Oakland California Temple

Now that I've paid for more storage (and had to wait 48 hours to access it), I can post pictures through blogger/picasa. Here is one of our fam in front of the Oakland Temple last Friday. Though we aren't "all together" with our facial expressions, I love it. Love the temple in the background, love the cuteness of my kids. They had patiently waited over 2 hours on the grounds and this was just before we were headed out. Julie snapped it for us.

Joanna and Jaren got married at 1:30 pm and the lovely Julicious and her 2 awesome friends watched 10 little kids (under age 8) while the rest of the family went inside for the ceremony. Luckily the Oakland Temple has a Stake Center on the grounds and Michael's mom reserved the nursery for them to hang in while we were in the temple. The girls had coloring things and chalkboards and snacks for the kids.

I always love going to a Temple Sealing. Being reminded of the day I made the same covenants.

After an hour there, the kids joined us outside the temple doors to greet the bride and groom. I was so excited about the dark purple dresses that Alyssa and her cousin Abigail had, I ran to a few Old Navy's in town to get it all (shoes, too). Abigails mom made the cute flower clip that matched perfectly.
So many pretty flowers

The one thing about my own wedding day that makes me sad is that I had no nieces or nephews to dress up all cutesy. Jo didn't care about all that. But when I asked her if she minded if I matched them, she said as long as she didn't have anything to do with it. I asked what her favorite color was and she said simply: Purple. I wanted the boys to look somewhat assembled, too. I had an idea from something I'd seen and enlisted my sil to put it together because she's crafty like that. It was SO cute to have the boys in their bow tie t-shirts. SIL did a great job!

Though I don't remember Joanna specifially asking me to do wedding pictures, I think it was sortof assumed. It seems I heard it through the grapevine that she said if I didn't feel up to it, then Julie and Karen could do it, because they are pretty handy with the camera, too. Even in my "condition" I couldn't pass it up. I LOVE doing pictures around the temple, and Oakland was a new one I'd never done before. I was not excited about the group pictures beforehand and tried to pawn it of on J or K, but they didn't take the bait. I suffered through that and was onto the good stuff: The bride and groom alone.

I like this one Julie got....Michael waiting in the wings....(the greatest assistant)

...and here is the shot I got....
I was thrilled, it was fun, I hobbled, Michael was my caddy carrying my cameras (2, one with a different type of lense) when I wasn't shooting. Julie was my shadow snapping away,

(see my pink shoes?)
Family members entertained my kids all the while. When people got tired of staying around and wanted to leave, my kids followed us and they did come up with us on the 2nd outdoor level and roamed around. They were troopers.

All of us Dukes

Original Duke kids minus Brian in Japan

Besides hobbling around, I felt pretty good. When I'm in action photographing, I don't think too much about pain--I'm in the zone. I just feel it later. The worst part is I really wanted to wear my hot pink shoes that day because it went with the outfit, but they are basically slippers and I could feel the ground as if I was barefoot. My feet hurt during and after. (Michael took this)
It was a great day.
To see more wedding pics of the couple, go to my photog blog.

Alyssa got her daddy to carry her away.... she knows how to work it.