Dread Penny Society

I had the MOST FUN experience this month and I am struggling to narrow down the pictures, so I may just include them all because I love them so much. 

Background information: My current favorite author is named Sarah M. Eden. She writes historical fiction/romance and my favorite series of hers is the Jonquil Series. It's just so clever and well-written and fun. Each book follows the story of one of the brothers, but the entire family grows and evolves through each book and it's just so great. Even though that series is my favorite, I love all of her books. 

She announced that she would be releasing the final book in her Penny Dreadful series, which I have also really enjoyed, and that she was going to host a themed event to celebrate. 

Amy reached out and asked if we could get a group together to go, so I asked Jenna, who has read all of her books, too, and Melissa who has read the Jonquil books. Eventually, Brooklyn got pulled in and we booked our tickets! But then we started to look for costumes. My neighbors across the street are incredible costume designers and I won a custom costume at our ward's youth auction last year. I reached out and asked them if they would consider outfitting me and my sisters in Victorian costumes instead of making a dress for me. They said "We only have Victorian ballgowns, would that be okay?" Umm... yes! We had such a fun time being fitted for our dresses and attending the event. 

Dress Fittings

Robin and Roxanne had a rack of Victorian ballgowns and they basically just went down the line from smallest to largest. I ended up in this beautiful pink and cream dress - which is easily the most gorgeous dress I've ever worn, even more lovely than my wedding dress. 

 I especially loved this dress because Robin herself wore this in one of her Opera Productions and it was just so neat to share this dress with her. 

DREAD PENNY SOCIETY 

The night of the event, we met up to do hair, then went over to Robin and Roxanne who helped dress us and get us on our way. My ONLY regret of the night is that I didn't hire a professional photographer to take pictures for us. I thought about it over and over but I just wasn't sure what the timing would be like and talked myself out of it. I really wish that I had, though. That aside, we had such a fun night. 

The event was held at the McCune Mansion in SLC. Our dresses were amazing and it was so fun to arrive at the event all decked out in our finery. Rubbing shoulders with the Upper Crust of society. 

We entered through the front door, receiving a penny bracelet to represent the pennies of the "Dread Penny Society" from the book. Each room had a story and something relating to one of the characters that you had to figure out. 

The ballroom was located on the top floor of the home and it was breathtakingly beautiful. That's where we met the Author, Sarah Eden, and she signed our brand new books. After that, we exited the building through a fun back staircase to a garden area where there were fancy refreshments and tables to visit around. As I was walking past, I heard my name and saw two of my friends that I hadn't seen in a really long time. Sarah and Michelle had been in the group right after us and it was fun to run into them and discover a shared love of Sarah Eden. 

 

These pictures ended up being my very favorite, even though the picture quality isn't quite as good because it was so dark outside. I love them. 

I loved going to this event with my sisters (all of them). Dressing up, being in a fancy house, doing something unique. This night was completely just for fun and I am grateful that I was able to experience it. 

Knowles Family Reunion & Boise Trip

This past week has been a busy and wonderful one. I packed up the kids and we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Knowles house in Boise, ID for a family reunion. My grandparents just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and my grandma will be turning 85 in August. David really wanted to come, but he's taking quite a few days off in July and couldn't swing taking more days.  It was such a lovely trip. I enjoyed spending the time with my grandparents, hanging out with my cousins that I haven't seen in far too long, and soaking up the adventure with my kids. 

We left after church on Sunday and got to their home on Brynwood Drive just before 11:30. We only stopped a couple of times and the kids all fell asleep around 8:30. I listened to several of President Nelson's early conference addresses and was touched by how powerful his messages were and how clear it is in hindsight that the Lord has been preparing him for a very long time. I also listened to a couple of episodes of my favorite podcast "The Scripture Study Project". I only say that to put a plug in for it because I love it so much. The last hour or so I spent talking to David on the phone and it was so nice. I just meant to call him for a minute, but once I start talking to him I never want to stop. I was a little sad to get there because it meant I had to hang up. I just really like him. 

Monday morning everyone showed up to do some service projects around my grandparents house. We scraped and painted the fence, cleaned out their garage, and cleared out their front flower beds. Lydia mostly just played with the other girls that were there, but Austin got really into helping with the fence. He worked hard to scrape off the old paint and he helped paint it for a fairly long amount of time. Caleb was pretty content to just wander around and hang out. 

