Kris Gets Married!



Kris and Abby were married in August.  They dated one another a few times before things worked out... I am so glad they both continued trying again and again until things ended up "happily ever after".  One of the unique things about Kris and Abby's final dating trial was that it happened just as Kris was undergoing chemo and radiation.  Abby patiently dated Kris while he was very, very sick, very tired, and very poor.  Abby is not only patient, she is a heck of a lot of fun to be around, she has a super cute giggle-laugh, and is super duper creative!  When Abby is around Kris's world lines up... he's happy, he has direction, he seems to love life.  I am so excited for Kris and Abby!  And I am super excited to get to have another sister!

 

Abby wanted to have a wedding CELEBRATION instead of a formal wedding reception.  Don't you love this girl already?!!  So they put together a BBQ Celebration for the weekend before their wedding (they were married on a Tuesday).

 

So the top left picture shows an example of Abby's amazing creativity... the gift "table" was actually a series of grills that were on the park property... Abby covered them up with some long plywood boards and table decorations and no one knew there was a grill hidden under the table!  :)

 

The top right and lower left are pictures of Brent and Kris climbing in the trees to try and hang a banner for the reception.  Good thing Kris didn't get hurt doing this days before his wedding!  (And good thing Brent didn't get hurt either.)

 

Lower right picture... its hard to see, but this is a great example of how Kris and Abby compliment one another.  Kris found this old rod/metal piece at work and welded it together to make a sign holder for the reception (its blowing in the wind so that makes it even harder to see).  Pretty clever!  Abby cut out the banner flags and KRIS sewed them together with one of his awesome sewing machines!  (Yah, this guy sews better than anyone in our family... he had been paying someone to sew seats for his boat and decided he could do it better and cheaper himself... and so his sewing career began!)

 

The guest book table... thought it looked so dang cute I just had to take a picture and share.

The BBQ was extremely fun... and had SUPER DELICIOUS food.  But not only was there a BBQ, there was also a LIVE band, a PHOTO-BOOTH, and GAMES! 

Pictured below are Brent and Alana playing football... Alana loved "jumping" for the ball (not sure her feet were REALLY leaving the ground, but she totally thought they were)!  Alana loved the ball games, and Ellie was OBSESSED with the photo booth!  (Maybe because the button to take the picture was BIG and right at her eye-level.)  We all took turns getting our picture taken with Ellie.  The top one below (yah, its hard to see, it is a picture of a picture) is my favorite!!  JoyAnne and Ellie dressed up for their sequence of pictures... I love that the pictures totally tell a story!  They look great in the first picture, by the second picture JoyAnne's glasses are skewed and things are getting crazy, and Ellie is the last man standing in the third picture.  Cracks me up. 

 

Wedding day!  This picture also cracked me up.  The wedding photographer was trying to take a "parents of the groom" picture with Kris and Abby when there was a bit of commotion.  Turns out Ellie was sneaking into the picture!  (Hence my mom bending over sideways in the picture). 

 

 

 Mel carrying Ellie off... she was pretty cheesed...

 

...until she met Abby's cousin who totally entertained her by taking her picture!  She was in heaven with her new buddy!

Alana's cute wedding day dress! 

The wedding was in the afternoon... so Kris took advantage of the morning and went BOATING!  Kind of a family tradition in the Clayton family (the EXTENDED Clayton family... I assure you I did not boat before our January wedding...).  He ended up hitting a rock out a Willard which messed up the boat.  It was a sign of TRUE LOVE cause he was still smiling and happy that day despite the boat incident!