Amy is married!

This is Daniel writing. I am thrilled with this news: my sister Amy got married on Friday!

So Ben got married, then six years later I got married, then six years later Amy gets married. We just needed to be patient, right? Well, she was beautiful in her wedding dress and seemed very happy. Kevin was beaming as well, and it was good to see him, he's a great guy. I enjoyed his family as well, they are all great folks, and it was nice to meet his brothers. The temple ceremony was in the morning at about 9:45 AM in the Salt Lake Temple.

Kevin Player and Amy Gowans. They were an adorable couple. I took pictures outside the temple, candids and things, that I had developed in the afternoon and displayed at the reception. It was fun, and the weather was beautiful! I used dad's new SLR camera and the pictures turned out great. Later there was a luncheon at Christopher's restaurant. I enjoyed the comments from the parents, often along the lines of "why didn't they get together sooner, and I am glad they saw the light." My mom cried very nicely. She's so big hearted. My younger brother Adam got up to give her a hug when she started crying, it was great.

Here's some photos from the event. Amy and Kevin, Kevin's party, Kevin's beaming parents, Amy's beaming parents, Amy's party, and Amy and Kevin again, looking great!





























After the luncheon, Joanna and I dropped the lucky couple off at the conference center to get their car and we took off to develop some pictures to show at the reception. We went to Sam's Club but their one hour photo was down. There was a Kodak picture center that prints pictures from memory cards, but someone was using it. So we took off to Super Target but soon found they didn't even have a one hour photo! We were about to run off again, but time was getting short. Around the corner in the Target we found one of the Kodak photo centers, and it served us well. We printed some very nice photos (the couple was wonderfully photogenic) and headed to the reception center. We were the first there and waited maybe a half hour or so.

Here's some more fun pictures. Left, Bridal of the lovely bride. Middle, Groomal of the lovely groom. On the right, a somewhat out of focus picture of the marvelous cake and couple!















Soon everyone arrived and we posed for more pictures in the reception center, in a beautiful greenhouse. It was really nostalgic, if sometimes a bit awkward (I don't get to socialize that much) to see so many old family friends.. We saw maybe 10 or so couples from the ward I grew up in. That was nice, and it was fun to chat with them. The line consisted of Amy, Kevin, and their parents. It was pretty much full of people from 7 until 9.

Eventually we saw off the happy couple! They went on a short mini-moon before heading back to Kansas. They'll have an open house there this next weekend. Then Kevin's final semester for his masters in Electrical Engineering will be in India! That will be a real adventure, and I look forward to hearing about it.

The bottom has fallen out

Well, it happened. I was determined that I wouldn't get emotional, I wouldn't over-react to this credit crisis thing. I should have understood that everyone else would overreact. There hasn't been a drop like this since the .com bust. Maybe it will get worse.

The pain isn't even that bad for me, I only lose maybe 10-20 thousand bucks in my 401K. Some people, those nearing retirement, may be in a real world of hurt. I'd have lost more if I didn't move about half of it toward the end of last year into money markets.

Truly, the financial foolishness of this decade has been beyond stunning. When I see this stock market crash and look back (you know hindsight) it seems so obvious, so inevitable.

The national debt clock recently ran out of digits, we hit $10 trillion and it had to drop the dollar sign.

I like to be happy, I like to keep a positive attitude.

But I just spent the last 10 minutes at work sitting at my desk just grief stricken with a sense of the loss at the reality of the economic situation before the world.

Things are going to change. But even with the desire strong, I think many have lost even the ability or capacity to make proper financial choices. My hope, my desire to not over-react has left my retirement account as yet another casualty. But the real casualties will be much more fierce.

I hope people can change, will change as a result of this.

The Great Wall of Sunhurst

As of September 30th we completed sifting soil in the back yard. What a load off! We are so grateful for the many helping hands that brought about this completion. Pictures from last year show the Gowans' family helping and this year some great help from others such as friends and ward members. Grandpa Gowans kindly transported the excavator both years - he's the best!

The vision of the wall was never realised to be very difficult until the project began in the summer of 2006. It began with a lot of rocky dirt and many blocks.

Next came the sifter that Daniel built using many materials including the motor for an old treadmill.

Next came building the wall,

which was soon followed by sifting soil for two seasons.

The ending result is quite nice and will be followed by planting a garden and fruit trees next spring.

Now to figure out what to do with the rocks!