The New MR & MRS Spencer Cook!

One year from the time Spencer got up the courage to ask if he could date Joylin, they were saying their I do's.   Joylin made the awesome backdrop out of wooden pallets.
Kaitlyn was the coordinator and decorator and did a awesome job on the backdrop garland.

The Happy New Couple!

Jubilee and Micah David were the flower girl and ring bearer.

 The reception was held, about 10 minutes from the church.

I was helping in the kitchen so I was only able to get a few pictures before everyone arrived.

 The view when you first walked in.

The centerpieces were wood slices with a jar of eucalyptus stems, a salt and pepper shaker, and a block of wood with the table numbers.  Joylin also had sewn all the cloth napkins!

There was a little basket filled with pretzels on the tables and Hershey kisses were scattered down the center giving it the finishing touch. 

The Sweetheart Table 

For the desserts they had a cookie bar.  Jessica, Joylin's sister, made the perfect cookies that looked and tasted amazing!  The drink dispenser in the middle was filled with organic jersey milk compliments of the brides family that owns a dairy farm.

Milk and Cookies - perfect for the farmers daughter!

The Drink Table

The Gift Table

Everyone visiting before the wedding party got back. 

 Spencer's sister, Elaina

 Micah David enjoying some pretzels 

Spencer and Joylin

Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the whole wedding party.

On the menu was spaghetti, which is Spencer's favorite, two homemade sauces, olive garden bread sticks, and Caesar salad.

Entertaining speeches were by Josh, brother of the groom, Joanna, sister of the Bride, the Dads, and Spencer and Joylin. There was also a slide show afterwards.

Everyone visiting together after the meal.

Instead of having a receiving line at the church. the bride and groom went around at the reception to all the tables and talked to everyone.

It was a beautiful wedding and we're so happy for Joylin and Spencer. 

We know that they are going to have a wonderful life together!

A Quick Trip to Skyline Drive, Virginia

In November we did a little trip down to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  We arrived at the Skyline Drive Campground only to discover it had closed three days before. You can imagine our disappointment about not being able to set up camp.  It was already dark so we didn't have many options; 1. pitch the camp in the parking lot or 2. just sleep in the van, which is the option that we chose. So after some huffing and puffing (mostly on Daddy's part) and much laughing (mostly us girls) we rearranged the van seats to comfortably sleep Daddy and Mommy and 7 of us kids (Joshua had to work). Our live-in photographer (that would be Mommy) didn't get many pictures, but what she did get I hope you enjoy.

Elainah, Lillia, Me, Joy, David, and Daddy

The main reason for going was to hike, so we did a short hike down to a 100 ft. fall.

Joy, David, and I

For lunch we stopped at a pavillion for campers and the Appalachian trail hikers.  
We built a fire to warm up by and roast our hotdogs.

Beside the place where we were eating lunch they had a bear trap for the uninvited guest.            

That was pretty neat to see.

Daddy, David, Lillia, Joy, and I decided to do a little hiking on the Appalachian Trail.                      
Lillia and I saw a black bear!

While we were looking at our bear (that we didn't get a picture of) Mommy and the rest of the crew were watching another black bear that had just crossed the road in front of them right after they dropped us off!

There were so many beautiful lookout spots.

Although we had planned to stay two nights, someone (I won't mention names) didn't want to stay another night in the van with a foot in their face all night.  After a wonderful day on skyline drive, we did a little detour and met up with the Johnson's for dinner in Baltimore.  It was the perfect ending to our little trip.

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