O My, How Time Flies

Oh how time flys when you are having so much fun!!! We have so much to share since our last blog it is overwhelming.

On July 27th 2008 we concluded our annual Vest Family Reunion 2008 in Park City, UT. That evening Emily went to the home of Stephen R. Covey to assess the circumstances of her new job of taking care of his wife Sandra who had undergone a serious back surgery accompanied by some serious complications. As she was assessing the situation a grandson Shephen H. Covey happened to be visiting and saw her in the kitchen area and upon introducing himself to Emily mentioned that his Grandma would like him to ask Emily out. After some small talk Stephen got Emily's phone number and that was the end of that. She didn't think much of this because she knew that he was a recently returned missionary and she was older than he. Nevertheless, a few days later Stephen asked Emily out and they went on their first date to Sundance, on the ski lift and to dinner. They walked around Sun Dance and saw where Stephen's grandpa's cabin was and if was a fun date. But, Emily still didn't think much of this and blew it off because of the age difference. After a few dates Stephen mentioned to Emily "so, your birthday is on December 7th." Emily acknowledged that it was but responded to Stephen "but you don't know how old I am." He confidently replied "Yes I do, you're 24." Shocked Emily responded "And you still like me?" That was all that was needed to break the ice and from then on Emily and Stephen have not been apart.

On September 5th Stephen made an appointment with Billy and confidently asked if he could take Emily's hand in marriage. He asked quite simply and directly and assured Billy that he would take care of her physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually. Billy replied by going through the 7 basic habits quickly and informed Stephen that he had been teaching the 7 basic habits to our family for the last several years. They had a somewhat speedy visit and Stephen informed him that he was off to propose even then. We asked him as he was leaving if we could know what his plans were and he gave Billy and I the very well thought out details of the evening. We were so excited for he and Emily as we have felt the love and commitment from the both of them towards one another in their relationship. After visiting the temple and spending some time on the temple grounds they hopped in the car and headed south to Provo. On the way home Emily watched an unbelieveable clip of some of Stephen's favorite romantic chick flicks on his laptop and then he instructed Emily to put on a blindfold. He had yet another surprise for her. Upon arriving at an undisclosed destination (Pa Pa amd Mere Mere Covey's home) Stephen guided her to the beautiful and romantic (I might add) Gazebo in the backyard. It was beautifully decorated with hundreds and hundreds of beautiful red rose petals on the floor and a gorgeous bouquet of roses among hundreds of brightly lit candles. Stephen then got down on his knee and asked her if "Emily, do you love me?" to which she replied "Yes" and then still on bended knee he popped the question and said "Will you marry me?" with which she quickly responded "Yes." They hugged for a while and then she called us on the phone to share the news with us. Later that evening after showing Stephen's parents and PaPa and Mere Mere they drove back to Spanish Fork and showed the ring to us.

During Emily and Stephen's fun filled courtship there were several showers and parties to celebrate their engagement and marriage. In September an engagement tea was hosted by Jeri (Stephen's mom) for Emily. It was so nice and fun to meet several of Stephen's family members and family friends. It was also nice to have the support of our family and Emily's friends. My only regret was that my mother couldn't share in this fun party with us as she would have loved every minute. In November there was a shower given by the Covey girls at PaPa and Mere Mere's home. It was great for us to meet many of the family members and celebrate the engagement of Emily and Stephen. They received many practical gifts and appreciated so much everything everyone had given them. A few weeks later a shower was given by Stephen's aunts on the Hutchings side at his Grandma and Grandpa Hutchings home. It was really fun and again they were so appreciative of the many gifts given in their behalf. Also in November Emily was given a shower by our ward members hosted by Barbara Forsey and Cathy Larsen with the help of other ward members. It was so fun to feel the love and support of our ward sisters for Emily, Stephen and our family. Then in December my sisters held another shower for our Emily and Stephen at Mary's home in Orem. It was so fun and after opening presents all of the girls went downstairs and watched Emily and Stephen's engagement clip on the tv. It was really fun to hear the ooohs and awhhhs as they watched. It was also fun to meet Stephen's sister McKinley as she had been in Vienna studying abroad until a couple of weeks before the wedding. She is such a fun girl with a good head on her shoulders. Earlier that morning Emily's friends held a shower for her and it was great to celebrate the occasion with all of her friends.

Emily and Stephen were really blessed to have the opportunity to purchase a home to live in as newlyweds. It is a really cute little condo in northwest Provo that Stephen's a realtor helped them out with. It has 3 bedrooms and has tons of room for them to grow.

