The Big Dawg gets Hitched

Well it only took 32 years but the "Big Dawg" has finally been tamed and Jennie and I had the opportunity to be there as witnesses. On November 19th, 2010 Brian "Big Dawg" Bogdin and Shelby Richardson were married in the Salt Lake City Temple for time and all eternity. We are so happy for the both of them and wish them the best in their new journey. Due to some Delta issues we almost didn't make the wedding. We boarded the plane in Cleveland and then preceded to sit on the runway for 30 minutes as we were told the Detroit airport was so busy and they wanted to wait for things to clear out. So we get to Detroit and of course of connecting gate is on the other side of the Detroit airport so Jennie and I are running across the airport to make our flight in time. We show up at the gate about 5 minutes before the plane is suppose to leave and they won't let us on. There were actually 8 of us from the Cleveland airport who were connecting on that flight and they wouldn't let any of us on. The plane was still sitting there and hooked up to the tunnel but because they locked the door a couple of minutes early they would not let us on. There was almost a fist fight between two customers as they were upset and had to be split apart by the police. What makes matters worse is the ticketing representatives at the gate were not really interested in helping anyone out. They booked us on a flight the next morning that would get to Salt Lake at 11:00 which would have been an hour after the wedding. They were not willing to look into other options and instead gave me a number to call on my own. I called and complained from the gate and spoke to a supervisor who was able to get us on a flight to Las Vegas that night. We had to sleep in the Las Vegas airport, which is not comfortable at all, and then caught the 6:30 flight out of Las Vegas into Salt Lake City. We got into Salt Lake at 9:00, tracked down our luggage, which happened to make the original flight, and then picked up our rental car right away. We got changed in the airport bathroom and drove straight to the wedding. We arrived about 5 minutes before it started and were able to see the whole thing. It is funny how these things work out. If we would have had one person in front of us waiting for a rental car we would not have made the wedding. It turned out to be a long 48 hours for us as we had a luncheon after the wedding then pictures and a reception after that. We didn't get to sleep that night until about 9:00 (11:00 our time) which made for two very long days. Even though the trip was short and filled with challenges we were able to get there safely, be there for our friends and returned home to our children.


Big Dawg and I at the reception hall before pictures. You will notice the glazed look in our eyes as neither of us slept the night before and still had a long night ahead of us.



Jennie with Big Dawg at the reception hall. It was a very nice house that was well decorated and the perfect place for a wedding reception.


Here is the Bogdin family outside of the Salt Lake City Temple. We love them and appreciate their treating us like family during the entire weekend.


Big Dawg with his proud papa. He looks like one mean dude but is one of the kindest and nicest people you would ever meet.

On Saturday we had the chance to meet up with some old friends and catch up on each others lives. First we went and had lunch with Mark and Jill, who are friends of mine from Price, UT. They took us to a place called Rodizio Grill which I am addicted to. If you are ever in the Salt Lake area you need to make a special trip to this place. They have people who walk around with skewers of different meats and seasonings and shave out pieces right at your table. It is all you can eat and you don't even have to leave your seat to get food. The food was awesome and well worth the trip. Then we got to meet up with Jennie's college softball catcher and her family. Finally Jennie was able to meet up with an old family friend from Ohio who had moved to Salt Lake. It was a very quick and busy trip but Jennie and I had a lot of fun. It was Jennie's first time away from the kids for more than a couple of hours and she did quite well.


We were able to drive around and go to a couple of places that Jennie wanted to stop and while out we decided to drive by a couple of the smaller Temples in the area. This is the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan. It is one of the newer Temples and is located on a ridge that overlooks the Salt Lake Valley.


Here is the Jordan River Temple which is where Jennie's brother, Aaron was married. The night before we were to leave the Salt Lake area was hit with about 10 inches of snow. It had just started to come down when I got this picture.



This is one thing that I miss being in Ohio, the mountains. This was before the big snow storm. The entire mountains and surrounding area were covered after that.


Jennie and I at the Salt Lake Temple after a morning session.


I know it looks like the sun but this is actually the moon from 35,000 feet. We were on our way from Minneapolis to Cleveland when Jennie noticed the moon out of her window. The picture almost looks like the sun setting over the ocean but is actually the moon over a pillow of clouds.

Anyways we had a very good trip and despite some obstacles we made it there in time for all the activities and were glad to be a part of this special moment in Big Dawg and Shelby's lives. We are so happy for them and look forward to being a part of their new family. We are grateful to Jennie's parents for taking the kids while we were gone and enjoyed the time to ourselves. This was our trial run for Jennie and I's trip this June without the kids.