The In-laws to be

Avis:

Here we are in Glacier National Park on a trip Anne, Avis, and I took last year when we were in Montana visiting them. What a great day for hikes and sight seeing.

Ron:

This is after we got off the river after a long day of fishing, not sure how much we caught that day but it is always a great day when you are fishing.

Tom:

Tom likes to stare you down, and lick your face when he caves in. He also likes to chase tennis balls endlessly.

Huck:

Huck likes to chase pheasants and bring them back to you, he also likes to chase tennis balls and can fit like 3 of them in his mouth at one time.

Even though I have spent a lot of time around all four of these guys I can't wait to actually call them family. This wedding is sure sneaking up on us fast!

-pete

Bryant

On the right hand side of this page you will find a link to information about Bryant, SD, the site of our wedding. It contains a bit of information, but not much. So I'm going to supplement it with a bit of information of my own.

Bryant is the town where my mom grew up. Or I should say, it's the town nearest where she grew up, because she was raised on a farm. It has around 300 inhabitants, I believe. A sign that stood for most of my life (although it has been taken down in the last few years) declared Bryant to be the "biggest little city in the Northwest." At one point it had several markets, businesses, and even a car dealership. Business can be difficult in a small town, so today if you walk down Main Street you will find: a bank, a bar, a cafe, the newspaper office, a movie theater, and a grocery store/motel. The movie theater is owned by the community and run by volunteers. I might be missing something, but those are the main businesses in town. It might seem strange to some that Pete and I have chosen to be married in a small town where neither one of us grew up.

Bryant is where I came in the summers as a child to visit my grandmother. It is where my grandmother and I went to the store, picked raspberries, visited with neighbors, watched baseball, and laughed together. It was the first place I was allowed as a kid to walk around by myself with no questions about where I was going and when I would be back. It is where I walked down the street as a child and people knew who I was without meeting me before because I looked like a Noem. Much of my mom's family live in the area. Bryant to me is a huge meal with egg coffee on Al and Sharon's farm, playing pinball and bumper pool at Larry and Sally's Lake house, or eating oysters at Christmas in Win and Ruth's kitchen.

Bryant is where my parents own a house where they plan to retire. It is the house where we have spent our Christmases together for the last several years. It is where we gather at hunting time every year. It is where Pete used to come to see me, even when we weren't dating, when I still lived in Montana. It has become a meeting place for our family.

Bryant is where Garfield Church is. Even though this church has not been regularly used since before I was born, I have always dreamed of being married here. I'm lucky enough that when Pete saw it, he loved it, too. He didn't see the problems with it, he saw it's charm and he saw solutions. And that's why Pete's the guy for me :)

So anyhow, that's my two cents about Bryant, SD. It is a place with many wonderful memories and great significance for me. I hope that although Pete's time there has been much shorter than mine, it holds happy memories for him, too.