thebigday

it would be difficult to do justice to our wedding day in a single blog post--to give you some idea of how difficult, our two photographers from Shutterbugz took about 1400 pictures on thebigday alone, and they'd already taken 400 or so more from the engagement session and bridal session. so my purpose here isn't really to do the day justice, in picture or prose, because i couldn't. oh, and because we won't have the CDs with all of those 1400 pictures on for a while.

but i do want to share a few of the many pictures that were captured on several other cameras during the day; isn't the digital age wonderful? most of these come either from my sister, Kim's, camera or from my mother's. either way, the first one may be my favorite:


the beautiful bride

Jill looked stunning on that day--as she does on all others. as you can see, her dress is pretty intense when it's unbustled like that, though the bottom edges did pick up a lot of foreign matter. i guess that's okay when you're only wearing it once.

given that Mormons don't really need best men or maids of honor and all that, Jill and i actually had quite a crew making up our wedding party, though they were all family members. Jill had her niece, Christine, and my five nieces, MaKenna, Caitlin, Maren, Payten and Devon, as flower girls, while her five sisters were all bridesmaids, as was my younger sister, Kim, with whom i'm pictured below.



thejayfather and his adorable little sister, Kim, and then with his very sharp-looking nephew, Carter.



Kim is one of my favorite people, as is the big guy pictured with me above, my nephew Carter. he is my older sister, Carrie's, boy, and will soon turn nine. he and Jill's little brother, eight-year-old John, were the smaller groomsmen for the day, both looking very dapper in their new black suits. the larger groomsmen were my brothers, Matthew and Nathan, my brother-in-law, Coy, and Jill's younger brother, Scott.

having most of the members of both of our families there made this an even greater day for Jill and i, and they did so much to make the day go smoothly--particularly our mothers. Jill's mom, Julie, did an amazing amount of work both before and during the wedding events; she even got to spend a couple of very hot hours after the sealing ceremony traipsing around after us and carrying Jill's 10-poundish bouquet while we were having our pictures taken. and i'm sure she did plenty more after we had fled the scene that night too. then my mum, Lynn, planned and executed a delicious lunch--the only food we had all day--at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.



theBallfamily, including its new addition. it was nice to have the whole group together at our wedding, but the day was long and a bit tiring for some... here Mother Lynn and Grandpa Bill catch 40 winks apiece. like father, like daughter.



all that planning and executing looks to have been a bit much for her though--this picture was taken in the lobby of the JSMB (though before the lunch though, i think). the handsome fellow in the picture is Lynn's dad, my grandfather, William. i guess they're keeping it in the family, and it's a preview of what i have to look forward to.

well enough about that. the day was great, and the days since have been greater; i'm sure there will soon be posts about those. but for now, let me leave you with some of my favorite scenes from thebigday, arranged chronologically going clockwise from top left:


scenes from the wedding day, clockwise from top left: thejayfather escorting Jill out of the famous temple doors; sharing a laugh during picture taking on the steps of the temple; Jill about to stuff some cake in my face; the happy couple enjoying their first dance together, married or not. you can see how impressed with my skills she is...

thehealthcare

since i covered my dad's departure from Utah's public utilities consumer watchdog in several posts available in March 05's archives, and particularly this one, thesack, many of you have expressed an interest in knowing what he is up to now. the answer may be, in one word: blogging.

while he still keeps his hand in the public utility consumer watchdog arena, he also recently became president of the Utah Healthcare Coalition, a consumer group focused on addressing some of the problems in the healthcare system in the state. in case you're interested in the specifics, the blog itself, linked above, should provide them. having spent the last five years working in healthcare down in California, thejayfather knows of many of these problems and hopes that the Coalition and its blog will have much success.

theheight

thejayfather's very-soon-to-be-new wife, Jill, is tall, no doubt about it. but she also has a problem: she thinks she's taller than me. it may not be that much of a problem actually, because some people agree with her, though the more we talk about it the more she gets annoyed--like she's passed denial and is reaching the anger phase of grieving over her lost supremacy. after all the tests we've done that she has written off, we finally did one whose results couldn't be questioned: on her home turf, with her dad using a spirit level as the judge and with both of us sock- and shoeless, we finally came to a conclusion that both of us seem able to accept.

in the interest of promoting marital harmony, however, i'm not going to tell you the result, but let you see the photographic evidence and judge for yourself. all i will say is: let the bargaining begin.



