Jessie's wedding

This weekend we went up to X Diamond Ranch for Jessie and Mike's wedding. X Diamond Ranch is between Eager and Greer, and that side of my family lives in Nutrioso and Holbrook. It's really beautiful up there. The ranch has several cabins, and so we rented one Friday night. We thought it would be a little one room cabin "The Butler House". Imagine our surprise when we pulled up after following a swervy dirt road on the ranch and found the Butler House was a 4 bedroom house! The grounds were gorgeous, and the house was the former home of the former ranch managers - The Butlers. It's fully furnished, and has a gorgeous yard and four bedrooms with homemade quilts. Very "ranch-like", and we liked it. James ran around and around and inspected everything, with Bear in tow. He loved playing out in the grass too. and the view from the cabin was stunning! It almost ALMOST made me want to leave the city for a quiet life in the boonies! Oh wait - I grew up in a quiet life in the boonies.... and I would be bored out of my mind before too long!! But a visit now and again is nice.
The next day was the wedding, and lots of things pointed to it all ending in ... well.... DRAMA. Things like the wedding cake collapsing, and then having something heavy fall onto it and totally destroying it.... to my niece Coury and nephew Damian rolling the go cart at Dad's that morning and spending the entire morning at the ER - she broke some bones, but was a trooper. Then when Jessica was told she'd have enough tables and chairs we arrived at the main cabin where the reception was going to be held to find only 32 chairs at the tables - and she was expecting 68 people! Plus the wind was blowing and it was raining off and on and the ceremony was outside.... then the manager/owner of the ranch wouldn't let Jess move out the "creepy mannequins" dressed in period attire for the reception because they were "historical!!" Hmmm.... once everything was decorated and in there though the mannequins weren't even noticed! Then right before the ceremony Kelli told me Vickie accidentally melted part of Jessica's dress...I never noticed it though. It must not have been very bad!

Anyway, Luckily for all of us, Mike's Aunt gloria is a miracle worker and used to be a cake decorator for her profession. And she took frosting, and picked some flowers from outside, and borrowed some of the left over ribbon for the centerpieces and created a masterpiece!! Gorgeous! (and yummy! Vickie had to rebake all the cake!)

Happily and thankfully, Coury wasn't seriously injured or else what should have been a happy day could have been tragic. So we're grateful that she only had a broken arm, and Damian only had a bruised hip. The weather cleared up for the ceremony, and it was lovely. And they set up tables outside, and people loved eating out there so it was all great! And the melty part on the dress never showed, and Jessie and Mike were married and happy. So it was all great! :)

Here James is playing on the steps of one of the cabins right before the ceremony.

Jessie looked stunning, and so happy. Mike's girls were her attendants, along with her long time best friend Cara. He had two best men. What I loved was that they made Mike's daughters part of the ceremony. they got special medallions when Jessie and Mike exchanged rings. I know that Jessie loves McKenzie and Emily like they are her own, and we are so happy to have them in our family! they fit right in and have a lot of fun playing with the other grandkids. It was so fun to watch them all have so much fun together!

LtoR: Kailynn, Dillon, Damian, Emily, Coury, McKenzie (holding Thomas) and James (front)

And one of my favorite parts of the night was at the dance when Dad was dancing to Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" - hilarious! Here he is with my other sister, Kelli. There's my brother's big bald head in the background. I wish I would have taken more pictures!! It was a lot of fun.

I'm so happy that Jessie and Mike found each other. I know he really loves her, and makes her happy. They are a nice fit. I look forward to getting to know him better as a brother in law.

I remember when Jessie was small, and I would go and visit Dad. Jessie would cuddle up with "Brown" and hand me book after book to read to her until she fell asleep. That doesn't seem so very long ago, and now she is 26 and all grown up, married and with a family of her own. :) Life marches on! I'm excited for them! :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of the pics!