SoCal '09: The Rest

2009 California Trip - part 3
EVERYTHING ELSE

So, while Disneyland and the wedding were the two major events that went on while we were visiting Sean's family, there was still a lot of other fun stuff - many documented by pictures, of course!

We started our journey down to southern California to visit Sean's family the day, that's right I said day, after Christmas. We left Saturday evening and, as usual, I took the first shift driving. We made pretty good time this trip - only stopping for breakfast and fuel - and arrived at the Southworths about 14 hours later.

Our happy camper - he's a good traveler. Just give him lots of snacks, his blankie, Mr. Monkey and a movie and he is good to go!

Our itinerary went something like this...
Sunday 12/27: Finish driving and spend the afternoon/evening catching up and hanging out with family.
Monday 12/28: Lunch w/ Sam and Marcelle (Sean's friend from high school) at one of our favorite restaurants - The Elephant Bar. And of course, more hanging out and enjoying time with the fam. Also, had our little Christmas gift exchange.
Tuesday 12/29: Disneyland :)
Wednesday 12/30: LA temple for Alysha's endowment session. This was also my first time back in the LA temple since Sean and I were married there 4 1/2 years ago. It was really neat to get to do an endowment session there. Also, Sean's brother Ryan made it just minutes before the session started - he and Jonathan had just arrived after a long flight from Pennsylvania! Went to Red's BBQ for dinner.
Thursday 12/31: Decorating the gym at the church for the reception (guys did this) and cupcake baking. Ethan hung out at the house with me while I baked 8 dozen cupcakes and while Loren, the boys and most everyone else went to do massive work on getting everything ready for the reception. Also, New year's eve festivities w/Sean's family and Alysha's soon-to-be in-laws.
Friday 1/1: Rose Bowl!! Too bad our Ducks lost. :( Finish decorating the gym.
Saturday 1/2: Blake & Alysha's temple sealing, luncheon and reception!
Sunday 1/3: Head for home. Drive... and drive... and drive...
Monday1/4: Get home at 2am. Have to work that day. Ugh.

Anyway...
During the week, there was a lot of this:

Playing games from Toddy's collection. I honestly look forward to this every year!! Our favorites are: I'm the Boss!, Shadows Over Camelot (Todd was the traitor knight!) and Lifeboats. There was much discussion after Sean slipped under the radar and won Lifeboats.

There was also some of this:

Playing Beatles Rock Band! This is our adorable little nephew Spencer. He was so fun to be around - so cute and so smart! Ethan was pretty tired and not very social by Sunday night (after the long drive and re-meeting everyone he hadn't seen in a year), but by Monday morning the two were best buds. I wish Ethan and Spencer could see each other and play more often.

Ethan loved using the microphone to sing "Jingle Bells"!

Wednesday night, after Alysha's endowment session, the WHOLE group went out to dinner. We had all of Sean's family and all of Blake's family that was in town for the wedding. I think there were 23 people at the restaurant. With that many people ordering food, it was no wonder the management gave us 3 of these big sundaes! Everyone was saying just how full they were, but I don't think anyone had a problem grabbing a spoon and digging in.

The aftermath of the ginormous sundae!

More of Ethan and Spencer playing together... Ethan loved pulling Spencer around in this wagon and Spencer was perfectly content to sit back and enjoy the ride!
And finally, our last stop in California:

Burgers, fries and shakes. Mmmm...

Thanks again to Loren and Lynnie for being such wonderful hosts!! It was so great to see everyone again and we miss you! We had a fabulous time! :)