God Is Great, Beer Is Good, & People Are Crazy

Greetings to you all from the glorious south! I have been here for the weekend for the wedding of a very close family friend. More on that in a moment. First, to explain the title of this blog...on Friday morning, Michael and I were on the way to the airport, and we were listening to country music on the radio. A song came on, and the chorus said, "God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy." We laughed for about 5 minutes about it, and now after a weekend back here, I have decided that most country music has been written in the south - or at least inspired by the south! :)

So the wedding.... My parents' best friends are Bob and Karen Freeman. They met each other when my mom was pregnant with me, so I've known them for my entire life. The Freeman family had 3 kids that are me and my brothers' ages, and then they kept going and had 3 more. When we were growing up, we were always together, and my mom and Aunt Karen were frequently seen in public toting 9 kids with them! The Freemans are as close to family as you can be, and they are a part of so many of my favorite memories growing up. It was an honor to be here to celebrate as their 4th child, Nathan, got married this weekend. Here are some pictures and stories from our time.

Here are the 3 Freeman sisters and me. Hannah's holding her son Grant, who will appear in other photos!

Mother of the groom (AUNTIE K!!) on the right, with friend Laura as they were dressed alike.

The cute little Pa

Here are Nathan and Whitni as they were being prayed over at the rehearsal dinner.

Now some pictures of the brothers and cousin and a couple of us holding the cute baby!



Here are some pictures from the wedding. This is Nathan as his bride was walking towards him, Jack watching Nathan, and the three sisters as bridesmaids.



During the wedding, all of the parents gathered around the bride and groom and prayed over them. It was really cool!

The beautiful bride and groom

After the wedding, we took lots of pictures with lots of people. Here are me and Nikki, the family, and then the next picture is my parents with Rich and Judy. They were missionaries for many years and are very dear friends of our family.



We grew up going to the same church for many years, and the people in this photo were all a part of that church. We've known them all for 20 plus years!

Here is a picture of all of the Freeman/Jones kids, plus our cousin Joey, minus 2 of the Freeman kids!

Going back to the title of my blog, God is great, as evidenced by the miracle of joining a man and woman in marriage. Beer (or other alcohol) is good, as evidenced by....well, fill in the blank with your own stories....and people are most definitely crazy. Being around old friends and family has been so much fun - we've shared laughter and stories and many fun times. If you need a little proof, here is this picture. This is my mom and 4 of her closest friends cramming in the photo booth that was at the wedding. This was a funny moment!

I think this blog is long enough for now, so I'll put an end to it. I am thankful for this weekend and the opportunity I've had to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world! I'll head back to the Great White North tomorrow for my next to last week of work and lots of fun times. More updates to come soon!