Jill is tall, but is she taller than me? note how hard she is trying to muster herself up to full height, and then leave a comment and let me know what you think, and the actual test result will be revealed in a future post.

theinvitation

April is a busy month for thejayfather. perhaps most importantly, it is Jill's birthday, and so there is a lot of celebrating to do. and celebrate we did, in fine style, as the following picture almost attests. for my birthday back in March, Jill had booked a hot air balloon ride, which, while we never actually got to take it, nevertheless gave me a good idea for what to do on her birthday. unfortunately, you'd be surprised at how much people charge you to throw yourself from an airborne plane, so we had to do the next best thing: indoor skydiving.


the Birthday Girl outside the windtunnel

we took a drive--Jill blindfolded--down to Perris, California, and found this silo-looking thing sticking up in pretty much the middle of nowhere. but they do do a whole bunch of skydiving at the Perris Airport--there was even a huge international competition going on while we were there--and we were stoked to have our first taste of flight; Jill almost cried when she took her blindfold off.

at 50 bucks for two minutes of flight, it isn't a cheap thrill, but it was certainly worth it, and certainly something we'd do again. when you're flying you can see the concrete of the ground below through a mesh floor of the actual windtunnel; i was a bit surprised that the turbine isn't beneath, pushing you up, but that there are actually five fan blades above you, sucking you into the air. apparently this arrangement reduces turbulence. anyway, they give you a few minutes of training, teaching you some hand signals because you can't hear anything in the tunnel, and then you go for it. the slightest movements seem to send you zooming across the chamber, but there is a guy in there to pull you back to the middle. Jill did a legendary job of flying, and i only wish i could have got a picture of her face being pushed back by 150 mph winds!

later that night, the revelry didn't stop, we just moved the party to Buena Park to take in a pirate-themed dinner show. they divide up all the diners into six teams, each led by a pirate who is in the show. it's very interactive, and they always want you to be cheering on your pirate's performance. basically it's a lot of stylized brawling with a very loose and kind of rambling love story plot, but altogether quite entertaining. our pirate, the red one named Jack, was indeed the best and is pictured below with Jill, of all people:

Jack and Jill, then Jay and Jill in front of the galleon/stage at the Pirate's Dinner Adventure

and then April is an especially busy month this year for one obvious reason: Jill and thejayfather's upcoming nuptials. for those of you who didn't get one yet, or didn't get one at all, i hope showing it here won't add insult to injury, but Jill and i were very pleased with the way that all of our engagement pictures, and especially this invitation came out.

consider yourself invited

it was a bit strange to get into wardrobe and go and spend an hour on location with a professional photographer, but we were both really impressed by Steve, who owns Shutterbugz photography in Salt Lake. he would tell us how to position our heads or how to hold our hands just so to make the photos look natural, even though some of the poses felt anything but. in that hour he took about 180 pictures, which is a good thing, because while Jill is really photogenic, thejayfather is not, so we needed all of those to come up with the five shots on the invitation. in any case, let me know what you think. if you're not thinking much, here's something from the wall inside the windtunnel to get you pondering:

thesolution

looking for a problem, that is. many of you must have been feeling something special in the air lately, and indeed, you're not being misled, it is, in fact the first anniversary of thejayfather weblog. so as we peer into the coming year, let's take a moment to review the past upon which it will be built.

most readers will have had cause to marvel at the stunning beauty of the layout here on thejayfather. i should confess that most of the code for the fancier parts of this site came from a book that has turned out to be a wise investment made in Taipei, Taiwan. searching for some new material for this anniversary post, i came across the forms section in the book, and thought it might just be fun to provide a little survey. there are sites that do this, of course, but this one is highly customized, and will actually be sent to me when you click on "answer thejayfather". so truly, it is a solution looking for a problem, but tell me, isn't it a better title for a post than "theanniversary"?

be part of thesolution:

are you visiting from:
US Taiwan other specify:
how long have you been visiting thejayfather:
since the beginning!6 months - 1 year1-5 monthsless than 1 monthfirst visit
how often do you visit thejayfather, on average:
once a week or moreonce a month or moreonce every 2-3 monthsless frequently
what do you think is the best aspect of thejayfather:
selectthe posts in generalthe writing in the poststhe pictures in the poststhe sidebar in generalthe visitor statistics or mapplease specify
specify:
what do you think is the worst aspect of thejayfather:
selectthe posts in generalthe writing in the poststhe pictures in the poststhe sidebar in generalthe visitor statistics or mapplease specify
specify:
please select 2 or 3 of your favourite posts from the last year:
February 2006	themovies	theChristmas
	theengagement
January 2006	theScarlettletter	thetreasures
December 2005	thewarshateria	thepack-o
November 2005	theborder
October 2005	thebuzz	thebeehivestate
	thehomestead
September 2005	theradio	thejoy
August 2005	theletter	theshow
July 2005	thememories	thetyphoon
	thecolonies	theairport
	theelephants	thestart
	thetest
June 2005	thehaircut	thelake
	thecapital
May 2005	thecontest	thehistory
	thestorm	thebackyard
	theyammy
April 2005	theglossary	theschooltrip
	thefriends	thegorge
	theforeknowledge	thename
	thecircumnavigation	themartyrs
March 2005	thecake	thedisappointment
	thezen	thelie
	thedinner	theopinion
	thesweep	thelugagnae
	thecartoons	themessage
	thepackage	theaction
	thesack	themusic
	thebust	themystery
	thebirthday	theteachers
	thefifth	thecity
	thelift	theobservatory
	theupdate	thebike
	thebus	themonkey
	theriver	thegraffiti
	thereason	thebeginning
what would you like to see thejayfather do differently here in the future:
tell thejayfather about yourself:
are you:malefemale
are you:younger than 1010-1920-2930-3940-5960-7980+