TRIP to Salt Lake City

A few days ago we were able to fly to Salt Lake City for a few reasons:

First we came to attend Emily and Jeff's wedding. Emily lived with us in New York the summer we moved to Ohio. She was doing an internship in interior design and needed a place to stay. It is a long story, but she became like one of our daughters and we really wanted to be there when she and Jeff were married. It was a wonderful wedding in the SLC temple and then they had a beautiful reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

While we were at the reception we had another wonderful surprise. Smitty Shumway and his daughter attended. Smitty is 89 years old and has a long incredible story. But my dad met Smitty in Baltimore while serving in the Korean War in 1953. Dad and Smitty became instant friends. After the war Smitty moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming but dad and Smitty stayed in touch. During the war, Smitty was injured and lost the sight in both of his eyes. He married and had 10 children. But to make a long story short, he is in SLC living with his daughter while undergoing radiation treatments for cancer. But when we went to talk to him and I told him that Alonzo was my father he immediately smiled and grabbed onto me and said, "Your dad is my very best friend." But the other part of the story is that Tom grew up knowing the Shumway family and dated this particular daughter.

Sunday is a big family dinner day at Oma and Opa's house. Today we were able to see our two returned-missionary nephews and a very special friend of one of them:

This picture is for Katrina and her family: Kjarom and "his girlfriend" Liz. She is a real doll and very friendly. We didn't have a chance to talk a lot with her, but Kjarom is quite taken with her and she with him.

Jakiah, the other recently returned missionary, on the left

with another nephew, Kyle.

And we couldn't leave Natasha out of the picture taking.

Yes, she is pregnant and ready to pop.

We can't forget to show our granddaughters:

Rhaegan was sick and not up for pictures, but

Marlee loves saying 'cheese' with Papa Cupps.

We are heading to Laramie tomorrow morning to visit Tom's family. So more pictures will follow.