Rob and I flew to Denver a few days early to spend some time with Gabe; in particular to go to the temple with him for the first time.

We arrived early on the Tuesday morning and went for lunch with Gabe and Shannon. We then headed to the temple in the afternoon.

It was beautiful to be there with Gabe.

While in the temple, my heart and mind were overwhelmed. Flooded with history, memories, sadness, joy, anxiety, excitement, love, abundance.

It’s a big year for our family, and I don’t miss the significance of each individual event and moment. I wanted to savour the moment, and my heart took many pictures this week.

We headed for dinner with Shannon’s family. Gabe rode with us in the car and it was so nice to have this time with him as he understood the significance of it all too – especially given the history and what our story is.

While I think people understand divorce on the surface, I don’t think they understand how it affects every morsel of your being: your days, your thoughts, your words, your actions. And when you have kids, it runs even deeper and even affects your ability to breathe. May sound dramatic – and I’m guessing other things in life that create other people’s story affects them too…. but things like a wedding bring every tiny emotion, thought, and feeling to the top.

Needless to say, there were a lot of emotions and feelings, and while great to be in Denver, it was hard not being surrounded by home and the friends and family that know our family and we love so much. We know they were with us in Spirit  -and we felt the love with all the messages we received:)

The next day the remaining kids arrived and we were so happy to be all together. We went to Shannon’s parents home for a BBQ and a fun game. It was so nice to see all the kids relax and have a great time.

On Thursday, Rob and the kids went with Shannon’s family to play pickle ball while I stayed to help Shannon’s mom with wedding things. We then grabbed a quick lunch while the girls went back to Shannon’s parent’s house to do manis and pedis.

We then had to head to the church to do some decorating following which we planned to go out for dinner with everyone on Gabe’ side –  this way he would not have to decide who to spend his last night with. This was the first time really that our family would be in such close contact with Gabe’s Mom and her family. The significance of this did not go unnoticed for us either, and I know it was initially hard for both us and his Mom. However, I think we made great strides and started mending relations (and by the end of the wedding, I think we can say that there’s a lot of water under the bridge, but we have managed to build a bridge together, get to the other side, had a good time doing it, and we have a bright future to look forward to!)

Here’s some of the prep pictures:

We had dinner at a place where you bought one pasta and got another one to go for the next day! Only in the USA!!

Both sides of Gabe’s family:

Proudly showing our “to go” pastas, lol:

We finished dinner and then popped in on my brother and sister in law and family who had just arrived. So excited to see them!

We then headed back to our hotel and had a little family time, giving Gabe some last minute “marital advice” before heading off to sleep before the big day!