Happy Anniversary, Dad and Mom!

My parents were married December 20, 1969. When I asked my mom about her wedding day, she sighed and said, "Oh, it was a riot."

Dad was in New Jersey on December 18th, and had a flight to Utah but his Army Sargeant kept giving him orders (..."your boots aren't laced properly...your brass needs to be shined.." etc.) because he didn't want to let my Dad go and get married. Dad barely made his flight and got to Denver but the Salt Lake Airport was so fogged over, they weren't allowing any flights to come in. Mom went outside and looked out at the thick fog, praying so hard that it would lift enough for Dad's plane to come in. As she was standing there with tears streaming down her face, her Dad came out and put his arm around her and said (in his cowboy accent), "Don't worry little lady. We'll get you married off one of these days."

Back at the Denver Airport, Dad and some other guys rented a car and drove all night in a snowstorm from Denver to Salt Lake. That evening Mom watched the weather report that said that Loveland Pass had been closed because of the snow and she knew that they'd have to turn around and go back to Denver... little did she know that they'd just made it through Loveland Pass right before the road was closed.

Dad called the 19th in the afternoon and told my Mom he made it into Salt Lake and asked her to come get him at the car rental place. My Mom and Grandpa drove for what seemed like forever in the heavy fog from Kearns to Salt Lake City where they picked up my Dad. Then they beelined it to the courthouse to get their marriage license and as they walked in, the clerk was pulling down the metal window thingy and my Dad yelled, "Wait! We have to get our license!"

With marriage license in hand, they drove to Price that night in the foggy blizzard, crashed for another short night's sleep and got up to make it to the Manti Temple by 6am.

After the marriage ceremony, they drove back to Price to Mom's apartment so she could get ready for the reception only to find that her college friends had filled her whole apartment to the ceiling with newspapers and put syran wrap over the toilet seat and notes all over the mirror. They eventually cleaned a path to her closet, got ready, and made it to the reception.

Despite my Mom's Dad being a little drunk, things were starting to shape up a little. Then Dad's old girlfriend's little sister came sobbing hysterically clear through the wedding line -so upset that my Dad wasn't marrying his sister.

Dad and Mom went to cut their cake and my Dad scraped a big blue rose off the top of the cake with his finger and ate it (while all the ladies present gasped in horror) and said, "I've always wanted to do that!" My Mom's Mother thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen and he scored major son-in-law points right then.

After the reception they started heading to their motel in Provo but ran out of gas just outside of town in the middle of no where. When Dad saw headlights approaching, he got out of the car and flagged down his cousin who went back into town, got some gas, and brought it back to Mom and Dad so they could make it to Price to fill up the rest of the way. Back on the road again, the newlyweds inched their way to their honeymoon stop but were overcome by complete over-exhaustion and lack of sleep and kept falling asleep at the wheel. They tried everything to stay awake, they were slapping each other's faces, singing songs, getting out and running around the car, but they knew they couldn't make it clear to Provo, so they stopped at the tiny little Skyview Motel at the mouth of the canyon and crashed for the night.

The next morning, my Mom was terribly ill from going through tremendous stress and sleep deprivation for 3 days straight. When they told people they spent their honeymoon in bed, they didn't mean it THAT way, they meant my Mom was on her death bed puking her guts out.

When I think of my parents now, sitting in their quiet home on Skyview Circle (coincidence?) 39 years later, looking at the pictures of their 8 children and 13 grandchildren, I can see why the gates of Hell were opened when they tried to get married. They started a strong family, raised in love. They taught us the gospel of Jesus Christ and lived and loved by example and hard work.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for never, EVER giving up in the face of all odds for all these years!

I love you!