Summer Fun

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Grandma & Aaryn

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Aaryn Pay

Jones Family Summer Update

JONES - The summer has flown by. We didn't really have much time out of school as the kids got out the end of May and were back in the middle of July. During that time Alex and Trevor went to EFY Provo, Trevor had football camp, and Trevor, Spencer and Ken had Scout camp. It seemed we were on the run all of June. Chelsea got engaged in June as well so we spent the rest of the time preparing for a wedding in August. We have been very busy with wedding plans and school. Monday, August 18 Chelsea and I leave for Ely to prepare for the wedding next Friday. We are all busy and happy. We will update after the wedding. Also Alex starts New Student Orientation at BYU the Wednesday following the wedding. Wedding pictures soon to come!

BENNETTS - Richie turned 2 on August 2nd and we celebrated with swimming and cake and presents. He wasn't too sure about blowing out candles, but did a great job of it a week later on Alex's birthday.

PAYS - Melanie and Nick are busy preparing for a move to Caliente, NV. About 90 minutes from Ely. Nick will be working for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and working on his degree as well. They are all busy and the boys are growing big.

MORINS - The Morins spent some of the summer in Colorado - James selling security systems and April teaching dance at a studio. They are now back in Rexburg preparing for their last semester.

Chelsea's Wedding

Chelsea's Wedding is fast approaching here is the invitation for anyone interested.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Lee Jones
are pleased to announce
the marriage of their daughter
Chelsea Jones
to
Zachary Barrus
son of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Barrus
on Friday, the Twenty Second Day of August
two thousand eight
in the Salt Lake LDS Temple
We request the pleasure of your attendance
at a reception in their honor

Reception
Friday, August 22nd
7-9:00 p.m.
LDS Aberdeen Chapel
149 W Central
Aberdeen, Idaho

Reception
Saturday, August 23rd
6-8:00 p.m.
Ely Elks Lodge
694 Campton St.
Ely, Nevada

Chelsea & Zac are registered at Target & Bed, Bath, and Beyond

Chelsea Jones meets Zachary Barrus

We met on April 27, 2008. It was the second week of Summer Semester at BYU-Idaho. I had just started my third semester of Nursing School and Zac was returning from his semester off working at H&R Block as a Tax Preparer. I was the Ward Activities Chairperson and Zac had just moved apartments and we were now in the same ward. Our apartments were assigned to get together for a Sweet Swap after church on the 27^th. I remember being instantly attracted to Zac the moment that he walked in the door. We all spent some time introducing ourselves to the group and eating treats. Zac and I really seemed to get along well and talked with each other most of the time. We discussed what we were going to school for, movies that we liked, and other general information. I discussed how much I love to bake, and Zac gave me a nickname of the ‘white Aunt Jemima,’ I don’t know what he was thinking and thankfully it didn’t last too long. During the activity my roommate found a Disney piano book and started playing some songs. Zac started singing to ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me,’ from Toy Story and I joined in, we had a lot of fun. After Sweet Swap, Zac and his roommates invited everyone over to watch a movie at their apartment, I think it was The Lion King. I had plans to meet up with some other guys in an apartment not in our ward that night, but I decided to stop by Zac’s apartment first. When I arrived with my roommates I walked over and sat by Zac who was sitting on the floor. A little while after I arrived, some other girls from a different ward came by and then left about 10 minutes later. (I later found out that one of them liked Zac, and was hoping to talk and sit with him, but she left when she saw me there and realized Zac wasn’t going to pay attention to her.) I left a little while later to head over to the other guy’s apartment and Zac asked me to come back and see him later that night. I couldn’t stop thinking about Zac while I was gone, and I came back to see him around 10:30pm and we sat talking until midnight. We discussed everything it seems like that evening. He told me how his grandpa had died just a few weeks before and his grandmother a few months before that. I talked about my past relationships, including my broken-off engagement. It seemed like we had both had a rough past few months, and it was great to sit and talk with someone.

