Alycia's Wedding Day

My little girl got married today. The entire day went without a hitch and it what a wonderful day it was. It was a complicated schedule but everything went as planned. Alycia and Lisa had to be at the Temple by 9:00 so the three of us headed off first. She looked so beautiful standing out there in front of the temple. When we entered we found that the Crowley's and Greg & Gaylia and Jackie were already there. We went on in and waited for the temple to complete all the paper work. Kira, Brandon, Serene, Ben & Sharley had to be at the temple by 9:30 so they actually came in separate cars and then finally Alex & Sarah had to load up Evan, Sydney and Grandma and have them all there by 10:45. I was a bit worried about that one but everyone was where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

The Temple ceremony was beautiful. Because I work at the temple I decided to ask the temple president (President Olsen) to perform the sealing ceremony. He agreed and he performed a beautiful ceremony. The ceremony itself is always the same but the council they give before hand is what ever they feel inspired to say. The other cool thing is that Claudia Warner is a shift coordinator on the Tuesday morning shift and so she spent the entire time with Alycia and even attended the sealing with us. It was nice to have her there. They don't like us to wear Tuxedo's into the temple so following the ceremony (and after I gave my siblings a tour of the temple) we quickly changed into our tux's and went outside to meet the family members who couldn't come inside and to wait for Alycia and Trevor to come out. It's a good thing it takes so long to get a bride ready because I had to run out and get the headband for Alycia out of the car and then I was having wardrobe malfunctions. I love the head band, Alycia was trying to decide what to wear in her hair because she wanted to do something different than a veil. Lisa found this beautiful headband and they decided to go with that. I thought it was so appropriate for Alycia because all she wore for the first eight years of her life was a headband because she didn't have enough hair to do anything else. When they did finally come out they looked so beautiful. The day was nice, there was just enough breeze to keep it cool and the only thing that went wrong was that my poor bald head can't take two hours in the sun without a hat. My head got so burned that it looked like a cherry. After everyone got pictures we all headed back to our house while Alycia and Trevor went and got more pictures taken at the beach, Balboa Park and other destinations not known. We had some sandwiches waiting and we all relaxed for a couple of hours before we headed down to the Officers Club.

I love to take pictures and when I go to weddings I usually take a ton of pictures for the bride and groom. It is nice to get pictures immediately after the wedding and I also try to take pictures that the photographer wouldn't normally take. I got some nice pictures at Ben and Sharley's wedding but because I was more involved in this wedding (being the bride was my daughter) I decided that I wouldn't have time to take many pictures. Therefor I decided to just enjoy the reception and not worry about the camera. That is why I have no pictures of the reception. If anyone gives me any I will post them for you to enjoy. For now you will have to take my word for it that the club where we had the reception was beautiful. The building is older and very cozy and it is mere yards from the ocean. This is actually where we wanted to have Kira's reception but when 9/11 happened and there was threat of war we had to change our plans because no civilians are allowed on base in a time of war. As it turned out we were at war during Kira's reception and we would have been in big trouble. Kira's reception was still very beautiful however.

The down side of having the reception at a place like this is that the seating is limited. We were only able to have 200 people there and that meant that a lot of people we would have otherwise invited didn't get invited. I am truly sorry if you happen to be one of those. The good thing is that the reception line is also limited so I didn't have to stand there for hours and hours like I did with Kira's reception. Following the line up we made a grand entrance and ate a wonderful meal. Trevor's best man, Stanton made a very nice toast, Lisle (Trevor's dad) also made a very nice toast and then I thanked all of the guests for coming.

After desert we had a dance. The father / daughter dance was to "Butterfly Kisses" and the emotions you have during a dance like that are so confusing. You're happy but you're also very sad. It is the end of a huge phase in your life but the beginning of a new one for your little girl. You're glad to see her embark on a new beginning but so sad to see her leave. Life sure does keep us hopping doesn't it?

The dance was actually quite fun. At one point I was swing dancing with Alycia, Brandon was swing dancing with Kira, Ben was swing dancing with Sharley and Alex was swing dancing with Sarah. The entire audience formed a circle around us and watched. It was quite unnerving being the center of attention like that but it was very fun. The only part I wasn't so excited about was when the DJ announced that it was my birthday the next day and then dedicated a song to me. A bunch of girls surrounded me and danced. I'm not much of a dancer so I'm sure I looked like a fool out there. I hope there were no pictures taken of the incident.

Finally it came time to end the party. We had sparklers that we were going to light as Alycia and Trevor were leaving but where as other venues could ignore the fact that they're illegal in California, the military base couldn't. They wouldn't let us light them. Instead we all waved unlit sparklers in the air as the bride and groom left. There was one final surprise left.

Alex and I had prepared an acetylene bomb for the car at work. We made a few test firings and found a combination that worked very well. Brandon taped it on underneath the car and as the happy (and oblivious) couple were climbing into the car Brandon pushed the button. It is now two days later and most of his hearing has returned. Alycia and much of the surrounding crowd screamed and I looked around to see if the MP's were coming. I was prepared to take the fall for Brandon so he could keep his criminal record clean but to my relief they never showed up. Trevor then decided to circle the car looking for any other booby traps and when he spotted the balloon on the tail pipe he was a good enough sport to leave it on. When he started the car the exhaust blew up the balloon and when it popped it was surprisingly loud. We also had some tie wraps on the cars axle so that it would make a bunch of noise hopefully making them think that the bomb had caused some damage to their car.

We all waived them farewell as they drove off to their new lives it was the end of a beautiful day. With many helping hands the mess was quickly loaded up and we all headed home. This was one day that no one had the energy to play a fun game of "Settlers".





Evan loves the freedom he gets from his cool motorized wheel chair. He loves to "run away" from his mother when she calls him.






Aren't they the most beautiful couple you ever saw?


















Mom is congratulating them on their marriage.










Alycia and Trevor with Tearsa and Jamie.









Me and my brother Greg.












Serene and my little granddaughter Sydney.


















Sarah and Nana












Now that is a man's flower. None of that "frilly" stuff.











Derek, Stanton, Trevor, Ben, Brandon and Alex












My girls - Kira, Alycia and Sarah. Don't I have beautiful daughters?








That's my son throwing his little girl high into the air. He learned that from me. You can see that Sydney loves it.