Nauvoo RV Trip

This Exciting adventure started out with the highest of hopes...Dad rented a beautiful RV to drive the family from Monument, Colorado to Nauvoo, IL. Unfortunately, the bathroom door on the RV broke before we left their house,  and that set the tone for the RV's performance for the rest of the trip!

We broke down for a time in Ellesworth, KS. Here Dad borrowed tools from the gas station owner and got the RV move but could not put it back in park without risking another stall of the engine, so he had to drive off with the borrowed tools...hahaha don't worry Dad mailed them back:-)

We did make it to Nauvoo where we met Emily, Jeremy, Lauren, and Jon and Karen Brogden. We had a fabulous time there without the RV (which we left in a repair shop). We stayed in a cabin, visited the sites, did sealings in the temple, and flew home through St. Louis, MO (we also got to see a bit of St. Louis, including going up in the arch).

The trip was not a bust, but the RV was! 

 

Jake's Birthday Visit to Provo 2008

Jake came and visited in Provo during his birthday in 2008. Quinn and I took him to the Comedy Sportz Club, to a BYU football game, mini golfing, and out for ice cream...a true Provo experience hahaha

Quinn and Annie Wedding

Quinn and Annie became engaged in January of 2008 and were married almost 6 weeks later on March 8th, 2008.

 The festivities started with a bridal shower thrown by my Sisters in Emily's Mother-in-law's home, Jane Blakesley. 

Annie: I was so grateful to my sisters for throwing this shower since it was so short notice and I had moved so many times in the preceding year (my friends were far flung, but many friends, roommates, and cousins made it to the shower that night:-).

Next we had a family dinner in the Lion House the night before the wedding. The fellows went and played basketball following this dinner (as Quinn's bachelor party) where some Gillespie and Hout tempers may or may not have flared up at each other.

On the morning of the wedding was cold and clear and so many family and friends were there to celebrate the new family that was created:-) We all missed Amelia and baby Michael who got stuck on the way to the wedding in the hospital after Michael came down with a bad case of RSV!

 There was a reception held afterwards in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, across the courtyard. There was dancing and dinner and a couple of hundred loved ones gathered around...beautiful.

Of course Alan Gibby was the photographer for the happy day:-)

 After their Honeymoon, an open house was held in Arvada, CO where Quinn and Annie met and went to High school together. Many of the Ward members there were influential in Quinn and Annies' lives.  

Blakesley Wedding Reception

Rice Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, UT

2001 Gillespie Girls

We were nearly completed when Heather and Lauren joined the family photo shoot this year.

Pictures taken by our sweet neighbor, Ann Jones, in the Arvada, Colorado neighborhood, the second autumn of Gillespies in Colorado. Amelia and James had moved in, and James transferred to CU.  Cute Charie was still in elementary school, Annie in High school, and Emily between semesters of her freshman year of college.  Heather and Lauren came to visit for Thanksgiving from VA and Provo with Jer and Joey.

We were only waiting for Lanie Ambs to grow up and join the family!

Friends on Orleans Street

There were always friends to play with at our Orleans Street house. Kids from all around the block came to play at our house: kickball, flashlight tag, bike riding, roller skating/roller blading, our trampoline, two-hand touch football. 

-Annie: I remember Emily and her friend, Catherine Olzsyk, hosting a "roller-skating" school for their younger sisters, Ellen and me. Ellen and I sat on the curb while Emily and Catherine showed us their moves (skating through chalk lines they had drawn on the street). Then we had a chance to skate and try and imitate their skills.

-Annie: We had some epic games of flashlight tag. It sometimes happened that we had 2 dozen kids playing and the boundaries included a few street. I remember a particular game of flashlight tag when I was hiding with James in an unknown neighbor's bush (this older fellow didn't have children at home). He must have heard us because he came our shouting, maybe thinking we were prowlers, and digging through his bush. When it was impossible for us to hide from him anymore we came out; he was pretty hostile to James about being on his property until he saw little me. He seemed to believe James' story about us just playing flashlight tag at that point and let us leave in peace. 

1987 Gillespie Family Portrait