Harold Wedding pt1

This is the story of farming this year. Lots of repairs. This is Greg troubleshooting the pivot control  switches thankfully he can sit standing arched foot on the cables is crippling. Bruce and Millie are relaying tools, gadgets, circuits, and whatever else is needed. I demanded he get down and we head to the airport for Harold's wedding. Thankfully they had found the problem and Reed was able to replace the parts that had worn out. 

My mom took the younger kids to their cousins in Weiser where all things awesome happen. They got to ride horses.

And swim and see a colt be born. And much more I'm sure. I'm so thankful for family help. 

We got to Arkansas no problem Jake was great on the planes sleeping most of the time. We went to dinner at McDonalds and got a call from a neighbor asking if we needed a tractor with a large blade to put out the fire at our house? We were surprised and didn't know what was going on. We called Reed who informed us he was burning cheat grass but all was well. We found out when we got home a string of neighbors had come to help at 11pm. He had Bruce send them home knowing things were ok. We are thankful for neighbors who are willing to help. 

The next day we met up with Harold at the temple. It was good to see him and Lexi get sealed. 

The temple was gorgeous and the day was special. Their planning led to a stress free day for us and we really enjoyed seeing some of the south. 

There were a few people at the wedding and it was nice to meet her family. 

Greg's parents Lloyd and Sue had driven out and hauled us around from place to place. 

We provided a luncheon of fried chicken vegetable platter, fruit platter, rolls, and potato salad. I really appreciated Harolds brother in-law helping so much with the set up and clean up. He was always available to help through the whole day. 

I always like seeing the countryside. This was green and had lots of trees growing out of rocks even. I think the soil is pretty poor. We saw little farming and fewer cows. I'm always curious why there are no ruminants grazing. I learned when I got home from a neighbor that the grasses are lacking nutrition to support livestock. I don't know why. But he said the cows will die with bellys full of grass that is not nutritious. Interesting. I learned from a book I read when I got home this area had been logged in the 1800's to help with the building of Kansas City and the railroads. The trees obviously grew back these might be 3rd grow back from then. It was humid and hot while we were there over 90 each day. 

As we were driving down the freeway I heard the wind blowing and told GReg he checked mirrors and realized the tailgate had flew open and our one piece of luggage had flown out the hatch onto the freeway. We stopped and backed up and he retrieved the bag. Thankfully it was only scuffed up everything was fine inside and out and the bag is still very useable. 

We heard tale of this ice cream shop. We decided to try it out. It was so good we went two times. 

 After the ice cream refreshment we found farm fields as we got closer to where Lexi lived. Ripe wheat fields and corn in various stages from a few inches high to almost shoulder height. 

We saw a few random pivots that we learned were used to distribute and pull water that pools in low spots in fields to other areas. So their pivot pull water instead of apply it I think? 

The siblings worked to assemble to food for the evening. I enjoyed helping where I could and watching them tease and talk to each other. 

I was missing my family group at this point and took pictures to share with them the special day. This is just before the reception began. 

The refreshment spread. It was very good and so diverse. Fruit and vegetable cups, chicken salad and ham sandwiches. Meats, cheese & crackers, berries, cheese and tomatoes, granola and yogurt, if you could think of it it was available. 

Brownies from Sam's club and a delicious lemon cake. 

Her aunt made the dry flower arrangements. 

My kids would have enjoyed the dirty soda bar. 

Lexi fed Harold cake so nicely he got a bit on her nose. 

We did some dancing Harold chose I'm so Happy. A nod to his childhood nickname. It was fun to swing with him. They had a string send off Greg wasn't sure what to do with those I taught him- you wave it.

 They left under a rainbow from the downpour that had occurred during the reception. Her sisters had used blank sticky notes and paint to decorate the car. Much washed off but enough was left to get the idea. 

We helped cleanup, washup and pack up the buffet bar and headed for our nights lodgings.

Jake missed his siblings and enjoyed seeing them on the phone. He also showed us he is strong enough to pull himself up on things pulling himself up on the bed blankets. 

The next day we went to church in Joplin and met kind members. We flew home to more work and things that needed to be fixed. We are thankful for this new family and their desire to start in the temple. All's well that ends well.