Bonds of Love

Bonds of Love

This year was a crazy year- at least when it came to people close to our family (or part of our family) getting married. By my count we went to five weddings, and Derrick was either an usher or a groomsman in everyone. First was Dustin and Jasa last January in Mexico. Then Kevin and Alta, Zac and Shawna, and Shon and Alysa all got married this summer. And December 8th my sweet *little* nephew Brandon married his sweetheart Lyndsay in Yucaipa California. It was a beautiful wedding. And what I loved about the whole experience was that almost my whole family flew over there (most of us on the same flight). We had a great time together! So, since I put my blogs in a scrapbook with my pictures (and your comments too!), here is an itinerary to help remember what all happened while we were there.

Day 1 (Wednesday, December 5)- We arrive in Yucaipa after flying in from Spokane. Sharon and Dale  picked us (Mom, Dad, Renae, Doug, Steph, Casey, Aiyana, Shannon, Derrick, Derrin, Kloe and myself), and our piles of luggage up at the Ontario airport (except for Casey and Steph who rented an awesome blue Mustang convertable while there) and hauled us back to the much smaller town of Yucaipa. I was sick (still). They dropped us off at their place before they headed back to Los Angeles to pick up more family from that airport, and we all went out to eat. After my taco, I promptly crashed, fell asleep and didn't get up for about 3 hours. Then Derrick, Shannon me and the kids packed up our luggage into Lyndsay's brother's jeep (which he let us use the whole time we were there), and we went off to Lyndsay's grandparents house (Jeannie and Les), where we stayed for the first night.

Day 2- Jeanie and Les made us a tremendous breakfast, bright and early! Eggs, ham, pancakes, and coffee. They are adorable. The grandparents everyone wants to have (I love grandparents. I didn't have them while I was growing up, and now I understand their immense appeal). Then we packed up all our stuff again (we were moving to another place to stay that night), and headed into town to meet up with all the younger members of the wedding party to head onward to Knottsbury Farm. It took a couple hours of driving to get there, but it was AWESOME. When we got back, everyone who didn't go wanted to know the little kids liked their time at the farm. Aiyana, Kloe and Derrin did have fun. But I think all of the big kids who went had as much fun! My favorite ride was the Accelerator, a rollercoaster where they shoot you out going 80 miles and hour, immediately going into corkscrews. Loved that ride. We got back to Yucaipa late, went on to the next place we were staying (friends of Lyndsay's parents who were out of town that week and said we could stay at their house), and I crashed. Danny and Nancy got into town that night, and they stayed at the house with us.

Day 3 (Friday)- The day started out with manicures and pedicures. Just in our group, we had ten women. The people doing our nails all did good work, BUT the guy who did mine (his name was Tom), was also the manager, and he was feeling stress over dealing with our group and trying to keep his regulars happy. The result was my manicure was filled with moments of being ignored by the guy sawing away at my feet, having my calves massaged by a tense little man who alternated trying to strip the flesh from bone, and remembering I was there, smiling at me and saying "Feels good, right???". I admit, I lied and said it did. I am not good at standing up for myself in these kind of situations. But the end result was good (he even pained little flowers on my big toenails), so it was all good...

That night included: Decorating the reception hall, wedding rehearsal, and wedding rehearsal dinner. We fell in bed late.

Day 4 (WEDDING DAY!)- Woke up early to get kids washed and ready for the wedding since I wasn't going to be with them for the rest of the day (Shannon, Nancy and Danny watched them for me:). Next stop, hair appointments... then pictures. I need to mention here that there was a horrible weather system working it's way down the coast the whole time we were in California. It was in the 40's by the time we went out for pictures. We were freezing!!!

The wedding itself was beautiful. Doug gave the talk, and he did a great job. There was one moment where he got choked up (the same part he got choked up when he gave the talk at Steph's wedding), but it was a touching moment you only get when a Dad is the one talking. Brandon and Lyndsay were in their own little world, gazing and laughing and so forth. Eww. Na, it was cute.

After much eating and dancing, we drove home. On the way home it SNOWED. In southern California.

Day 5- I have to admit, I was a whiny, wimpy, complainy sort of girl on Sunday. I was really tired because we hadn't stopped even once. I was also still sick, hacking my lungs out attractively every couple minutes. But I got up earlyish anyways and onward we went to the Los Angeles Zoo. It was a pretty fun relaxing day, and no one seemed to care how pastey or contagious I looked.



We kept hoping the weather would be warmer as we got farther down the Mexico penicula, but the system that had been in California the whole time we were there followed us to San Felipe. We still had fun, but not in the same hanging out in our swimsuits sort of way we thought we would.

Days 7 and 8- We collected shells, the guys all went deep sea fishing, we ate tons of seafood, drank gallons of magaritas, played games (lots of hand and foot), went to the market and dickered with the merchants, had a couple campfires, and just relaxed.

Day 9- We drove back up through Mexico, toward Tijuana. We stopped in Puerto Nuevo for dinner at a place where you get Lobster, and two margaritas for twelve dollars each. Then onward we went to the border, where it took nearly two hours of traffic to actually get through to the other side. We stayed at Brandon and Lyndsay's apartment (they were on their honeymoon in Cancun) for the night (we packed and unpacked, loaded and unloaded eight times this trip). And we crashed.

Day 10- Lyndsay's gramma Patty made us all biscuits and gravy for breakfast with sumptuously strong coffee that morning. It was divine. Then they drove us to the airport, we flew back to Spokane, and we were in real winter again. We drove back to Missoula and it FEELS GOOD TO BE HOME!!!

In conclusion, I have to say, I love weddings (I'm not saying marraige is easy, but I love the family ties it can create and strengthen). When I got married my sister was my matron of honor, and I had Shannon, Steph, my cousin Heidi, and Brandon too. Now I have been in all of their weddings. I have also been in some very good friend's weddings as well. I love how close it makes all of us feel to eachother. It creates a shared memory of a pivotal moment in our lives. Both Brandon and Dustin were the youngest people in my family and our clans to get married. They were the last of the single people. The next single people in our families to get married will be my children. Hopefully that won't be for a very very long time. So even though this was the summer of many weddings, we won't be having a summer like this again for a long time.