One Wedding and almost 3 Funerals

Last weekend my brother Christian got married in San Diego. He and his now wife, Laura, live in Arizona. Laura is an event planner, so planning things like this is what she does for a living. They found this great place in San Diego to get married. And so, destination wedding #2 for our family took place. (dec. was in Arizona) So my mom found this amazing house in La Jolla for all of us to stay in. It had 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms! Perfect for our growing family. The cool thing was that 2 of the bedrooms had little kitchens and sitting rooms with them. The master bathroom had a HUGE closet that was pretty much another room. It was so much fun having us all together.


Daniel and I flew in to San Diego late Thursday night. In the morning, we did family pictures on the beach. I can't wait to get the pictures back. We all wore white shirts and khaki colored shorts, capris, pants or skirts. I hope they turned out good. After pictures we went to San Diego Zoo. It has been a long time since I last went there. Last time I went, it was just my parents, Christian, Carter and myself. Chels was too young and had to stay home with my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Mike. Ciara and Cait weren't even in the picture yet! So yeah, it was a very long time ago that I went to the zoo. There was quite the group of us that went this time. There were some funny things to see at the zoo-those animals were pretty funny. I'll spare you the details, cuz for most of the funny things, you just had to be there.

That night we had a barbeque at our house with all of the groomsmen, my mom's sisters Tina and Shari and our family. It was fun to chat and laugh with everyone.

Saturday morning, some of us got up early to go to the San Diego Temple. That place is AMAZING! We did a Spanish session. All the men in our family, except for Carter, served Spanish Speaking missions. So that was a neat experience for them. While we were in the Celestial room, a sister told us to go upstairs to the atrium. Little did we know that there was an awesome atrium in the middle of the temple, connecting the two spires. It was pretty cool to see it. My dad, being the architect that he is, told us all about it. I guess there is a ton of wasted space with the temple and that there is a reason why the San Diego temple is the only one of its kind. :)





After the temple, we came back to the house and the boys went to Scripps Forum (wedding site) to set up tables and chairs. Us girls just chilled at the house. When Dustin, Austin and Daniel came back from setting up, they decided they wanted to go to Tijuana to get some yummy Mexican tacos. I didn't think a taco was worth the drive, so just the boys went. After laying out and chatting, us girls started to get ready for the wedding. Christian, Carter and my dad came back and got ready too. Carter, the best man, and Christian were picked up by a black Navigator SUV and driven to the wedding site.








The rest of us continued to get ready, waiting for our husbands to come back from Mexico. Around 5:00, wedding at 5:30, Chelsea got a text from her husband Dustin telling her they were still in Mexico. I checked my phone and found a text from Daniel asking me for the password for the garage and telling me they were running a little late. We continued to get ready. Well, 5:15 rolled around and we left for the wedding, without the 3 in-laws.





We got to Scripps Forum and informed the wedding planner what was happening. They decided to hold the wedding for a little while for the now "out laws" to arrive. After waiting for awhile, they decided to just start the wedding. All of the guests were there except our husbands :) Chelsea was furious, Ciara was mad and I was fine. Chelsea had told Dustin repeatedly not to go, Ciara was mad Austin had spent they day with Dustin and Daniel rather than her, and I was fine cuz I saw it as a great opportunity for Daniel to spend time with my sister's husbands. Haha. Just before Laura walked down the stairs with her dad, the 3 boys showed up. Whew- just in the nick of time! The wedding was great. The backdrop of the ocean was beautiful. And all of us were there. My aunts Lisa, Shari and Tina were even there! After the ceremony we had a yummy dinner. Caitlyn even met her boyfriend for the evening. Haha-love you Cait.




After the dinner and toasts, we had dancing. That was so much fun. There was an open bar, but we didn't need it. We danced, laughed and had a grand time. I think the other guests were shocked when Christian told them that we were all completely sober. Just high on life :) Ahh, good memories. I had such a blast dancing in a circle with my family taking turns dancing in the middle. We ended the night with some good old slow dances.





It was a fun trip-to the zoo, the Temple, the wedding and the dance floor! My parents have now had 3 weddings in just 8 months (October for mine, Dec. for Ciara's and May for Christian's)! WOW! Caitlyn, please wait awhile before you marry that waiter!