Family Reunion and Scott's Wedding - 12/2010

For Scott and Jear's wedding, most of my family came into town.  Sara came in on Saturday, November 27th.  We got to hang out quite a bit.  Heather, Willie, David, and Aunt Betty arrived on Wednesday, December 1st.

On Thursday, Mark flew in.  Also, Heather, Aunt Betty, my mom, my mother-in-law, and I went to my mom's intuitive healer.  That was very interesting because he told us what we should and shouldn't eat.  Some of the things he told me to limit are: gluten, meat, fish, the nightshades, mushrooms, walnuts, pecans, and chocolate (yeah, right!)  I noticed that as I was limiting these foods, I lost some of the weight left from having the twins.  When I eat too much of any of those foods, my stomach bothers me.  Heather has many of the same limitations, except she can have chocolate, of which I am jealous!  I still eat it anyway.  We decided to start a blog with foods that we can eat.  We also had our feet soaked to remove some of the toxins in our blood.  After that, we went to Whole Foods to stock up on some of the foods we can eat. I mostly just hung out with Louise, my mother-in-law.  It was quite fun!

On Friday, for the most part, we just hung out, while Sara and Mark went into New York City to sightsee.  Friday night, Brian arrived.

On Saturday, we went out to breakfast at 9:00 and then had Eliza's baptism at 1:00.  At around 5:00, we went and had family pictures taken and then everyone gathered at our house, since it was nearby.  Dad, Heather, and I stayed until the pictures were printed.  Heather and I went and had some food at Chipotle while we waited.  When we got back, the usual game of dominoes was already going.  That seems to be the game of choice whenever Willie or my father-in-law is here.

Scott and Jear had their wedding on Sunday, December 5.  So, we went to church for sacrament meeting and then straight to the place where they would be married.  Jear looked beautiful and Scott was handsome in their wedding garb. The wedding ceremony was performed by our bishop.

The reception was really nice.  The hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and cake were delicious.  It was great being with family and seeing friends. Eliza and Ashleigh had a lot fun dancing and everyone else enjoyed watching them!  It was difficult to get Eliza to leave!

After the wedding, all of our family that was still in town (Brian had to leave right after the wedding), met at our house for dinner for our last night all together.  Heather, Sara,  and their families and Michael's parents were flying back home the next day.  We had a great time together!

I got to see Heather, Willie, David and Aunt Betty on Monday morning one last time before they headed back home.  It was so much fun to have everyone here.  I love my family!

Ahhh, Memories...

Lately I've been thinking about last summer when we had a family reunion in California. We went there first and foremost to see my paternal grandparents. My grandpa was not doing well health-wise and we didn't want to wait any longer to go and see them. We left on August 23 and flew into San Jose. We spent the evening with my aunt and her children and grandchildren at my aunt's house. The next day, we drove down to Monterey and stayed in cottages. One of the nice things about that was we had two bedrooms and an eat-in kitchen. We stayed there for a few days and got to see Grandma and Grandpa several times. We had our "big" family reunion at "Wild Things" and got to see a bunch of animals that are trained to be in movies and commercials. Then we had lunch in their picnic area and took a bunch of pictures. The next morning we went out to breakfast (a long standing tradition whenever we see them).
One of the highlights of our trip was driving down to Los Angeles and going to Disneyland. We stayed in a Hilton with suites. Even though we had a kitchen, we mostly ate breakfast at their complimentary breakfast and their (Mon-Thu) complimentary dinner. One morning, we went to Disneyland and did one of the character breakfasts. It was so worth it! The characters that we got to see were: Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Captain Hook, the Fairy Godmother, Gepetto, Chip and Dale. We had a wonderful time! The food was pretty good and we have it on good authority (because she told my niece, Ashleigh) that Minnie made the Mickey-shaped waffles.

We tried to go on most of the rides, but there were just so many, it was hard to go on them all! The kids were fascinated on "It's a Small World" and loved Buzz Lightyear. We went on a large pirate ship, too. We got to see the parade twice and went to a really funny hillbilly show.

Timmy on the carousel

Michael & Eliza on a spaceship ride in Tomorrowland
My brother Chris, Nathaniel, Jonathon, Christian, Eliza, & Timmy on the Mad Hatter ride

Eliza in "It's a Small World"
The parade that goes down Main Street

Christian, Jonathon, & David watching the show
Eliza, Timmy, Mandy, & Nathaniel on the pirate ship

We went to Disney's California Adventure on the last day (August 31). At California Adventure, there was a talking trash can that was on wheels and followed the kids around and talked to them. It asked them their names and answered questions. It was so funny to see the kids' reactions! The three oldest boys went on their first really big roller coaster. Several times. We stayed until the very end of the day and got to see the Electric Lights Show.

Both of these were taken at Disney's California Adventure

On September 1, we drove back up to Grandma's and Grandpa's and saw them one last time. We stopped at the coast a couple of times and got to enjoy the Pacific Ocean a little. We stayed in a hotel in the area and the next day went to church. Then we drove up to San Jose to catch our flight home.