And now, something really nice

      Our daughter Ashley lives in Astana, Kazakhstan with her husband and (now) six kids.  Kathleen, their oldest, left last August to begin college at Brigham Young University - Idaho,. As part of the financial agreement with her parents she found a job cleaning university buildings on the 4:30 AM (!) custodial crew shift.

    As luck would have it, an honorable young man from Indiana was also on that slacker shift, and they became friends, then serious friends, then girlfriend/boyfriend and finally affianced by early 2025.  We were sent by her concerned parents during our November trip to Utah to check this guy out, and we reassured her folks that he seemed OK.

      We were calmed by a) he was putting himself through school, and anyone willing to do custodial work at 4:30 AM gets some points, b) he drives a 1996 Camry, which earns both he and Toyota some more points, c) he served a mission for the Church in the Philippines (add some points), d) he has six sisters (more points plus automatic admission to heaven for surviving THAT), and most importantly, e) he seemed a gentleman and treated our granddaughter kindly.

    So the wedding plans were on.  Initially, the rest of the family would come to the States in July for their between-country break, attend the wedding and then decamp to the annual joyous family mess on a NC beach.  However, Kathleen and Brian moved the date back to April at the end of the BYU-I winter semester.  This meant some serious travel for the remaining eight back in Central Asia, but hey...

     Our daughter wisely rented a great big Air BnB in Rexburg, ID, home of BYU-I and the gang arrived a few days before to find their luggage, the house, and some degree of sanity after a 30-hour sojourn from Kazakhstan.  Others in the family also gathered.  There were pots of pasta, games, kids, laughter and a lot of love for the two days prior to the Big Deal.  

     And finally the Big Deal itself, on Thursday April 10th.  Everyone got spiffed up and looked great.

 

    They piled into the cars in their usual dignified fashion and headed for the Rexburg, Idaho temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

     The ceremony itself went well; no one fainted, Kathleen and Brian both said "Yes," and emerged a new married couple.  Kathleen honored her mother (and saved some serious custodial earnings) by using her mother's wedding dress, which her mother had borrowed from her sister, and...

 

     And then picture time!  It may be considered kind of the draggy part of a wedding, but it was honestly fun hanging out and talking on a beautiful day.

 

 

     We had to leave the Air BnB by 10:00 AM that morning, which was before the wedding, so after a nice noisy big luncheon, the family headed to cousin Stephen and Sarah's house in Rexburg, where they packed up their pretty clothes and started the long trip back to Kazakhstan.  

 

     This is the real stuff in an otherwise confusing world.   Conflicts rage, politics do strange things, people try to figure out how to be happy, and in the end, what really matters are the simple things - our relationships with others and just being good. 

     We feel humbly blessed that another bond in our beloved family has been forged.

Dave & Paula