Well, the party of the century is over and all the guests are home.

What a wonderful time we had! I had people here to help me pull this thing off and I’m so very appreciative of all of them! It took so many days to put this together and like so many events, it’s over before you know it! The evening was perfect! I can’t even think of one thing I would have changed – except to clone myself about 10 times. My brother, Matt, referred to me as a firefly. He’d see me in one spot and then look back and I’d be somewhere else. Just so many people and not enough time. I’m guessing there were at least 350 people throughout the night. Jamie and Curt should feel pretty good about the turn out. I believe it was after 2:00 a.m. before we left the building. The food was AWESOME, the band was amazing (and was local) and the crowd of people who came was unbelievable!

I can’t thank my helpers enough and won’t even attempt to thank them by name because I’d surely leave someone out. What would I do without the friends I have in my life? How could anyone get through life without them? We had people come as far away as Jordan and Billings, MT to spend the evening with us – over 1,000 miles they travelled. I honestly believe the number of friends we have is a measure of our blessings – we are truly blessed!

I will share with you the pictures I took but I’m hoping that someone else got more and got better pictures than I did. The stress of the past several weeks certainly paid off!

The meat began its tastey journey in this black bag. It was hand rubbed and marinated over night before it was placed on the smoker.

Mark & his helper, Brook.

Mark’s preparing his world-famous beans.

Brook took this picture of the guest book table.

Thanks, Matt, for helping Mark while I took off to do something else!

And the party begins…

My childhood next-door-neighbor and best buddy, Robin!! It was sooo good to see you!

Manley neighbors and great friends! We were missing one.

The wedding party, minus one. We missed you, Bekah!

We tried gathering our out-of-town guests the next morning for a farewell breakfast before they had to take off. Jamie & Curt also opened their gifts.

Linda telling one of her many funny stories – of harvest, I’m sure!

Her audience is loving it!

And the clean up begins…

I think we wore Rich out! Sorry, Rich!

Jenna looks like she’s having way more fun than she should have been 🙂

After the building was cleaned up and the naps were taken, Mark & Candi had us all over for supper at their house.

This is the only picture I have to show you the cakes that took me so long to put together. This was one of three flavors built.

After returning home from Mark’s we hung out in the kitchen way too late!! I don’t think anyone wanted the weekend to come to an end.

Collette apparently thought the kitchen sink was fun to sit in. 🙂