Longest. Day. Ever.

Yesterday feels like it was one of the longest days of my life. We spent Friday night with the Noyes family in Corinne. Kara and Clay are in town for a little while, and had a BBQ the night before. They had a bunch of people over, but the Joneses and the Hartwells stayed the night.

I wanted to be up fairly early so we could head to SLC before Kelly's wedding and get some shopping in. I woke up about 7 (the rest of the house was QUIET after a late night). I shower and get ready before realizing I can't find my wedding ring. Anywhere. My stomach got knotted and I was so sick. I take it off when I wash my hands and when I sleep. I figured it must have been in the bathroom, or had fallen out of my jean pocket. We comb through our suitcase multiple times, search through our toiletry bag, pull apart the hide-a-bed we slept in, retraced my steps from the upstairs bathroom to the basement, etc. Clays' mom had gotten up in the middle of the search. She told me she had recently lost her wedding ring and "it was the worst day of [her] life." I was understanding the feeling. I was sick. And so frustrated, because I don't lose my ring! I've never lost it!

We were combing through the suitcase one more time when Abby came running around the back of the house. Her and Jared had hid my ring the night before underneath the soapdish in the bathroom, thinking I would realize it was gone sooner. Jared brought the ring out, telling me he was the worst cousin ever. I was super relieved (I told you-- I don't lose my wedding ring!), and a little bit bugged.

In the midst of this commotion, I had realized that I didn't have my temple recommend. (Yeah, when I thought I had lost my ring and realized I had forgotten my recommend, there was A LOT of negative self-talk going on!) I had told Chris vaguely to make sure we had our recommends, without telling him to actually grab mine out of my temple bag, and then had promptly absolved myself of any responsibility for it.

It took the drive back to Logan for my stomach to start unknotting itself. We came back to our apartment, Chris showered and we had breakfast. And I grabbed my recommend. After a phone call right as I was locking up the door (Chris's French co-worker wanted to bring us a chocolate mousse cake, so we left the door unlocked.) Finally, we were on our way.

We went to Nordstrom Rack and shopped, essentially killing all the time before the wedding. I got a cute pair of shorts and a new dress with some of my birthday money. We headed to the SLC temple parking, changed into our dress and suit, respectively. As we were getting in the elevator we met up with the Noyes, who also hadn't eaten lunch. We hurried over to the food court of Cross-Roads Mall (the only thing remaining) and snarfed down some lunch. Hurried back to the temple and waited in the PACKED waiting room.

Kelly and Joe's sealing was good. Kelly bawled, then did the typical Kelly thing where she feels dumb about crying, and then laughs and snorts. Then, we sat around waiting and talking to Jared. We taught the Preston boys and Jared about NPS.Finally the bride and groom exited. A few pictures, and then the dinner.

Bro. Peterson started the dinner out in true [retired] seminary teacher fashion; I felt like we should be in church. Dinner was great, and after all the announcements and memories we finally got to have the "benediction" (not kidding. Joe Preston joked that the closing hymn was going to be "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again").

We went back to the parking garage and changed into our street clothes. As we were exiting, Kimmy pulled up behind us. I wanted to "play" (as spending time with her is always referred as) some more. So, we went to the Gateway for some shopping fun. I love Kim.

Sidenote to Dad: We signed you up for some discount program, since your birthday was in the month of June, and we were actually buying your present. Kimmy got to use the discount on her purchase as well, and your little prarie dogg/ J-Dogg pup thanks you.

Some of Chris's really good friends from DC are in town. We met up with them, and some other old DC acquaintences for dinner, and then a lot of catching up and reminiscing. (The last time we really got to visit these friends was July 2005, when I was in DC. We went to their daughters' first birthday party. She's now almost three!) It was a good time, but we didn't get out of the Gateway until about 10:00. Then, with all the road construction going on around there, we got a little disoriented {read: lost} and had a heck of a time getting on the interstate. The construction on I-15 northbound through Ogden was TERRIBLE. We crawled through that area.

I fell asleep after the lights died down. The next thing I know, I hear Chris mutter, "Oh crap!!" as he slows down and pulls to the side of the road. I was not happy that he was getting pulled over. We were in Wellsville, and could see the Logan city lights. Lucky for Chris, he got pulled over because we had a headlight out, not because he was speeding. We have to get it taken care of before the 11th to get the ticket waived. Since we leave for CA on the 6th, and won't get home until the 12th, that means we have to get it fixed ASAP.

We crawled into bed after midnight (after checking the fridge and being disappointed there was no chocolate mousse cake waiting for us).

What a day! Lots of friends,lots of sore feet (or maybe just my two), lots of fun, lots of frustration, lots of fatigue, lots of being together, and lots of driving!