The next night on Monday, was the ward Opening Social, so we knew we would see each other that night. Zac showed up a little late and the party was in full swing, and I was busy keeping everything running smoothly. We didn’t really get any time to talk, but I saw Zac watching me the entire night. Afterwards, Zac stayed after to help clean-up, which really impressed me. I invited him and his roommates over to my apartment for some leftover Apple Crisp and to watch a movie. Zac showed up by himself, at my door, about 5 minutes after I got home from cleaning up. I asked him where his roommates were, and instead of answering me, he ran right out the door and left. About 10 minutes later he showed up with his roommates. (He apparently ran into his apartment and told all of his roommates that they needed to come with him to my apartment right away.) I later told him that I didn’t care about having his roommates there; I was just surprised that he showed up by himself. We watched Hairspray (a movie that Zac hates), and we held hands for the first time that night.

The next day was Tuesday the 29^th. I checked my facebook that morning and found a message from Zac. Here is what it said: Hey Jemima! I forgot to give you my number so you'll know it’s me calling in the middle of the night if I have nightmares again ;) I hope you feel like you can call for anything (208) 681-8471. You are a very talented girl and did a great job tonight! Would you like to do something together tomorrow?? (I’m so nervous!!) I am pretty sure that I laughed out loud when I read that. And then I called and asked him if he wanted to go to Devotional with me that afternoon. He of course said yes and we met up together, and probably talked more than listened to devotional. After devotional was over he walked me to the library, so that I could get some homework done. When he dropped me off he told me to call him when I was done so that we could set up a time to go out to dinner that night. I actually really liked that he didn’t ask if I wanted to go, he just told me we were going. That night when he came to pick me up I was watching the NBA playoffs. He walked in, saw what I was doing and asked if I was watching by myself. When I told him I was, his response was, “You are the coolest girl I have ever met.” That made me smile. We went over to Applebee’s for dinner and afterwards went back to my apartment to finish watching the game. When I walked him out to his car that night he kissed me. I was shocked! We had just talked about kissing on the first date (since this was technically our first date), and I told him that my Mom always said, “If you kiss a boy on the first date, you are going to have to marry him.” He told me that he NEVER kisses on the first date. I asked him why he kissed me, and he said that it felt right and that he should. I was satisfied with that answer, and happy that he kissed me. This is the message that he sent me after our first date: Chelsea...you just keep doing the right things :) You are so sweet and caring. I am really impressed and love your personality. I hope we can get to know each other more and more this semester. I can definitely see you as a lifelong BFF!! Have a great day tomorrow sweetheart! Call me in between classes if you can because I still haven’t had enough of you yet either ;)

On Wednesday April 30^th, Zac came over to meet me in the Nursing Computer Lab and told me that it was his sister’s birthday. I said that we should make her a cake, so after classes we went shopping and made the cake. His sister, Amanda, lived just across the street from Zac and we took the cake over that evening. He found out that she didn’t have a lighter or matches to light the candles we got her so he ran across the street to get some from his apartment, leaving me there. Amanda and I talked for a little bit, and she told me that she was shocked to find out that Zac had a girlfriend. Although I had considered us to be at the stage of boyfriend and girlfriend, we had only been on one date and I was a little surprised to hear that he had told her. When we left to go home that night I asked him what was going on between us. He said, “Well, I think that I want to keep you around for a long time.” I smiled, and said that I wasn’t sure what that meant considering he already told his sister that I was his girlfriend. He became really embarrassed, and I asked if he had told other people that I was his girlfriend. He said yes, and I said ok. And that was that. We were exclusively dating and our relationship grew quickly. We spent basically all the time that we had together outside of classes and probably neglected our schoolwork more than we should have.

That Saturday on May 3^rd, Zac’s family was coming up from Aberdeen to take Amanda out to dinner for her birthday. Zac wanted me to go and meet his family, even though we had only known each other for 7 days. I was a little nervous about what his family might think of me, and told him that he needs to at least tell his parents that he wanted me to come along too. I asked him later how many girls he had taken to meet his family before and he said just the one that he dated in high school. I was so surprised with how calm he was about me meeting his parents even though he had never really done it before. While we were out to dinner everyone talked about Zac’s other sister, Tiffany, and that she was in the play Beauty and the Beast and we should all come down to Aberdeen to see it.

