The Wedding Trip

All in all, our trip to Idaho Falls for Jacob and Clarices’ wedding was wonderful, although it had a few moments that are best forgotten, as most trips do.

Diana arranged, and paid for, plane tickets for Dorie and I for which we were really grateful. Driving a long distance gets to be quite difficult as we age. No matter how young we feel when we begin, we feel much older at the end.

We got very little sleep the night before we left, setting the alarm for 3 am but waking at 1:30 afraid we would oversleep. We left our vehicle at the ParkNFly Shuttle and arrived at the airport before anything was open. No one at the check in booth and the TSA people were not ready to screen us for an hour. This was a whole new experience for me. I had not flown in about 20 years – but we got through it all fine. After I made 3 trips through the metal detector, that is.

After a brief stop-over in Boise we arrived at Idaho Falls, checked out a little, virtually brand new, Kia Forte and found our motel. No problem! That evening – Dec 28, 2009 – we headed over to the stake center where Diana was hosting a grooms dinner for Jacob and his guests.

I downloaded a map from Mapquest before we left and didn’t see any problem making it on time but left about 40 minutes early to be on the safe side. After getting lost and getting several bad directions, we arrived only 20 minutes late.

The dinner was beautiful. The main course was prime rib and there was cheese cake for dessert. All served on real china. We had a chance to meet Clarice’s family and spend some time making new friends before the wedding the next day. Everyone had a good time.

Good job, Diana! Thank you!

The sealing the next day was a high for me. It was the first time I had performed a sealing ordinance for a family member. To be able to seal our oldest grandson to his beautiful bride was truly the highlight of 2009 for me. I am so thankful that Jacob and Clarice asked me to do this.

But it was cold! I think the day began at around 10 degrees and warmed to the upper teens by noon. Pictures were taken outside on the temple grounds and we all froze but it didn’t seem to bother the newlyweds.

After pictures, Dorie & I toured the visitors’ center and when we came out Jacob and Clarice were still walking around the temple grounds having pictures taken. She wore a cape with a faux fur trim over a beautiful wedding dress but I cannot imagine that she was much warmer than we were.

That evening it was back to the stake center for a reception hosted by Clarice’s mother. The trip only took a few minutes this time as Dorie and I had bought a map at Walmart and never got lost. What a difference it makes when you know where you are going.

The stake center was decorated beautifully and a video of Jacob and Clarice was shown. I uploaded the video here so more people could enjoy it.  We had a nice time getting to know everyone a little better.

The next morning, December 30, we flew back home to Portland via Seattle. Wait, that didn’t happen. It was supposed to but there were problems.

After again turning in our rental car, checking in early at the airport and waiting to board the airplane, we were told that the plane we were to take was coming from Boise and had been canceled due to mechanical problems. We were herded back to the ticket counter to find alternate flights. While standing in line I got on the cell phone to Alaska Air and managed to get a flight out the next morning to Salt Lake City with a connecting flight to Portland. We were really lucky. Some people on our flight did not get a new reservation until January 5.

Alaska Air put us up at the Red Lion and paid for a dinner that night so other than an unexpected delay with nothing to do all day it wasn’t too bad of an experience.  And there was a bright side to it. It was snowing quite a bit in Idaho Falls and coming down worse in Portland. Forest Grove got 5 inches of snow on the 30th which we never had to drive in. By the time we arrived the next day most of it had been melted by warmer rain.

I had a similar, but worse, winter flying experience in 1954 that I will relate some time.

There will be another reception in St. Helens January 9 when Jacob and Clarice return from a short honeymoon on the Oregon coast before heading back to BYU Idaho to take up life as married students.

Filed under: Family

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