The Greg Jones Family Blog: November--Mike and Elizabeth!

In early November our energies were taken up with gathering addresses for wedding invitations, and making travel arrangements and getting substitutes for the temple so we could fly to Utah for the wedding. The Almeidas from Portugal, the couple whose sealing we attended in October, stayed in our apartment and did temple work while we were gone.

We did take some nice walks with the Grieves to see autumn leaves and sunsets.

at Cuna O'Donnel overlooking Madrid

Manzanares River

Manzanares up-river from Madrid

And we took a long walk along the upper Manzanares River, which is beautiful in the fall.

After hearing about a new temple film, our temple finally received it in Spanish, Portuguese and English, and began using it. It has added a new dimension to the temple experience.

But the big news, of course, was the marriage of Michael and Elizabeth.

We had a glorious week Nov 16-23 :

We left Madrid Saturday morning very early, arriving in Salt Lake City late at night (plus the 8 hours time difference).

Sunday, breakfasted at the motel, went to church with Mike, met Elizabeth for the first time (and loved her immediately). She and Mike fixed dinner for us at her apartment, and then we drove home to Cache Valley to finally sleep.

On Monday and Tuesday we opened the house--vacuumed, dusted, made beds, arranged for phone access, filled the refrigerator. Monti had an appointment with the eye doctor. Peter, Cami, and their three children arrived from Massachusetts.

On Wednesday Dave, Nic and their two boys arrived from Washington state.
On Thursday Miriam, Nathan and their six children arrived from Ohio.

On Friday Jane and her two from California, Greg's brother and his wife from Heber Valley, Mike and Elizabeth from Salt Lake, Elizabeth's brother and sister from Georgia, and a good friend of Elizabeth's who was helping with the reception that night all arrived at the house in time to drive to the Blue Bird for the reception. There were two minor glitches--Elizabeth was unhappy with the alterations on her beautiful dress but there was no time to fix it, and Mike and I were a little late to the reception because the pants of his new suit needed hemming--but the reception was delightful.

Saturday morning was the wedding in the Logan Temple. Monti's brother and his wife were there, and her sister came up from Arizona for it. We had the wedding brunch at our house (catered by the Blue Bird), and that evening was the Salt Lake City reception, taken care of by Mike's and Elizabeth's friends in their ward. That night we stayed in the motel we had stayed in the week before, trusting that our children would close the house back up when they left.

Sunday morning we found an early morning church, and flew back to Madrid, not arriving until late Monday night, our trip having been rerouted due to bad weather.

Tuesday morning at 7:00 A.M. we were back serving in the Madrid temple and remembering the wedding week:

On the wedding day it had been a cold and windy day at the Logan Temple, but our hearts were warm and filled with joy.

The family gathered from the four corners of the U.S.--the only siblings missing were Becca and Taber and their seven children, who live in Germany and will be coming to the reunion this summer. Greg's and Monti's brothers and their wives were both there. Monti's sister, who "doesn't do weddings or funerals" surprised us all by coming fromArizona, and two of Elizabeth's siblings--Louis and Paula--were able to come.