California and Weddings!

Trip to Cali: We left on Thursday at 4:30 am and reached Yuv's house at 11:30 pm. We had a little 7 hour pit stop at McDonald's in Mesquite when our alternator went out and needed to be replaced. Looking back it was a miracle we even stopped in Mesquite in the first place, Nate taking a suggestion I had mentioned briefly to stop for breakfast despite a car full of snacks and food. The more I think about it the more I realize what a blessing it was to be stranded where we were. It was a hot day (103)and we were able to eat, stay cool and use a bathroom all day rather than being stuck on the side of the road. The manager of McDonalds was so kind and generous, allowing us to stay as long as we needed and even giving us free Happy Meals for lunch.

The Tow truck couldn't take all of us to the mechanic shop so me and the kiddos stayed at the restaurant while Nate spent his day taking taxis to exchange batteries, drop off blankies, and giving me updates on our situation. Big O tires was able to order in the part 2 minutes before the cut off for getting in new parts for the day and we were back on the road same day and still able to make it to Bryce's wedding the next day.

Wedding Time: After kissing all 7 of the kids goodbye and leaving Aunt Teresa with bottles, diapers and binkies, Shamene, Wendy, Mom, and our husbands hopped in the pilot and drove to Temecula for my cousin Bryce's wedding. It was such a beautiful ceremony and Bryce looked so happy all day! We all missed Em, who is now 37 weeks pregnant and couldn't make the trek to Cali, but we were able to give her some updates and send her love to Bryce.

 Wendy and David

 Chelsea and Matt

 Me and Nate

 Shamene and Quentin

Mom and Chris

Play all Day: We split our time with Wendy and Shamene staying with Yuv first then switching and staying with Wendy so Mom could stay and help Shamene after her surgery. We had fun going to the beach, swap meet, several parks, and the fair!

 Avenlea crawled for the first time Friday morning in Yuv's apartment!

 Water table fun with Grandma

 Blain the tough knight

 Avenlea bonding with Grandma and Pop Pop

San Diego County Fair: Thusday I took my ABC's to the fair with Wendy's family, unfortunately Nate wasn't feeling well and couldn't come. We saw a HUGE cow and lots of other farm animals. We ate yummy fair food, saw a pig race, let the babies do 2 rides each, and finished the night off with cotton candy and kettle corn!

 Bean Pit at the Fair

 collecting eggs

 Sweet Avenlea and Aunt Wendy

Blain giving his ticket to the ride attendant

 Helicopter ride - Blain loved the helicopter and airplane rides he chose

My camera's batteries ran out after the fair so I don't have any more pics of the trip, but hopefully I can borrow some off of Wendy's camera when she comes in a week! 

David's wedding was also sweet and the reception was lots of fun, complete with candy table and lots of dancing. Chloe is so cute how she loves to dance with her family at weddings. We left right after the wedding for Vegas and arrived at Tim and Stacy's around 2 am, stayed the night, and were treated to a yummy home made pancake and fruit salad breakfast! It was so nice of them to let us stay, even with such short notice. Tim even woke up early with Blain so Nate and I could sleep in a little and catch up on our sleep for the rest of the ride home.

 We also kissed our little Rose goodbye for one whole week as she'll be staying with Wendy until she comes to Utah on Sunday. We have done some face time chatting and she seems super happy! I miss her so much and little Blain is both happy with his free access to all the toys and sad asking, "where's Chloe" a couple times a day :( I want to have some extra fun with him this week and plan to take him to see the new How to Train your Dragon movie, and go play with his Mellars cousins who are here for the summer!