Fourth of July 🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆

Our ward hosted a Fourth of July breakfast in Josephine this year.  New location, but same activities--flag ceremony by the Roper family (the only scouts around), pot luck pancake breakfast, and Ben's water balloon launcher.  It seems to be a recipe for success.

Our city has started doing fireworks.  We decided last minute to go, and found a parking lot outside the park where everyone else was.  We had a pretty good view!  In and out--just the way we like our public events. ☺

Happy birthday, America!

 

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar is warned to beware the Ides (15th) of March. Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” On a Scrabble board there is a grid of 15×15 squares.

Tessa turned FIFTEEN!!!

It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Roper with us still, despite the fact that I have no pictures of them that day!  But Tessa's birthday wishes were fulfilled with her gifts and...

...orange sweet rolls!  Delicious.

She received more henna, which was a little more authentic than the kind she got last year, and she had fun decorating us all day.

She requested a chocolate crepe cake, like she had the year before, and it was fun to make it happen for her.

Here's to a wonderful, world-expanding year, Miss Tess!

This curly girl is going to go far.

Bluegrass on Ballard

 We came. We saw.  We listened.  We got Kona Ice and brisket nachos.  We guzzled all the water we could find.  We left pretty soon afterward.  We had to wait in a hot parking lot because the car battery died.  We got it fixed enough to come home.  Ben and Grandpa went to really fix it.  Grandpa got heat exhaustion and needed a cold bath.  It was...not our best experience at Bluegrass on Ballard.  But I still love that they do it!

Bonus: here's Timmy, sunbathing after his bath, which is his new favorite activity.

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage: Scott and Kaitlyn Begin Their Forever Together! 💗

The Night Before

Kaitlyn's mom invited all of our family and theirs over to her house for brownies and root beer floats.  It was nice to meet everyone involved before the main event.  My parents had flown in from Denmark on Monday (and were staying with Joseph's family), and Ben's parents had arrived on Tuesday.  After we visited together, my parents, Ben's parents, Scott, Kaitlyn, Ben, our other kids, and I went to the Meandering Way building, where Emma has church, and which is only 10 minutes away from the temple, to set up for the family lunch we were hosting the next day.

The last picture of the original Roper Six:

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Early Morning

Scott and Kaitlyn went early to the temple for some pictures.  They are adorable.

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The Sealing

It was a blessing to be in the sealing room of the Dallas Temple, with about 40 of our combined friends and family, to watch Scott and Kaitlyn make their covenants with each other and with Heavenly Father.  It was a blessing that my dad was able to be their sealer, and to hear his words of counsel and reminders of how all of the covenants we make bring us closer to our Savior.  It was a blessing to witness the birth of this new family, which is still sealed to ours and the McKneely's in a heavenly web of love.  These are two good people who will do good things together, and with God.

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The Family Pictures

It was hot.  So very, very hot.  But worth it for them.

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The Family Lunch

We decided to cater a lunch instead of have it at a restaurant, and it worked out really well.  There were some communication issues with the caterer, but everything came together in the end.  We had fajitas, beans, rice, chips, salsa, and a table full of desserts.  Ben hosted a version of "That's My Money, Honey," which his dad did for us at our family wedding dinner, where Scott and Kaitlyn chose a partner, and they both answered a question (Scott's were very difficult and Kaitlyn's were easy), and if the answer matched, Ben gave them $20.  Kaitlyn of course ended up with most of the money, which was a fun way to add to their honeymoon fund.

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The Departure

Some thoughtful siblings, cousins, and a dad got together and decorated Scott and Kaitlyn's car to prepare them for their trip to Houston.  (The car was filled with balloons, too.)  Gracie put Scott's Venmo on the window, and a couple people actually contributed to them that way!  Their plan was to spend the night in Houston and then catch their cruise ship in Galveston the next morning.

And then...they were off!

Happy honeymoon!  Happy couple!  Happy day!

More celebrations to come...