Weddings and Babies

This weekend we have been in Salt Lake City for some very wonderful events. We often miss living up North because of all the celebrations for our family and friends.
Friday was our daughter's birthday.
Saturday was the wedding for the daughter of our good friends the Steeds.
Today was a baby blessing in the Fenlon family.

The Steed's held their daughter's reception in their back yard in Draper, Utah. We used to live down the street from this beautiful home.

The house sits on 4 acres. Craig is a Master Gardener and has constructed a huge waterfall that goes down the mountainside.

My girlfriend Ruth is one of the sweetest women I have ever known. Here she is fixing the bridesmaid dress of her daughter Sarah before the reception began.

Monica and Judi.

Monica has the best recipe for a Chocolate Ganache cake that I will have to share with you sometime.

Judi and I, along with another girlfriend Beth, worked in the kitchen preparing and serving food for the evening. We girlfriends love to stick together and help each other.

April and her new husband Trevor are such a wonderful match.

As the sun set, lights came out all over the yard. It was like a fairyland.

This weekend we stayed at the home of our dear friends Pam and Ray Fenlon. Their son Jeremy and his beautiful wife Ali just had their first baby. Today baby Avalon was blessed in church. In our faith a baby is blessed when they are an infant and then baptized at age 8 when the child old enough to make the decision for themselves.

After church we went over to Ali's parent's house for brunch.

Her mom used a cute baby quilt to decorate the table.

Ali had made this quilt for her mom.

Ali's father Bob Bradshaw is also a wonderful Gardener. I wanted to show you some of his very creative ideas.

For the grand children's playground he layered the most interesting base on the ground.

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In the Salt Lake area there is a company called "Stampin Up" that makes rubber stamps. As they cut out the stamp they have a lot of left over rubber pieces. Bob hauled several tons of left over pieces and layered them down around the play equipment. Walking on these gives quite a springy effect.

Very cool idea, don't you think?

The entrance to the Bradshaw's gardens.

It was a rainy, cold day so some of the pictures look a little gray, but his grounds are meticulously groomed with over 400 different types of plants.

Bob talked about some of his gardening techniques.

This shed is the "brain" of the garden. Bob has designed electronic features that control many of the garden events. He has created a watering system that also sends out fertilizer. The ponds and lighting are electronically controlled by a panel. He even has a very hi-tech recycling program.

We were impressed.