745. A Family Wedding! Anita, our daughter, and Reed Lunnen, married in the Bountiful Temple, November 19, 2016

A Family Wedding!

Anita and Reed

                                   Taken soon after they were engaged in August.

The last 2 weekends have been memorable!  Our daughter Anita was sealed in the Bountiful Temple to Reed Lunnen, Saturday November 19, 2016, and that late afternoon we had a wedding dinner for friends and family.

Coming out of the Bountiful Temple, November 19, 2016.

 Reed had 3 of his daughters and Anita had 3 of her sons in the Temple.
  

From left to right, Rebecca (Becca, Wife of Sam), Sam, Jake, David, and Ben with his wife Ashlee.  Anita and Reed on the front.

The 2 witnesses were Joe Eckman, oldest son of Blaine Eckman, deceased, and Wayne M. Eckman, oldest son of my late husband Wayne.  (Blaine and Wayne were identical twins.)  

Anita and Reed with his 3 daughters and their husbands.  Alan, and his wife Kim, on the left, and Jessica, and then Kaitlyn (Kaite) and her husband, Steve.

 And an interesting sidelight was that the sealer was also an identical twin.  He mentioned his twin in the ceremony, and I went up to him after and told him the story -- how Joe Eckman knew of his mother's youngest brother, Reed, and his cousin Anita, who both were single now.  He asked each one privately if they would be interested in meeting each other.  They met in person in May, and after many meetings in the summer they were engaged in late August!  We had known Reed since he was a teenager and had seen him a time or two over the years.  Anita was a first cousin to Blaine's children, and now she is also their aunt!

The new blended family, all grown living away from Reed and Anita, their parents.  Reed has 2 sons living with his former wife also.

Family of Anita at the Temple-- back row, l to r, Merick and his wife Skye, Wayne and Julie, next row Josh and his wife Tiffany, Pam and her husband Robert, and Chris.  Front row, Emily, Me (Pal-) Anita, Reed, and Allen and Holli.

We had a large crowd for Thanksgiving, 32 in all!  The largest crowd we have had at any family celebration in our home.  It was the last large family dinner we will have in this home, near the St. George Temple.  I truly feel that my moving to Bountiful, Utah, and living with my son Wayne M. in about April is truly the best for me.

' 

Reed is a machinist, and Anita is working at Weber State University.  They have a small rented home in Ogden to start married life!  They are so happy! ! !

My daughter Anita moved to Ogden, last month, and Delsy, our other daughter who has lived close, an English teacher at Snow Canyon High School, is retiring at the end of this school year, and will also move to Ogden where she already has a home.  We have another daughter, Angela, who lives up Ogden Canyon, in a small town called Eden.  So I will live with one son, and a daughter Pamela will be 10 minutes away, and she has 4 children still living at home whom I don't see often.  We have Wayne M.'s son who lives close and has 4 (soon to be 5) dear great grandchildren whom I also haven't seen often.  Another son, Allen, lives about 3 and a half hours north, near Idaho Falls, Idaho.  So I will be much closer to 6 of my children, and many grandchildren. 

It will probably take me a few months to go through things in my house, and organize and get rid of things I won't have room to take with me.  But I am really looking forward to life up close to many children, even though I'll have to deal with snow in the winters!  I'll truly miss St. George, my home town!