More July pictures

On July 1, we helped Alia celebrate her 6th birthday.This is the finished stitchery that Beth made for Tim and Brenda's wedding gift. It is beautiful!

On July 6, Tim and Brenda were with us for Bible Study and they got to see and hold little Ethan Asbury Hinkle. He is precious. We enjoyed having my parents, Rex and Wanda Scoles, with us the week of the wedding. Grandpa played many a chess game with Beth, Emily, and Jason and Jeffrey, who were off work for the week.

Emily and Jason taught him how to play Stratego.He bravely played it with them, but I think he much preferred chess. Quil was a delight to have in our home, along with his parents, Randy and Joy.
Quil is so good at playing with toys or reading books by himself. Beth and Quil had a nap together! My mother worked on a crocheting project while she was here.
She is Quil's regular babysitter, so he loves having Great-Grandma Scoles feed him.
Emily tried to teach Quil to climb stairs. He doesn't have stairs to practice on at home. This is Grandma Stevenson and Enid Stevenson at a meal with us that week.

This is Audrey Stevenson, Kariann Orvis, (Brenda's best friend who was matron of honor), Brenda, and Tim at a meal at our house.

Tim printed the wedding bulletins and helped to fold them.

Here are some of the Scoles relatives who were at the wedding. They were visiting in the reception hall before the wedding. L to R: Rex Scoles, Lyndell Scoles, Brenda (Scoles) Owens, Andrew Owens, Wanda Scoles, Amanda Scoles, Ashley Scoles, back of Marlene (Scoles) DeOrnellis, Leah Owens, Rebekah Owens. Scoles relatives also present but not pictured: Charles Owens, Scott DeOrnellis, Cody DeOrnellis, Austin Scoles, Sharen Scoles, Sherry (Scoles) Wampler. We missed my brother, Wes and his family, and Sherry's husband and kids.

July 14th was Jeffrey's 17th birthday. Aunt Becky Profitt, (Rowen's sister), was our only guest at that time and she wanted to take us out to eat for Jeff's birthday. Jeff chose IHOP, so that is where we went.

Aunt Becky and Jeffrey

An update of our garden

July Garden Harvesting:

Each month we have posted pictures of our 2008 garden, which the Lord had blessed us with. It is thriving as we all work together to water and weed it...

This picture shows Beth and Emily hard at work doing detailed weeding... Thanks girls!

...and the Lord provides the bright sunshine and temperatures in the 90's most days. We have had no damaging wind or hail, and no bugs of any kind that would eat the foliage (and no pesticides!). We are truly blessed.

So far we have enjoyed romaine lettuce, radishes, onions, zucchini, and yesterday the girls picked enough green beans to can 7-quarts. We hope to can 50-60 quarts before frost.We look forward to the produce from 15 tomato plants, a few carrots, sweet and hot peppers, 3 kinds of cucumbers - most of which will be in late August - September here at 4,820 ft. elevation.


May Garden Planting


June Garden Weeding

The Amazing Paul Koerner and His Toy!

Our friend of several years, Paul Koerner from Mitchell, SD and his family visited us this week. He brought along one of his new toys.

It is this HI-TECH PERMANENT MAGNETIC SUSPENSIBLE FLYING DISK.

Here is Paul with his best-ever magnetic disk flight

Many folks can be seen doing this online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDtWLPDhzjU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e9gmZdlc30&feature=related

Available to purchase: http://e.cantonfair.org.cn/en/products/content.aspx?idno=RBE49F1QFn8=

We've been blessed with MANY House Guests

Related to Tim and Bren's wedding, we have had many overnight guests in our home. From July 4 - July 19, we had 15 guests stay with us one or more nights. We also had my niece's family of 5 for a meal and afternoon of visiting, and 7 others for one or more meal(s). They are all dear to us, and we are always thankful for guests, but we are really exhausted from it. As many of you have experienced, there just is a bit of tension in a home as you wonder if everybody is okay, and you work to make sure that everybody is comfortable and all their needs are met. Let us rest up a bit, then you can come and visit!

Here are pictures of a few of our guests:

Jeff and Shirlene (Rowen's niece) Kazmaier with their three children were here for a meal and visit when Becky Profitt (Rowen's sister) was staying with us.



Maria Hofer, Sarah and Paul Koerner with their daughter Brynna were here JULY 10-11, and 17 - 19. (see Paul's amazing feat in the video clip on the post subsequent to this)

Here is a picture that someone took at the wedding, of all of the Albertson (and Reiff) relatives that attended the wedding. Hopefully we can obtain some pics of the Scoles relatives present, and of Brenda's family and relatives that were there.

Tim and Brenda are Married!

Tim and Bren stopped by our home briefly today

after three days / nights in a mountain hide-a-way.

They are on their way to Joplin, MO where they

will drop off their U-Haul trailer and continue their

honeymoon throughout the week. After next weekend

they will be at home at:

________________________

Tim and Brenda Albertson

221 N. Gray Avenue

Joplin, MO 64801

________________________

On Friday July 11th, at 2:30 p.m. Tim and Brenda's beautiful wedding was attended by over 100 guests from all over the United States. They were married at the Chapel in the Pines in Red Feather Lakes, CO. We'll publish more pictures as we assemble them from various cameras. These are a few snapshots that we took on our cheap digital camera.

