Whirlwind weekend

We just got back from a snowy, treacherous drive from Butler, Pa, where my sister, Joanna was married on Saturday...I'm exhausted and cannot believe that I'm sitting here at this computer typing away on my blog. It's so funny how I miss this evening tradition of recording my thoughts--I felt so out of touch just being away from the blog world for 3 days. I was almost panicky!

My second to youngest sister, Joanna, was married to Stephan Petersen on January 17, 2009.

The two of them met while she was living in Provo, Utah through a mutual friend. They hit it off immediately. They began dating although, logistically, it was difficult as he is from Denmark and that was where he was living at the time. After he returned to Denmark, they were able to continue to communicate through phone calls and e-mails as well as through visits. He came several times to the states and she was able to visit him in Denmark.

They became engaged about a year or so later. Joanna had been previously married for a short time but things did not work out. As it had been a temple marriage, it has taken a long time to get the temple divorce approved. When Joanna and Stephan got engaged, they had considered waiting until the temple divorce had come through to get married, but decided to just go ahead and have a civil marriage and then to be sealed in the temple at a later date. Not the most ideal, but under the circumstances, was the best option.

JoJo looked so pretty in her dress--

this was taken right before the ceremony...Nella, Michelle (a friend) and I were all waiting in the bathroom laughing about how funny it would be if she came out and all you could hear as the door was closing was the toilet flushing. And how it would be even funnier if a piece of toilet paper was stuck to her shoe!

It was a very short little ceremony performed by my mom's bishop, then photos, visiting, violinist playing in the background, and a lovely catered dinner. There were a total of 26 people attending, including kids. Stephan's mother, sister, brother and brother's girlfriend were able to fly out from Denmark to be there for the wedding. Although there was a bit of a challenge with the language barrier, we managed to communicate just fine.

My sister, Katie, took care of all the wedding details...She did a great job coordinating everything. I decorated the cake and helped set up the tables and misc. odds and ends.

Ellie and Uncle Seth

... this is the one that she wanted to marry--but funnily enough, after he passed gas shortly after this picture was taken, she decided not to go through with the wedding plans...Her excuse?--"He's too stinky"

Aunt JoJo with her nieces

(the one in the middle is Josie...unfortunately, this picture does not do her justice...she's a doll)

Just the girls...

(youngest sister, Nella; mom; Joanna; me; younger sister, Katie)

Stephan's sister, Maria, organized a really cute game after we had finished dinner, that was so darn funny. She had all of the women sit in a row of chairs with their skirts hiked up above their knees. Stephan was blindfolded and had to feel everyone's knee and leg and try to figure out which one was Joanna's. To mix it up a bit, my brother, Seth, hiked his pants up and sat down. As Stephen made his way down the row of knees, he grimaced when he got to the hairy one of my brother's. He laughed when we all teased him that the hairy one was his new bride's.

We laughed so hard that my cheeks were aching!

It was such a lovely evening--until...

Back on the homefront--things took a turn for the worse in the middle of the night as Brian started throwing up--! He's not sure if it is some kind of flu or something he ate, but no one else got sick so I have to wonder if it's a stomach flu...Oh! shoot me now--if the kids or I come down with this in the next couple of days--it's going to do me in! To top it off, while Brian was worshipping the porcelain, Ellie was having one of her night terrors (she was in the same room as Brian and I), so we all basically got zero sleep.


But here we are, home sweet home, we made it through the snowy drive.


One final thought...Joanna's favorite football team is the Steelers and they won tonight! What could be better...she's on her honeymoon and her favorite team is going to the Superbowl! Can't get much better than that!