On Friday May 9^th, we went ring shopping. We had known each other for 13 days, and we knew that we wanted to get married. We talked about it a lot, pretty much every day. We knew that it was right, and I had never been happier. Over the next few weeks we did a lot together. We took a trip to Aberdeen to see Tiffany’s play, as well as her Seminary and High School Graduations. We then went to Salt Lake with his family for Memorial Weekend, and for Zac’s cousin’s wedding. I had to leave for two days to go to Salt Lake and Provo to tour hospitals in the area for nursing school. That was the only time that we had spent apart in the 5 weeks since we had met. And then later that weekend on June 7^th we went to Salt Lake so that Zac could meet some of my family while they were there picking up my brother, Alex, from EFY. We just met with them briefly for breakfast and then Zac and I took a walk around Temple Square before we headed back to Rexburg. At this point I was getting really anxious to get engaged. We had decided that we wanted to get married between Summer and Fall semesters, most likely in August. We debated about waiting another semester until I was completely done with nursing school, or possibly waiting until the next Spring when Zac’s grandparents would come home from their mission. We both felt that waiting a long time was not the best and that we would get married between semesters. My birthday was coming up in a few days and I was holding out hope that Zac would propose then. I had no idea if he even had the ring yet, although I later found out that he even brought it on our trip to Utah to meet my family.

Finally, my birthday came on Wednesday, June 11^th. I had a day full of classes, as well as a test to take. I woke up to snow that morning and I was a little frustrated with everything that I had to do. I had asked Zac if he would come and sit with me during my Psychology Class because I wouldn’t get to see him until later that night. He agreed, but was running late and I became frustrated that he wouldn’t make it on time. (He was late because he was at my apartment decorating it.) He finally showed up and I was happy to see him but a little irritated and on edge because he wasn’t on time. After I was done with classes I went to take my test, which didn’t go very well, putting me in an even worse mood. Zac picked me up from the testing center and took me back to my apartment. When we got out of the car, I had a breakdown in the parking lot and I was crying. Zac comforted me and said that everything would be fine and that we should go inside. I walked into my apartment to find it decorated with pink balloons and streamers everywhere. Even my bedroom was decorated with flowers and balloons from my family. I found a tasseled pillow with a small glass slipper and a note lying on top. It read: Here ye, here ye, to the fairest lady of them all: I hereby bid thee to attend a date with me at 7:00pm. I will fetch my stallion to pick thee up to attend a birthday feast in thy honor. I came out of my room crying and Zac was standing in the living room with a huge smile on his face. He said to take as long as I needed to get ready and then we would go to dinner. After I got ready we went to dinner and Zac said that he needed to stop at the Benson Building to drop off an assignment. I knew this was a lie because he didn’t have any classes in the Benson. As we walked down the hall we came to an open atrium with a table beautifully decorated with flowers and rose petals. Music was playing in the background and the table was set for our dinner. We had Applebee’s Chinese Chicken Salad, Sparkling Cider and Chocolate Covered Strawberries. When we were about finished Zac asked if I wanted more to drink and instead of grabbing the Cider he bent down to one of the plants and pulled out a ring box and asked me to marry him. Of course I said, YES! Amanda, Tiffany and one of their roommates stood up from the area that they were hiding in the entire time we ate and congratulated us. They lay on the floor the entire time we were eating and kept telling people to go away so that they wouldn’t interrupt us. They were the ones who helped put the table together and get our dinner while Zac was with me. Zac planned it all, but asked them to help along with the help of some of my roommates. We called our parents and told them the news and began talking about our wedding date, which we set for August 22, 2008 in the Salt Lake Temple. When we got back from dinner there was a cake and some veggie trays on the table. Zac had invited our friends over for a birthday party, as well as an opportunity to announce our engagement and tell everyone the story of how he proposed. It was truly one of the best nights of my life, and will probably always remain my best birthday ever!