The Utah Open House

Because the wedding and reception were in California, the bride and groom wanted to have an open house here so they could greet friends and relatives who didn't make it to the wedding.

I decided to do it at our house. We moved out most of the furniture on the main floor the night before and then spent the day decorating. Our attendance wasn't as good as the summer garden open house we had for my oldest son but we still had a good amount of people. Hopefully they enjoyed themselves! I actually didn't feel well that day and my husband did a lot of the work, but by the evening I was feeling better.

My brother and sister-in-law who live in Kansas came with their family for the weekend. We enjoyed having them here!

Mindy decided to read some Harry Potter when things got a little boring.

My brother from Kansas is on the left, my sister-in-law who lives nearby is in the middle, and my sister from Idaho is on the right.

My neighbors are pictured here. The woman in the maroon blouse helped me a lot with set-up and serving.

My sister-in-law helped in the kitchen too.

For refreshments, we served some vegetables, fruit, some Hawaiian roll sliders, and some chocolate and white cake along with lemon water. We had a lot of leftovers since we had planned for more people but we shared the cake at church with the youth and ate a lot of vegetables that week. We're still working on the sandwiches.

These were the centerpieces for each table.

We put one of these quotes on each table.

We also put a small picture of the happy couple on each table.

I ordered a bunch of really inexpensive chair covers and sashes for the event.

I also transcribed some violin/cello duets for my daughter and son to provide some chamber music. I can't say the rehearsals were as friendly as we might have liked, but the end result was good.

My mother-in-law came down from SLC.

My aunt and uncle from Provo are pictured on the right.

It's hard to see but we lined our front walk with tiki torches. They had trouble staying lighted thanks to the light snowfall that started up midway through the evening.

These are the girl cousins close to Camille's age, three from Kansas, one from around here.

Some of Sallie's former roommates and friends.

More cousins.

Scott's brother and wife came down from Ogden.

My sister-in-law from Kansas took all these pictures so sadly we didn't get any pictures of her.

Comments

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River. This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize. This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night. It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania. However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet. I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Hansen Family Reunion 2026, Wednesday and Thursday

We had another Hansen Family Reunion at Bear Lake! In total, there were 93 of us there with 11 missing--our biggest yet! We enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up a little bit. Here are some pictures. My goal was to get a picture of everyone, so if you don't see a picture of yourself, keep scrolling. Also, more individuals coming on the post for Friday. Sorry for the weird angles on some of them. Michelle made dinner the first night, chicken and vegetables with Michelle's specialty--lots of sides and plenty of leftovers. After dinner and clean-up, we had a FHE lesson outside on the lawn with Melanie in charge of the lesson after a few raucous songs. The newest addition to the family, #103. On Thursday morning, Kent and Melanie chaired breakfast with eggs and sausage and plenty for everyone. The cook with his breakfast sandwich: After breakfast, some of the group went rock-climbing, courtesy of Everett, David, and Susanna while more people went on a hike--the Limber Pine Hike....

Nauvoo Pageant!

I have been a negligent blogger this last month. My reason is that we have been super busy. At the end of July, we went to the Nauvoo Pageant. We were able to participate once again in the Gold Cast like we did in 2007 and 2014. We picked up our daughter at the end of her cross country camp in Price, Utah on our way out of town. Then we drove to our friends' house in Golden, Colorado near Denver to stay the night. It was fun to reconnect if only briefly. The next night we were in Lawrence, Kansas, visiting my brother and sister-in-law and their family. That was also fun but short. We left the next morning, attending nearby church before taking off. We arrived in Nauvoo around 4pm with just enough time to have dinner at our cabin before going to our orientation at the pageant building. The next day we went to the pageant building to get our costumes and to learn how to do our hair in the 1840 styles. ...

Search This Blog