California

24 + hours in the car and the kids are still begging to go back to CA. Hotel room + hotel pool = best vacation ever right? Richie and I, however, are plenty content to stay put for a while. Although our kids were fantastic travelers, everything is inconvenient in the car, and it's soooo not my favorite. But we love Ross and Amanda so...we'd do it again in a heartbeat to share that special experience again. :)

We left EARLY on Tuesday morning to get to the Sacramento area by evening time. We enjoyed dinner with Amanda's family and drooled over their beautiful yard and home. On Wednesday, Richie kept Miles and Gwen at the hotel (out of the way) while Lindy and I tried our best to help everyone get ready for the reception that night.


The reception was beautiful and our kids looked adorable. (I'm totally biased) Miles and Gwen felt like royalty with their boutonniere and mini bouquet. The photographers there offered to take a few family pictures and I'll be excited to see how they turn out. We tried to keep them happy, out of the pool, out of the pond, out of the house, and out of all the prime photo ops. Gwen likes to be right in the middle of things. She had no problem striking up conversations with all of the strangers there. She was friends with everyone by the end of the night. :) The highlight of the night came when the dancing started. I got to snag a dance with Richie, Miles asked me to dance and even twirled me, and at one point, an emotional Richie told Gwen that one day she would grow up and get married and leave him. She proceeded to bawl like a baby and only calmed down once they danced for a while. The kids did great, but they were pushed WAY beyond their limits and it felt so good to go to sleep.


The next day we got ready and made our way to the temple. After some prep for the luncheon, prepping Tanner on how to care for all the small children, we attended the sealing and it was fantastic in every way. Watching Ross and Amanda is so fun, but I can't help it if it makes me a little jealous. I swear Richie and I just got married, right? Even though I wouldn't go back to that part in our lives, because that would mean we wouldn't have our 3 kids yet, I miss that newlywed stage. It's so...like a dream. Sometimes when the days are really long and I'm sick of being a human burp cloth, I fantasize about living in our TINY first apartment and working on homework together. I think that's the key to life; living it in such a way that you almost want to go back to a certain point in your life because it was so great, but choosing to stay where you are because it's even better!
Once again, I wish I would have taken more pictures. I've decided if I didn't have 3 kids to keep track of, I'd be really good at taking pictures. Oh well. Miles was sad that he couldn't come in the temple, so after some explaining, he said, "Ok, but when you come out, tell me ALL about it!" When we saw him after the sealing, the first thing he said was, "So, tell me EVERYTHING!" I went into as much detail as I could, and he just ate it up. :) Special moment.


More swimming at the hotel, more getting off our schedules and dealing with the whiny kids, more hotel breakfasts and on Friday morning we got on the road again. We took a little more time on the way home, and even stopped in scenic Elko, NV. ;) Really, most of Nevada was super ugly, but we were glad to find a park and museum to explore before getting in the car again. We made it! We all had a wonderful time, Ross and Amanda are officially married, and now we're just gearing up for the Bluffdale reception this Thursday. Go team!