Sam & Shawna's Wedding

Sam is married!  My older brother married Shawna in the Raleigh, North Carolina temple September 4th.  We believe that when we are married in an LDS temple that we have the opportunity to be with our family for eternity--not until just "till death do you part."

We started of the wedding weekend (after Lee's birthday dinner) by having Lee finish cleaning up dinner while I took a nap.  We left our house about 8:30 pm.  Lee drove till we were outside of St. Louis and I drove till about 4:30am.  We arrived at Daniel's around 2:30.  I had fun going shopping with my sisters and seeing Sam and Shawna that afternoon. 

Shanna and Grandpa


Lizzy and Lexie


The proud father of Lexie


The wonderful host Daniel.  We had such a great time with him and Amy and family.  THANKS!


Sam has a past record with Clark (maybe others...) of taking him to McDonald's late at night to get a Happy Meal.  I would tag along to enjoy a free shake and fries.  Since it was the last night of Uncle Sam being single we asked him about taking a McDonald run and he readily agreed.  Unfortunately we couldn't find a McDonald's in the area, but fortunately we went to Arby's! YUM!  A fun Bachelor's party.  It was for the boys, but I was along to chaperone Clark and Lois was there for baby boy Heit.




The next day was WEDDING day! It was also Lois' birthday.  That morning Lee and I made breakfast for her and put up a sign...too bad we didn't take any pictures!  I hope everyone enjoyed the bacon!

Some of the kids with Penny and her kids.  The Stake Center is right across from the temple.  Since there is a good group of grandkids, my mom called her friend Penny to ask if she would babysit for all of us parents while we enjoyed the sealing.  Thank you so much Penny and family!


After the sealing Lee and I did two couple sealings.  The sealer who had sealed Sam and Shawna together performed the sealings for Lee and I.  He had mentioned at Sam and Shawna's sealing that he knew my parents from when my dad was getting his PhD at NC State. I told him (I think his name was Brother Stevens) that I was one of Darrell's daughters. He then told me my dad was the best Elder's Quorum President he's ever served with (did not surprise me in the least!).  Bro. Steven's was the mission leader at the time. I am glad he shared that with me.  Yep, I have one amazing dad!

A little while later.....


The wonderful couple!




Uncle Darrell and Nephew Cal




My cousin Nate flew out from Utah to photograph the wedding and reception.  His brother Chris came along too. Chris and I were basically best friends growing up and it was so wonderful to see him and catch up a little after not really seeing him for several years.


Andy and Makenzie.  I love this picture of her!




Lois, Lizzy, Ruth, Chris


Sam and some of the nephews.  Lena and her family weren't able to be at the wedding and I missed having them there!  Sheldon of course wasn't there either, but I am glad he is in Italy on his mission.




Steph and Andy--the new BYU law student!--with cute little Lisa.


Grandpa and Hyrum


The oh so cool DC Heits.


NIECES!




A cute exit...




Going to the wedding luncheon


Chris modeling at the food area


Anthon wanted a picture






Thanks for the delicious lunch mom and dad!




Right after the luncheon...checking out the digs at the hotel of my siblings


After the luncheon we drove out to Marion for the reception. Hi Jessica!




















Great decorations Deb!!!












Steph and Andy bought Lois a cake for her birthday.  We had fun celebrating even though it was here and there throughout the day.  I hope you had a great birthday LOIS!






We sent them off with bubbles




Time to decorate (before they came outside)


Sam had a rental car so we didn't want to go crazy (plus we had a lack of materials).  My mom actually had some wedding window decal type things and I had some red crepe paper.  We did the best we could.








The happy couple driving off into eternal bliss!


I wish we could have spent more time with everyone.  We said quick goodbyes to everyone after the reception. After the wedding we drove back to Daniel's house.  Why doesn't McDonald's always have ice cream available at 11:00pm at night?  Sad I know, but I do.  My sister got gypped at a McDonald's where they didn't have ice cream.  And on her birthday too! The nerve!  We stopped at Wendy's first at they didn't have the Frosty machine going.  We did get lucky with the next stop: McDonald's.

We had a great Sunday at Daniel and Amy's.  It was fun to see Lois, Jeff, Steph, Andy, Roger and Britt again before they headed out.  I was so glad that church didn't start till 1pm! Monday morning took our time to head out and left around 10am. A few hours later we decided (it was an easy decision, it wasn't out of the way) to drive through Mount Airy--the town Mayberry is based off of from The Andy Griffith Show.















It was a great weekend....congrats Sam & Shawna!