Brenda's dad, Phil Stevenson, walked her down the aisle

All of Brenda's immediate family and her paternal grandmother from Vineland, New Jersey were here for it. Nearly all Janet's family were here from Missouri. We missed her youngest brother's family from FL. and her sister's husband and kids from KS.

It was a great blessing to Tim and Brenda for people to travel so far just for their special day. We enjoyed the snippets of conversations among the busy responsibilities of the day.

The groom was thrilled to see his bride approaching. Rev. James Susan and Tim's Grandpa Rev. Rex Scoles Officiated. Randy was his brother's Best Man.

Tim getting his tux on. . .

Before the pronouncement...

The wedding party seated at the bridal table at the reception in the beautiful fellowship hall at The Chapel in the Pines

Tim and Bren exiting the reception

After Tim and Brenda drove off into the sunset to parts unknown, the rest of our children gathered for a picture. Beth and Emily were bride's maids. Jeff, Randy and Jason were groomsmen. Brenda's siblings were also attendants.

Grandson Quil was such a happy boy most of the day. What a blessing he was to us all!

More wedding pictures at:
http://sethstevenson.blogspot.com/2008/07/wedding.html
http://faithfulvoice.blogspot.com/2008/07/family-pictures.html
http://missionarytravels.wordpress.com/

More Pre-wedding Wedding Activities

As many of you have experienced before, our last week before our son Tim and Brenda's wedding (Friday afternoon, July 11, 2008) has been busy in a wonderful variety of ways. The best part of such events are the people, family members and friends who come from near and far to be a part of the event.

Friday, July 4th, Tim, Brenda, and Brenda's mother Kathleen Stevenson flew into Denver. On Saturday before the wedding Kathleen began the laborious task of making the wedding cakes, frosting and decorations. She is experienced in a "Wilton" sort of way at this, and seems to know lots of tricks to it. It was fascinating to watch.

12 pounds of butter to be used in the wedding cake frosting

Emily loved to help Brenda's mom (Kathleen Stevenson) with the wedding cakes, especially tasting everything. : )Then Monday morning, our oldest son Randy, wife Joy, and our grandson Quil came with Janet's parents Rev. Rex and Wanda Scoles from Joplin, MO. They drove the 750 miles all night. It was great to have them all here.

On Tuesday, Brenda's dad (Phil Stevenson), her sisters Enid (17) and Audrey (almost 14), and their 95-year old Grandma Lois Stevenson flew from New Jersey into Denver, rented a Nissan Armada, and drove the 50 miles to our home for lunch. After lunch they all packed up to go to their 10-person cabin in Red Feather Lakes Village for the final countdown and many details before the wedding on Friday.

Wednesday Brenda's brothers, Seth and Eric, flew from Milwaukee and New Jersey, respectively. Rowen's sister, Becky Profitt, a teacher in Grand Cayman, flew from their summer abode in Cinncinati, OH. Matron of honor Kariann Orvis (who was married on June 6 in PA, Brenda's life-long friend and for whom Brenda was maid of honor) flew in from Pennsylvania, and others came from several states by Thursday. We are truly blessed with these marvelous guests.

Brenda has given Tim a few hair cuts, and had the priviledge of doing so for his wedding haircut, under the tutelage of her new mother-in-law Janet.

Getting Ready for the Wedding and other Busyness

From Beth:
We have been busy this week and will continue to be as we get ready for the wedding next Friday. Mother has been working on menus, sleeping arrangements, and lots of other last minute prep. We thank the Lord for His help in this potentially stressful time!! We are so thankful for friends and relatives who are helping with making food and housing people. We have lots of people coming in for the wedding: friends, relatives, and members of the wedding party.
So yesterday Mother made menus for the next couple of weeks in which we will have company.
Today my aunt Esther and her daughter Maria helped Mother and me make a lot of food to freeze (while Emily played with Esther's three younger daughters). (Pictures of today with them below) One of our friends is graciously letting us use her freezer and has made some desserts for use at the rehearsal dinner.
The boys, Jeff and Jason, are now off work until the 15th (I think), as they finished this week and have off for the wedding. Daddy is also is off work (until the 17th).
In the near future we are looking forward to lots of trips to the airport, different people staying at our house every night, and lots of fun being with our friends and family for a short, speedy time!
As for tomorrow (4th of July), we are going to clean house and vacuum out the cars. One of us will pick up Tim and Brenda, and Brenda's mom at the airport in the evening. We are anxious to see them! We were planning to have friends from PA over for the 4th of July, but they were unable to make the trip to CO for the wedding and a visit, so we aren't doing that. We're just staying home and getting more ready for the wedding.
Pictures of us and the Mendezes today:

Mother standing in front of some brownies.

Aunt Esther and the casserole she was mixing, which she made with Mother.

Yes, Maria did make 4 boxes of brownies and I baked a whole bucket full of ready made cookies (from Sam's Club).


As I said before, Em played with our cousins while we worked. Daddy took (L-R) Sarah, Kwani, Hadassah, and Emily to the grade-school park nearby. Here they are on the leaning arch play equipment. Don't they look nice? :)