Trip to Phoenix

Marissa and Zack's open house was in the Phoenix/Mesa area a couple weekends ago. Zack grew up in Arizona, so we made a quick trip to Arizona and stayed at Zack's mom and dad's house a couple of nights. Before we left Utah, we arranged to meet with some families in Phoenix that adopted from Ukraine also. Alex was excited to see his friend Dima (now Donovan), who was in the same orphanage. We thought they would go crazy talking about old times and speaking Ukrainian. As is typical with these adopted kids, they hardly conversed, and what little they did converse was in English! Alex tried to speak Ukrainian to Dima, and Dima didn't understand a word he was saying. But they did have fun playing arcade games.

This is Marie. She and her husband were in Ukraine the same time we were. We went to dinner with them in Ukraine and were going through the process almost simultaneously with them. They adopted a young boy. Marie's twin sister (Rose) hosted Alex for the first few days in Phoenix until we took him back with us to Utah.

Then later that day, we hung out at the church and helped prepare for the open house for Marissa and Zack.

Zack's mom had the cute idea of putting up giant pictures of their wedding day and some engagement photos.

Alex said he wanted this picture afterwards, so he rolled it up and took it back home to Utah. It now hangs on the wall by his bed. If he wakes up in the night, he'll have this GINOURMOUS picture of Zack and Marissa gazing down at him. Too funny.

How great that the Allreds have an honest-to-goodness chef in the family who oversaw the food aspect.

Aunts and cousins showed and spent hours in preparation. Great family support.

These look like balloons, but they're really lanterns with lights inside. It was a nice effect when the lights were dimmed.

The boys looking bored before the guests arrived. Quinn and Alex were the "table clearers."

Quinn was an awesome table clearer. He stuck to the job till the bitter end.

Zack's mom and dad.

Our great friends, Dan and Debbie. We got to go to lunch with them too! It was so nice actually knowing some people that came to the open house.

I thought this was a great idea. Zack's brother-in-law is a graphic design artist and put this design on the entrance into the open house.

It was a fun weekend. We got enourmous amounts of reading and homework done while traveling the eleven hours each way. Everything went off without a hitch, and it was nice to get to know Zack's family a little better.

Eric Gone (Again)

I wonder if we will ever get used to saying good-bye to Eric. He returned to Guam yesterday, and it was a sad, melancholy day. The whole family felt it. I think almost all of us shed a few tears the last couple days. Where is Eric now? Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean after spending last night on the floor of the Houston Airport. He will arrive in Guam Friday evening. Yuck. That journey is even worse than the journey going to Ukraine! It was great to have him home for almost a month, and just when we were all getting used to having him around again, it was time for him to leave.

We hiked to Timpanogos on Labor Day. It was a bit nippy in the morning but beautiful. We didn't prepay for tickets to go through the cave. When we got there at 9:15 a.m., the cave tour time available was a three-hour wait, so we decided to hike up just for the heck of it. We'll have to show Alex the cave another day.

Spelling Woes

Alex has become a good, even great reader in the last eight months. He is on his seventh or eighth Boxcar Children book and reads much of the time independently. His comprehension is good. When reading scriptures with the family, he can read many verses in the Book of Mormon with no help at all. His SPELLING, however, is a different story.

In spite of studying spelling lists all summer, Alex asked me last night how to spell "how" and "where," and other words that he has read literally THOUSANDS of times. When he asked me how to spell "how," I asked him how he thinks it's spelled. He said H-E-A. I wrote HEA down and asked him to read it to me. He could see immediately it did not say "how." He then guessed H-O-U, a much better guess but still wrong.

Wow, am I expecting too much that Alex should be able to spell "how" after reading it for the last eight months and writing it maybe dozens of times? I feel frustrated. After reading Wendy's blog about doing home school IN school, I e-mailed Alex's ESL teacher to see if I could sneakily incorporate spelling lists into the teacher's curriculum. (Alex accepts teachers' challenges and homework much better than he accepts his parents' challenges and homework. Sad, huh?) We will see what his ESL teacher thinks.

Alex was also placed into pre-Algebra this year because his sixth grade teacher thought he could handle it. No way am I going to tackle pre-Algebra this year with Alex when we have the English/spelling/reading/comprehension hurdles. I know our limits. (His sixth grade teacher needed to come and observe homework time at our house. She had no idea how it went down.)

Anybody else out there been there, done that with the spelling difficulties? We've started a "dictionary" like Wendy has done with her Alex. I obviously need to be more obstinate in not spelling words for him and making him look them up. Then he would have incentive to remember them the next time, right?

Marissa and Zack were married September 3, 2010. These are some photos taken on my little camera. The "professional" photos will appear soon. Stay posted!



Bridal photo shoot. I forgot to get my camera out until the very end.

Endowment day at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Zack's brother Caleb (on the left) entered the MTC the next day.

Family wedding dinner hosted by Zack's parents. Delicious!

The big day finally arrived. Not a cloud in the sky. Pictures at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

The wedding reception was in our back yard. Marissa always said she wanted it here. We prayed for good weather, and our prayers were answered. The tempterature was perfect, the decorations were beautiful, the flower gardens survived the hail storm five days before, and our wonderful family and friends OVERWHELMED us with their love and support on Labor Day Weekend.

Family photos before the reception

The cake arrived and was magically assembled before our eyes.

The boquet was beautiful.

The chocolate fountains arrived.

The last-minute scramble in my kitchen.

Family members wait for the guests to arrive.

One of my kitchen helpers. My ward friends are wonderful.

The guests begin to arrive.

Overhead lights were strung from the porch to the trees at the back of the yard.

Candles were hung in the tree over Marissa and Zack's heads.

Cutting the cake. The sun was just setting.

It was Marissa's idea to show the video on a screen on the side of our shed. It worked beautifully. Zack's dad handled the technology. Whew!

I got there too late to catch the boquet throwing.

These cute girls from the neighborhood cleared tables for us. All the kitchen help wore red, orange, or yellow aprons.

Marissa and Zack went in the house to change clothes to leave on their honeymoon. She asked me to come help her get out of her wedding dress. I said, "Uh, I think your husband can handle it."

"Oh, yeah. I'm married now!"

I guess old habits die hard.


The send off. About a hundred people lined up on the driveway and blew bubbles.