This Christmas was the funnest and most exciting holiday for Billy and I and our family. It was so fun to have Amy and the kids home for a few days before the wedding and then Scott and Annette brought their whole family up Christmas afternoon to celebrate with us as well as Wade and Sara. A wedding dinner was held Christmas night at Stephen's church in Provo and it was so beautiful. All of the chairs were covered with beautiful brocaded chaircovers and the tables were covered in cream colored linens with cream sashes and beautiful gold and cream ornaments filling the large glass wine glasses as the centerpieces. There were also gold wreaths around the bottom of the wine glasses. It was beautiful!!! Stephen M.R. and Jeri were the perfect hosts for the evening. They had arranged a wonderful program which included a nativity and singing presented by all of the children. Emily and the neices and nephews sang a song to Stephen entitled"Hey Stephen." The Covey boys carried on a tradition by doing a Russian dance to entertain the group and then McKinley had arranged a clip that was a spoof on the song "My Love Will Go On." The actors and actresses in the clip were all of Stephen's cousins and brothers and sisters. They were awesome. It was hilarious and so cute. Even PaPa Covey was in on the movie. Most of the clip was done at Papa and Mere Mere's home and even Grandma and Grandpa Hutchings were featured in the movie. Emily's brothers Scott, Chad, Joseph and Wade produced and sang a song to Emily to the tune of "Joy to World." It went like this, Joy to the World, our sis is getting hitched, we thought she never would. A delicious Christmas dinner was served with turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, dressings, salads, stuffing, Magelby'schocolate cake. It was delicious. After the party we helped clean up and then loaded our Honda Pilot with decorations for the reception the following evening. What a great event for two very deserving children. I must mention that this was a family event. Every one of the children helped us out. Annette was a big help in getting all of the table coverings and linens from a friend in St. George. They were so beautiful. Wade and Sara helped us load and unload and load up again everything to go to the library the next morning.


That night we retired as soon as we got home and the morning seemed to come very quickly. We picked up the poinsettias from the Flinders green room and the desserts from their freezer and headed to the Provo Library by 9:00 am. Thank goodness for great kids that stepped in and helped us cover tables, chairs and what would we ever do with out Uncle Mark and Aunt DeeAnn and the boys, Aaron and Nate. They literally saved our lives. A few days previously Mark and Aaron brought their trailer and truck to help us load 6 prelit Christmas trees from BYU. They were such a great help. Then on the morning of the wedding they put them all up one by one. After decorating the tables as best we could we went home and got ready to leave for the Salt Lake Temple to witness and celebrate the marriage and sealing of Emily and Stephen. It was so beautiful and they are so happy. Emily was absolutely radiant in her temple robes and Stephen was so handsome to match her. They had wonderful support from family members and friends and the best part of all is that Stephen's grandpa and Emily's boss Stephen R. Covey was privileged to perform the sealing as he is a sealer in the Provo temple. What a blessing! It was such a joy for us to have Sandra (Stephen's grandmother) well enough to join in the celebration and even though Emily's grandparents were not present physically we know they attended in spirit as their support was felt by many.

After pictures with the family outside the temple we quickly hopped in the car and headed to Provo to tie up loose ends, get dressed and cleaned up before the reception. On the way to the library we received a call from Nancy Swenson telling us that only half of the chair sashes were there. Quickly we got in touch with Barbara Hughes and ran to Spencer's house to pick up the rest. Whew! The Provo Library Ballroom was set up beautifully by Nancy Swenson. The band The flower girls Emily had chosen were Delaney, Brynn and Abby and Stephen's little sister Arden. Her bridesmaids were Amy, Annette, Jen, Sara, McKenzie and Stephen's younger sister McKinley. The best men were Christian, Britain, Brandon Howard, Scott, Chad, Wade and Joseph. The miniature best men were Cooper, Spencer, Boston, Aaron, Kayden and Isaac all dressed in tux's. They were honestly the best looking bridesmaids, flower girls, and best men that ever stood in a wedding line.

The band Rachel's Remedy had been there for quite some time during the day setting up and it was so fun to hear the music as we got things in order. The music was great and the kids loved dancing throughout the evening. We also had Rob Roberts on the piano. It was so beautiful. There was a wonderful crowd especially since it snowed that evening and was really cold on the day after Christmas. At the end of the evening Emily and Stephen danced with one another and then Emily danced with her father and Stephen danced with his mother. It was so fun to see. There were a few dances for the young people and everyone was having a wonderful time. The reception was coming to a close when Emily and Stephen appeared in a change of clothing to begin their honeymoon. Everyone went outside and lit their big long sparklers to wish them well. They were so excited to catch a plane in the morning to Hawaii.

