out doing centerpieces.  They were bouquets of cupcakes.  The original design wasn't quite as functional as we had hoped so we spent time that night redoing them and making them a bit sturdier.  They turned out really nice.

Kelly and Katie

 Also spent time arranging tables...Kelly, Meghan and my mom.

 Friday morning we worked as florists and made all the bouquets and boutineers and corsages.  I learned a lot this weekend!

My aunt Holly, Meghan and family friend, Bonnie

 We got mani/pedis after working on the flowers.  We had a blast! 

My future sis-in-law Sara, Kelly and my mom.

 Sisters Katie and Meghan

We finished up the mani/pedis and decorated the church.  Then had the rehearsal and the dinner.  BBQ in my parents backyard.  It was beautiful!

Saturday morning we went to the Rec Center in Golden to decorate for the reception.

 

Here is the finished cake at the reception.  Isn't it beautiful?  It also tasted amazing! 

 Here are the finished tables ready for the reception.  She did a great job.  My sister helps everyone-all her friends-so thankfully they all returned the favor and were a huge part in pulling off this fun wedding. Her friends pretty much rocked it.

 Here are a few pics from the ladies getting ready.  We all had our hair done for the occasion.

Kelly and her awesome hairstylist, Kelly.

Meghan

 My cousin Danielle and Meghan

 Me and Meghan

 The sisters.  Yes Katie had her eyes closed but it was the only picture I had of the 4 of us.  And yes I'm the shortest...and the oldest....

 Kelly and her littlest attendants...Jack, Kale, Lilah and Kate

 The happy couple...Carson and Kelly Hyatt

 We had to have a picture of all the kids the day after.

Sunday morning we had brunch with out of towners, watched Kelly and Carson open presents, hung out and were stinkin lazy...In fact I still feel lazy and haven't fully recovered.  

My "little" brother is getting married in August and we get to do it all over again and we're excited!

 This past Saturday (after the trip to Phoenix) the circus came to town!  Our little town of Durango.  Imagine that!  The Shriners brought the circus and we decided to check it out for the first time ever.

We didn't tell the kids until after their quiet times.  And it was a good thing.  They were so excited we could hardly contain them.  Mainly they were thrilled to get cotton candy.  They swear they've never had any.  I honestly can't remember....

Anyway, they were happy with it :)

 Kale couldn't seem to keep it off his face however.

 This was an honest to goodness circus with tigers

 Strong, balancing men

 Acrobats

 Performing puppies

 Bears

 A happy crowd

 An excited boy and his dad (they were watching the motorcycles in the cage)

 Silly kids (and dad)

 An impromptu dance-party during intermission

 And some hanging out on the railings.

 I won't bore you with every single act (although I can try!) but truly it was fun.  I think the kids loved the whole thing.  What fun for us!

 This past week we went to Phoenix, Arizona with our staff and spouses (almost all of them) for our international Foursquare (our denomination) convention.  It was wonderful! 

It's been many years since we've been able to reconnect with other pastors in our denomination and it was refreshing to see people and to hear what God is doing all over the country and all over the world through Foursquare.

I won't get into all that we learned while there but today at church each member of the staff got a few minutes to share what God had stirred up in our hearts and challenged us.  The theme was reclaiming our voice.  Going back to where we started, not to start over, but remember the assignment - the specific voice that God gave the Foursquare church - and to go forth from there.  Basically recalculate the GPS and get on the road again.  Every member of staff was blessed and refreshed.  It wasn't at all a relaxing trip but it was refreshing and encouraging.

We were able to take our kids with us which was wonderful and challenging all at the same time.  They kept up with the same hectic schedule that we did and were troopers.  They dealt with Post-Traumatic-Conference-Disorder once we got home however....meltdowns abounded!  But they were amazing while we were there!  A few episodes of over-tiredness and even coughing (thanks to the prescribed burns they were doing outside the city) but overall they were awesome.  They had a kids conference and those people were huge blessings to all the pastors there.  The kids wanted to go each time and had smiles when they left.  Incredible if you ask me!

I was quite busy and forgot to take many pictures but here are a few:

Our first night there we ate at TGIFridays at the Diamondbacks baseball stadium.  The name of the stadium escapes me now but we loved our view!

 While we were there we got to see our dear friends, Adam and Kristin Bleger.  They were once upon a time youth pastors at the church and have since moved to the hottest place in the USA (um it was 109* while we were there - I know it gets worse! oh man!).  I have NO pictures from that!!!!  We descended upon the local Burger King and literally took over the joint because we also went with our children's pastor, her daughter, and Seth and Maria Waters and their children (who now pastor in San Francisco).  It was a family reunion!

 Here is Kate with her buddy Ella Waters.  They had a blast together.

 Jack with Ian and Levi Waters

 Mark and Seth Waters

 The girlies hugging goodbye

Me with Momma Waters - aka Maria

 By the way, we got to worship with Matt Redman!  He's the tiny dot in the middle with the guitar.  It was amazing!