Tales of a California Wedding

 So our little Kelli was planning a July wedding, and Jen and I were going. I had not flown since high school, and Jen had never flown. We flew Spirit Airline out of Kansas City to LA..

 The flight, although a little turbulent at times, was non eventful. We arrived in LA at about 11:30 their time, found our Starbucks, found our suitcase, and then found where we needed to find our shuttle for our rental car. No problems. We found the shuttle, and Jen said she literally thought we might die. The driver had on highly offensive gangster rap, although to some (me) any type of rap is considered offensive. (LOL) I have never seen traffic like this, and this is in the middle of the night. The driver would jump in front of others, and take off fast and then brake hard. We got to the rental car place, lives in tact, and had another half an hour wait on people checking in. Half of these folks had not reserved cars, and were being told they had no cars available without reservation, and then the people proceeded to argue. We had a reservation. For a compact car. Cheapest car to rent. BUT, something happens in the middle of the night with the rental place is out of cars. They upgrade you. So Jen and I are driving around in a brand new Jeep Cherokee SUV.
We now have an hour long drive north, in the middle of night to Claremont. Did I mention the Starbucks, they have one open 24 hours at LAX.

We arrive at the hotel, and crash. It is now like 4 in the morning to us. We got a few hours sleep and then got up and found some breakfast. In all the chaos the night before, we had not even eaten dinner, so we are now starving. This was our first view of our new California surroundings, and it was just beautiful. Not entirely what we expected, but we were not exactly sure what to expect.

We found our way to the shower they were holding for Kelli, and a Target and a TJ Max, two of my favorite places. We got something to eat, I got to get acquainted with Jake's family, (Kelli's groom) and got to get reacquainted with my sister in law Phan, who is now married to an awesome guy (I got to meet and get to know him as well) and she has two additional, beautiful children.
After this, we did a little shopping with Grandma Jean and Amy Lay, and then we headed back to the hotel. Kelli put us on a mission so we had to hit a local mall. darn! :) Then we headed back to change for the rehearsal, and dinner afterward. When I dropped Jen off, I got to take a drive up into the mountain range behind the theater that Kelli was getting married at. Back to the rehearsal and it was off to Dave and Busters. Where Jen was able to race Grandpa!

The next day, Jean and I enjoyed some shopping, I was looking for some sort of western souvenir to take home, but found nothing. We did find a couple of cute little shops, and we looked at aprons, and took a couple of mental pictures.

I loved this little pillow, but could not fit it in my suitcase, and was not going to pay the hefty price for this. I will make one though. It will be perfect for the barn. We also loved this apron.

We also found a bakery, which at the time I did not know was world famous. We just forgot to take something back for my father in law. Oops! While we were there, Jean and I sampled something they call a Almond Drop. This is how I found out the bakery is famous, I Googled the recipe, and Some Crust Bakery is really the only thing I found. We will attempt to make some of these. 

Almond Drops

Well, then it was back to the hotel and off to a wedding, that was the reason we were there! 

Josh makes his appearance

Josh decides a little help from Grandpa might help

Nope, help from Grandpa is not going to help. 

Kelli and Jason's Zoe

She looks so much like Kelli, it is scary

Jen earned the title the "white" cousin

Phan was absolutely stunning as mother of the bride

 Kelli had an awesome photo booth at the wedding. Another great thing I got to do at the wedding was spend some time with another of Dan's cousins. This is Kiersten Warren. Kiersten is an actress in LA, and always loads of fun to be with. I wish I had gotten a few more pictures, and few of her daughter Scarlet.

Lip sync battle

                                         



As we left that evening, I took a few shots of the grounds all lite up. This was a truly breathtaking theater.

So, in the AM, we quickly packed everything up, and headed back to LAX, and then back to home.

When we got home, I found that Dan, Grant and our electrician had been hard installing all the rest of our appliances, so I finally had my oven. The family all came down the next evening for our first ever meal out of the new oven. Pizza.