Family Wedding Fun!

Welcome to the wedding of Felicia and Kyle.

One hot September day in 2011, these two crazy kids welcomed everyone to this beautiful location along the Sacramento River.

Owned by those dear to the bride, this gorgeous house was an absolutely perfect setting for this union.

Surrounded by family and friends they had one of THE most laid back, lovely affairs I've ever witnessed!

But let me back up a bit.

This is my cousin Felicia.

She's adorable.

And she adores our Talia.

So it was perfect that she asked Natalia to be their flower girl. 

I'm sure you could guess how excited our little girl was.

In her mind this was 'her wedding' that we all got to witness.

Felicia and Kyle adorned her with earrings and pearls.

And she practiced her twirls.

It was all quite magical.

Felicia really was the most relaxed bride I've ever seen. 

And that made even routine things like picture taking go smoothly.

So the family gathered for a casual BBQ and there were many reunions in store.

Cousins came from all over.  North Carolina, Bakersfield, etc....

Here are the girls:

And the cousins met up with Uncles like my dad.

And Aunties like my mom. 

Most of us keep in touch via Facebook, so it was a blast for my cousins to meet the subjects of all my posts and photos.

  Soon it was show time and our little flower girl sprinkled the grass after the bridesmaids came up the aisle.

She was in her element. 

She even stood there for the entire ceremony.

And the ceremony was beautiful.

The vows especially. 

One of my favorite lines was "I am your biggest fan."

I think that is SO important in a marriage :) 

We all fought back tears. 

And as the bride and groom walked out to Prince's "Let's go Crazy," 

Natalia prepared for part two of her 'show.'

She handed out her extra roses to any one who would take them.  

It was cute.
I also happened to capture her recap to her cousins.

She's showing off her earrings.

And asking them if they saw how she threw the flowers.

She was just thrilled with her little part in the event.

The whole occasion was a celebration of family.

I just wish we all lived closer.

For now we'll have to settle for holiday visits.

I won't soon forget the beauty of this union.

I've been 'a fan' of these two since I took their engagement photos.  

And we were thrilled to be a part of their special day.

Witness the proud momma:

And Daddy's little girl.

I can't imagine the next time he will stand next to her in a white dress.

Congratulations to Kyle and Felicia.

May this journey continue to be magical and as easy going as your wedding day.

Golden Gate Bridge walk

San Francisco has only one drawback, "Tis hard to leave"

Rudyard Kipling

Today we set off on a trek across one of the world's greatest tourist attractions.

And even though I've grown up only 45 minutes away, I had never done this before.

In fact, I was VERY apprehensive about escorting a half dozen families somewhere I had never been. 

And I had been dreaming about freaking out about heights for the past 3 nights.

 But it all worked out FINE.

We met on the Marin side to give us a 'goal' to walk toward.

The fog was thick as we set out.......even though it was 12:30pm.

But such is life in the city.

Our hope was that it would burn off by the time we made our way BACK across the bridge.  

That way we could enjoy the views.

It worked for a little bit.

Either way, we were on a mission.

....we had 27 kids to keep track of.

...and this was no ordinary hike.

We would be sharing the road with bicyclists, tourists and of course MANY vehicles.

Well, not all of THAT was on the sidewalk.  

But it sure was busy!

Merrick stuck by my side like glue.

He was a little concerned about the 3 mile round trip.

I couldn't blame him! After a 2 mile uphill trek on Monday we were all a bit sore from not having hiked all summer.  But the only real complaint I had about this walk was the concrete.

Man that stuff will wear out your legs like nothing else. 

Talk about unforgiving!

Of course anything done in good company can be easier.

And even the littlest ones in our group handled the trek with gusto!

Thank God for adventurous friends!

And we had a lot of them with us!

Even one of the daddies joined our crew.

It's definitely a trip we'll have to take again with Jarrod.

I'm just glad to know I could do it again without complaint :)

It's not something my mom EVER would have tried when I was a kid.

(especially the day after an earthquake!)

But what can I say? These kids have very DIFFERENT mommas:

In a great way of course!

Not that we stuck close to all of our kids ALL of the time.

I barely saw my oldest as he ran ahead with the older kids and another momma.

Man, when did 9 years old get so independent??

So after a windy walk we made it to the other side.  And apparently ALL the fog is San Francisco was still lingering around the bridge.

You'd think all this wind would've blown it away!

.

On the other side we finished our lunch and checked out the sites.

There were fun things to see like this cross section of the huge swinging cables on this bridge.

Our friends were also full of snippets. For instance did you know that they expected atleast 35 people to die during the construction of this beauty?  But only 11 lives were actually lost!

Whew.....thank goodness for safety nets!

We saw the infamous painting crew that never stops painting.

And Merrick and I wondered HOW many cars actually cross that bridge for $6 a pop.

Though I love that our trek was free, I'd have paid that to see this up close.

It really is beautiful.

Photobombers included: 

So the day was full of great friends....

And fantastic views.

....and did I mention the friends? 

We're so blessed to walk this homeschool journey with such fantastic people.

Check off our first field trip of the year.

Memories made, history visited, and shin splints are aching.

Good times!