More Cousins

Because I am the coordinator for the Thursday evening shift at the temple I am usually the last man out of the temple at the end of the day (except for the President, Security and cleaning staff). Since things get slow near the end of the shift and I'm there anyway I usually let everyone else go home and I stay and clear everyone out of the temple. This means that after the last session I relieve the receptionist in the celestial room and wait until the last people leave. Some times they can hang around for a long time but I don't mind. How can you complain about being in the celestial room? 

This last week was just like all of the others and there were only a few people left and one of them was a young couple who were obviously from out of town. He was asking all kinds of questions and she was being very patient. Suddenly, out of the blue she said, "Fred Leavitt, are you related to the Lybberts?". She had seen my name tag and remembered my name from somewhere. As it turns out she was the daughter of Carol Richardson formerly Carol Lybbert, the daughter of Uncle Dan Lybbert. Of course I didn't remember her because when I saw her last she was just a child. As it turned out, Kendalee Richardson and Brian Butler got married last week and were in San Diego on their honeymoon. They had planned on going to an earlier session but forgot their recommends at the hotel and had to go back for them. If they had made their earlier session then I would never have seen them. I didn't want to intrude on their honeymoon but I did want to visit with them more and I wanted Lisa to meet them so I invited them to come over for Sunday dinner. I'm glad they chose to come. 

I completely forgot to take any pictures of them with us but one of the things Brian wanted to do was to take a picture of the furthermost southwest corner of the United States so I told him he had to take a picture of the border fence going into the ocean and send it to me. He did so here is proof that we got to see them. We had a blast reminiscing about Uncle Dan and Glenwood and St George. Coincidentally, Kira ran into Kendalee's brother when she was on tour in Europe. He was a missionary in Germany when they played in Frankfurt. If I remember right I think she gave him a big hug which he had to explain to his fellow missionaries. 

Uncle Dan was my grandpa's brother but because he was so much younger than his siblings he was closer to my mothers age even though he was her uncle. This meant that I was closer to Carols age. Actually I fell between Janet and Colleen but I remember Carol well growing up. 

It was so fun to see the Butlers. They came to church with us too so I got to show them off in our ward. It was a fun weekend. Thanks for coming Brian and Kendalee Butler. I wish you the best with your new life together.