Bobby and Jess

My baby brother got married last weekend to a beautiful, sweet girl named Jessica.  I drove out to Denver with the kids in the van on Thursday and then James flew out on Friday night (it was Walmart Shareholder's week so he couldn't miss work).  The drive went smoother than I had anticipated.  The kids were awesome.  We made one stop in Joplin (took lots of pics, I'll blog more on it later), and then they held out for 6.5 hours until we made it to Abilene, Kansas where we had a pit stop, and then stayed the night in Hays, Kansas.

The following day the kids and I only had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, so we took it easy, and drove a scenic route around Castle rock and then up into Denver.  We got to see my Aunt Ninny and her boyfriend and my cousins' kids, Marcus (he's 6'7" and quite the basketball star), James, and Shaelynn.

That night James flew in along with all my other siblings and the whole Rampton clan went and stayed at a hotel.  We had quite the party.  We had our rooms all by each other and we actually got in trouble around 11:00 because we were all huddled into one room practicing a funny song we'd put together for the reception and the man next door was not happy at all.  The front desk called and told us we would need to keep it down (oops!).

The next morning was just beautiful!  We went to a luncheon that my parents put together and got to finally meet Jessica in person (she's such a beauty), and Bobby all spiffed up in a tux.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 At one time I couldn't see Bobby or Jessica in the room where the banquet was being held, and I looked down the hall, and they were kissing!  I snapped a photo of it:

Outside we took some photos.  The first one is of my extended family that was present:

The second one is of us being goofy:

I've proudly enlarged my goofy face here in case you didn't notice it in the above shot.  I'm pretty good eh?:

After the luncheon, we headed over to the Denver temple.

Bobby and Jessica's sealing was so beautiful.  They had memorable words spoken to them by the sealer, and it was a great reminder to me and James of the precious things we were taught when we were married.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It was so neat to have ALL of my brothers and sisters there, along with my parents.  Bobby is the last of us Rampton kids to get married, so he wasn't able to attend any of our sealings, but kind of like the "last shall be first, first shall be last" quote, he got to have every single one of us present at his.


After the sealing, there were pictures out back, and then we headed down to Colorado Springs to a beautiful reception held at Jessica's parents house.  The setting was out in the country and absolutely gorgeous!

 

There was a live DJ and some really fun dancing.

 

 

 

 

I got my groove on with my husband and even all my sisters went out and boogied!  My boys danced a bit too, but for the most part, they were wrestling with each other and their cousin David in the grass HAHA.
 
We did our Rampton tradition of making up a "corny" song for the wedding couple:


I loved it, at the end of the reception, Bobby and Jessica drove off on a 4-wheeler and there was a huge firework show (thanks to Bobby's friends bringing down fireworks from Wyoming).
 
Everyone held out sparklers as they drove away.  It was really cool.

That night, my heart was so happy for Bobby, but I also have to admit, it felt like the feeling I got as a Junior when my Senior brother and his class graduated.  Bittersweet I guess.  I knew he was graduating off to big and better things, but my heart ached a teeny bit as I reminisced about the great memories we had shared throughout high school together. 
 
I felt that way with Bobby too.  I loved getting to live right by him in Provo for the 2 years that James was in MBA school.  He was the funnest uncle in the world to my boys.  They just adore Uncle Bobby.  I loved calling him up and telling him we had leftovers and he should come eat them or having him drop in late at night to introduce me to his friends or girlfriends.  I loved how he'd come over after a break up or when he was wanting advice on girls and we'd just sit and talk.  So many funny memories of the hilarious things he'd do to my boys (putting Johnny in the trash can, getting Jimmy to believe in Bigfoot, wrestling and tickle wars).  I'll really always treasure those memories.

I am so happy for him and Jessica.  She's one lucky girl, and he's one lucky guy.  They really lift each other up and I've never seen Bobby so smitten over a girl.  Isn't she beautiful?