CONGRATULATIONS SARA STOREY VEST

In the meantime in the month of October Sara graduated from the Radiology program at Dixie University and was the mistress of ceremonies and the speaker at her graduation exercises. Sara has done an exceptionally well job in studying this past few years and is so well qualified she already has landed a agreat job at the new Dixie Regional Hospital in St. George. We are so proud of her and her accomplishments. It was so fun to share in the excitement and joy with Craig and Miriam and Spencer. She gave a great talk and you could tell that everyone loved her so much. Wade was working at the time for Edwards Jones and doing okay despite the poor economy. After much deliberation and many prayers he and Sara decided that it would be a good time for him to go back to school and get his masters. At the present time he is working at Weber State in Ogden living with Sara's parents and Sara is holding down the fort in St. George along with her brother and sister in law Paige and Jake. We're so grateful that they are there as company to Sara. Even though she spends a lot of fun time with Scott and Annette it is good to have someone else in the home when you go to bed at night. They are happy with the news that Wade has been accepted in the Health Administration master's program at the U.

Chad and Jen have been plugging along taking great care of our two wonderful grandsons, Spencer and Kayden. Chad had been writing for the Spanish Fork News and it was taking up so much of his time as he is also going back to school. He and Jen finally decided that it was a good time to take a break and devote his time and energy to the family and to his schooling. He misses the writing but not as much as we miss reading his great articles. He will receive his associate degree after he completes the class he is currently taking. It was hard for us to have him let it go even though we knew it was for the best because Chad is a very talented writer. Actually he is amazing. We love his stories and pray that he will continue to write as there are many things in this world to write about. Hopefully he can use his talents in writing as a freelance writer. It is so fun to have them close by so that we get the chance to tend them when Chad and Jen go out. They are the kindest little boys!

Amy and Joe and the family traveled to Utah by air this trip. It was so much faster for them. Joe could only come for a few days so Amy and the kids came out alone and then he came a few days later. It was great to have Amy and kids here to tie up a few loose ends before Christmas and before the wedding.

On October 31st we receievd the great anticipated news that Amy was in labor with our darling Isaac. He weighed 8 lbs and 3 oz and was 20 1/4" in length. He was born at 11:33 am. He was due on the 31st so he came at a perfect time. We were a little worried because I was flying out there on the 31st to stay for a week and the doctor would not start Amy for two more weeks. We wondered if I would be coming back home with no baby, but it all worked out, (as it always does). He was such a good baby I couldn't believe it. He was held constantly from the time I got there until I came home from a loving family of Brynn, Abby, Aaron, Amy and Joe. A few days after Amy got home from the hospital I received a terrible phone call from Billy that Grandpa Vest had passed away. What a shock! He had been feeling a little bit weak and weary during the previous couple of weeks and we just thought he was doing too much. He was always busy doing some kind of project around the yard. He had been working in the window wells so that he could see the birds come and eat out of a birdhouse he had. He later went in and took a hot bath and had a heartattack and passed away. What a loss! The good thing is that he is with Grandma now. What a happy reunion. Billy found him in the bathtub which was very unfortunate, but it was good to hear from the Dr. that he went suddenly. The services that were conducted for him were wonderful. Billy spoke along with Larry and all of the grandchildren individually related their favorite memories of Grandpa. Scott Scott talked about the great times Grandma and Grandpa spent down in St. George with he and Annette and their family. Chad remembered the fishing experiences and the story about Grandpa driving in the car with them and when they saw a man fishing Grandpa hollered out the window "Jerk, jerk," to catch a fish. (Chad thought that he was calling the man a jerk.) Amy talked about Grandpa coming swimming down at the Spanish Fork City pool and Grandpa walking in with his speedo on. All of the lifeguards asked her"Who is that guy in the speedo?" She proudly replied, "That's my grandpa." She also told how Grandpa would sunbathe. Five minutes on each of his four sides. Oh how we miss that guy! Wade remembered Grandpa yelling out when he was at bat, "Just a little home run." Emily shared the stories when Grandpa came to dinner every Sunday and would always complementing the cook by saying "Good Groceries." He would always say donkashein whenever anything was passed to him and his greeting to Emily was always "Hello beautiful." As Grandpa would leave he would always say "See ya around the campfire." Yes Grandpa we look forward to seeing you and Grandma around the campfire.














It was a wonderful service as everyone celebrated Grandpa's love of life.

In the middle of December I flew back to California to take care of the 3 older children while Amy and Joe attended a retreat in Southern California. Little Isaac had grown so much I couldn't believe it. It was so fun for us to be together and the weather was gorgeous for

December. (I even saw sunshine.)

A few months later we received the unexpected sad news that Joe's father Blaine had passed away at his home of complications relating to diabetes. Blaine was such an intelligent talented man. It was so hard to see Joe heartbroken at the passing of his father. Joe gave a wonderful euology and tribute to his good father at the funeral. It was beautiful and very touching. Grandpa Blaine will sorely be missed. Isaac as a newborn. Isaac at 6 weeks with Aaron at 2 1/2

Nothing like a big brother.