Later that day we had a family dinner and took some pictures. I feel really bad because my kids were d.o.n.e - done. They were tired and wanted to go to bed, but dinner started late and then they wanted to take pictures and I asked when they thought they would do pictures because my kids needed to go to sleep so they did pictures right then so my kids could be in them, but the lighting was terrible and it would have just been better if my kids weren't in them and the lighting was better. Oh well. There was much crying from multiple children and licorice bribes being promised then taken away when it still didn't stop the crying. But almost immediately afterwards I took Caleb and Austin downstairs and they both were asleep within 15 minutes. It ended up being nice because I was able to come back outside and visit with everyone and it was just a really relaxing and enjoyable evening, even after the stressful picture taking. My Aunt Cindy put together this really fun timeline where we got to write down all of the big family events that had happened over the past 80 years and it was fun to see. (I helped her draw out the timeline that afternoon and it ended up being really fun.) 

 

I was the only one able to come from my family. My mom hasn't been feeling well lately, and none of my other siblings could make it up. I'm SO glad that I went to represent from the Walker family, but I wish that some of my other family members could have been there! I know that they were missed. My mom was especially missed, but I know she would have loved to be there if she could have been. 

  Lydia really hit it off with these girls and had a great time playing with them every day. (She was thrilled when each time I told her we were going to something else, and she'd ask if the girls were going to be there, I always said "yes". It was the best thing ever, to her.) From left to right: Addison, my cousin (my uncle Eric's daughter), Sian (pronounced Shawn, my cousin Tiffanie's daughter), Lydia (my daughter, who I super-love), and Ali (my cousin Niccole's daughter.) My cousin Megan was also there but her daughters who are about the same age stayed home and she flew out on her own. 

Tuesday morning we met up at a splash pad/park and played lawn games and had a BBQ. Brooklyn made this amazing drawing of my grandparents and it was fun to have it displayed. I made this family tree and it turned out so neat! (I did misspell a few things and I missed a whole cousin and her family altogether - oops, but for the most part it was really neat.) Again, Lydia played with the girls and Austin and Caleb were content to hang around and play together. There was a huge chunk of time that Lydia stopped playing with the other girls and she and Austin threw frisbees around and I was just feeling so grateful that they are such good friends. 

All of the Great-Grandchildren:  

 L-R: Austin, Shelby, Caleb, Alison, Lydia, and Sian with Zuriel and Allen Knowles.

 L-R: (back row) Shantel, Thaddeus, Ashley, Grandpa, Grandma, Tiffanie, Megan.
(front row) Addison, Kristin, Amy, Niccole

 
My little family: Shantel, Caleb, Austin, Lydia with Grandma and Grandpa.

After lunch we went to the hotel pool where several families were staying (picture above) then met for dinner at PoJo's, which is a Boondocks/ChuckeeCheese type place. We ate dinner, the kids rode the carousel, we played arcade games, and then we watched a movie that had been put together of old pictures of our family through the years. It was really, really fun. Definitely the highlight of the trip for the kids. It definitely helps that Austin won a ball from one of the claw machines, and Lydia won a little stuffed animal/dinosaur from a different claw machine. It's really a miracle that either child won one, but they did and they were both so proud.

And then it was Wednesday, all too soon. I had originally been planning to pack up and get on the road pretty early because we were all missing David something fierce. The kids kept asking when he was going to come. But I decided that it was silly to rush off after driving all that way, and so instead we took the morning slow and chatted with my grandparents and just had a nice unhurried time. One of the things that I'm so excited about is that my grandma was showing me some of the dresses that she has down in the wardrobe in the basement. They were all so beautiful and I loved hearing her stories about how because she worked in the governors office, she was always able to attend the Inaugural Balls at the Capitol Building. One of the dresses just stole my heart and she told me that if I wanted it, I could take it. I was touched and thrilled and I'm so so excited about it! It's special to me to have something of my Grandmas. 

The trip was a massive success! I'm grateful that my kids are so good in the car because that made this trip possible. I loved spending the time with my extended family, and it was a nice little getaway for the kids and I. We missed David and are glad to be home, but I'm just so so glad that we went.