Heather Harley's wedding

Before I share the pictures from the wedding we attended Sunday evening, I want to give a back story. Back in the early 90's I used to go to a ladies' gym called Eileen's. One evening as I worked out, a cute young lady named Kim came in to teach an aerobics class, and with her was her baby girl in an infant seat. I oohed and aahed over the baby and made small talk with Kim.

About a year later I was working as a waitress at the local Kreider Dairy Farm Restaurant for a few months. Many Saturdays I ended up working with another cute, young lady named Wendy. We had FUN together, each of us with our "tip cans", complete with pictures of our kids on them. My kids were teens, hers were three adorable little girls.

I honestly do not know if I realized at that time that Kim and Wendy were sisters. I certainly did not realize that in the years to come I would get to know them and their children very, very well.

Right after my short waitressing stint, I returned to Manheim Christian Day School as music teacher. A year or so later there was a new student in the second grade class, a beautiful little girl named Heather Harley. She was Wendy's oldest daughter. The next year Kim's oldest daughter Heidi (the one who had been the baby at the gym) joined the first grade class. And then there was Wendy's Kelsey and Megan, Kim's Hannah and Ben, and finally Wendy's Mackenzie and Kim's Mandy. I had them all, and they were a music teacher's delight.

Along the way Wendy and Kim joined the staff of the school, and they became some of my dearest friends. I miss them so much. Here's the picture I took of them at the wedding reception Sunday evening, Wendy (mother of the bride standing) and Kim, seated. Still cute young ladies!

Now, about Heather. I think it was almost right away that I noticed she had an exceptionally beautiful voice. At the ends of phrases I would hear some lovely vibrato coming from her seat. The first time I gave her a solo in a program, the older kids in the school commented profusely about her voice as we watched the video of the program. In fact, one fifth grade boy exclaimed, "She even has veberta!" Oh, how we laughed! She went on to have many more solos. In eighth grade she sang the solo in Breathe at our worship team programs and never failed to bring the audience to worshipful tears. Jeremy, who still lived in Lancaster at that time, gave her voice lessons, and she just got better and better. During high school and college she went on to perform in talent contests, choral festivals, musicals, and gladly came back to help me out from time to time when I needed special music for certain events. Here's a collage of some of the pictures I took of various performances.

Thanks to Face book, I've been able to stay in touch with Heather even though I no longer work with her mom. She recently graduated from Liberty University in Virginia. I was so delighted to receive an invitation to her wedding! Heather is truly beautiful from the inside out, and I am so proud of her accomplishments and so happy that she is married at last to her high school sweetheart, Anthony Daly.


The wedding was held at the Willow Valley chapel and the reception was in Willow Valley's Palm Court. Thirteen years ago we had Lisa's wedding and reception there, so it brought back lots of fond memories to Dick and me. 

Heather and Anthony with her parents, Wendy and Kevin Harley.

Heather's family, including both sets of grandparents who were always among my most enthusiastic supporters.

Lovely Palm Court.

Heather's three gorgeous sisters, Mackenzie, Megan, and Kelsey.

Kim's three gorgeous daughters, Heidi, Hannah, and Mandy. Mandy was playing violin in the prelude when we arrived at the wedding, and I was amazed!! She had just started taking lessons when I left the school two years ago. She's very, very good.

Kim's handsome son Ben - the only boy among them!

Mandy with her good friend Smita, also one of my former students and also an amazing soloist.

This person was neither a former student nor a co-worker. If you're from Pennsylvania you might recognize him even though I took the picture from a distance - our governor Tom Corbett. I didn't want to act like the paparazzi, haha!! Heather's dad has worked for Tom Corbett for years. In fact, Heather sang at his inauguration. So he and his wife and some secret servicemen were in attendance.

Heather and Anthony entered the reception with great flair!

Bride and groom's first dance.

Heather and her dad's dance. Always so sweet and touching.

Thank you Heather and Anthony, Wendy and Kevin, for giving us the privilege of sharing in this beautiful, very special day!

Stauffer Camping 2011

You know the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  So I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking about the wonderful time we had this past weekend with Dick's family at Camp Hebron.

Campfire Fun

Connecting

Cooking and eating together

Having fun

Loving the little ones

And most of all, REJOICING that Grandpa and Grandma could be there with us the entire weekend!!  As I said they would, they stayed in a mobile home at the camp, but spent most of the time with us.  We were astonished at the way Dad could eat everything with no trouble at all.  He was walking short distances with no assistance at all, not even a cane, and longer distances holding hands with one of us. 

 Our group picture was a rushed affair, and I could hardly keep the horses standing still  long enough for me to try to position my camera for a timed shot.  Thus the cut-off heads.  Hopefully someone else's camera got a better one.

I took a short video of our worship around the campfire Sunday morning.  As we sang, "Savior, He can move the mountains," I felt like we all had profoundly experienced that very thing in the past few months.  Thank you, Lord!!

Hopefully tomorrow evening I can post the beautiful pictures from the wedding we attended Sunday evening.