I Have a Family Here on Earth

For the second time this year, we headed to El Paso for the wedding of Jay's youngest brother, Garry. We left at around midnight Tuesday night and reached the Texas border at 8 a.m.

We had lunch in Dallas, where I was able to see a friend from high school. We found a McDonald's with an indoor playground. The kids were able to burn off energy for over an hour.

We had dinner at an IHOP in Midland. Kit got a warning for driving 10 miles over the speed limit (with the cruise control on!). We got to El Paso around 1 a.m. central time, approximately 25 hours after leaving Birmingham. It was a very long day, but the kids were pretty good travelers.

Thursday was spent visiting with family and making some preparations for the reception. By Thursday evening, all the brothers and sisters had arrived. We all went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. (Garry went to Taiwan on his mission and speaks Mandarin. The staff loved him!) Kyle took this picture.

After dinner, all the girls went to get manicures and/or pedicures in celebration of Janey's announcement that she is now a mom-to-be!! The girls loved getting their nails painted.

Garry and his fiancee Irma were married in the Ciudad Juarez Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Since by Mexican law they must have a marriage certificate before they could be married in the temple, they were married by their bishop in a brief ceremony that was held at the UTEP institute building. Garry asked Kit to hold something for him during the ceremony. When Garry and Irma exchanged rings after the ceremony, Garry asked Kit for the ring. It wasn't until later that Kit realized that Garry had essentially asked him to be his best man. His sensitive side showed then. The children enjoyed sampling ALL of the candy canes that had been left in the foyer during the ceremony. Afterwards, I stayed in El Paso with the younger children while Jay and Kit travelled across the border. We went to breakfast at Denny's and then did some shopping and got ready for a surprise birthday party at Leo's Mexican Restaurant for Nana.

Saturday was devoted to the reception. Jay and Kit took the younger kids out for lots of last-minute shopping while the rest of us worked on the refreshments and did other last last-minute shopping. There was a family dinner before the reception, and I am very pleased to report that Kyle, Kinneret and Cordelia SAT in their chairs and ATE their dinner (or most of it) and were almost the ideal models of POLITE BEHAVIOR. They loved getting their pictures taken with Uncle Garry and Aunt Irma, the mariachi band, and the dancing. Kyle enjoyed being the self-appointed family photographer for the evening. Kyle and Kinneret were both still awake when the reception officially ended at 11 p.m.

Kit dancing with his great-grandmother.

Jay paid a dollar for this dance with his brother.

Garry dancing with his nieces and nephews.

We planned to leave bright and early Sunday morning so that we could stop for the night instead of driving straight through. However, we left El Paso at around 1 p.m. central time, stopped for dinner just outside Midland, blew through Dallas at 2 a.m., got to the Texas border around 5 a.m. and arrived in Birmingham around 2 p.m. Another hard 25 hours. Thankfully, we are DONE travelling for the year.

Kyle in El Paso. This picture was taken to be part of the travelogue he had to prepare as make-up work for school.

Cute photos of the girls at a rest stop.