BELATED LABOR DAY WEEKEND RECAP

I've been meaning to update my blog but seeing as our camera broke (literally, more on that later) this weekend, I needed to wait to gather everyone's pictures from this weekend in order to properly tell my story about the weekend. Here goes...

Friday
I decided last minute to take the day off since we were driving up to Merced, CA for a wedding reception. We were having a half-day anyway but seeing as the drive was almost 5 hours, I thought that leaving as early as possible in order to avoid traffic and the HOT sun would be best. My husband's cousin's from Canada were also flying down and were going to drive up with us - 2 with us and 2 with my sister-in-law and her husband. Their aunt Donna was kind enough to let us ALL (12 adults, 4 kids) stay at her house so that was the plan. We knew we'd have some tight quarters but it would also make for a fun weekend. We got Adele and her daughter Jayme to ride along with us. We fueled up, got a quick car wash at the gas station and off we were to Merced at 8:30am. We stopped at a McDonald's in the city of Castaic to get a quick breakfast at about 10:45 and continued to Merced without any further stops. We finally arrived at 1:15pm.

Aunt Donna's neighborhood in Merced

My sister-in-law Sheila, her husband, their cousin Vanessa and her little boy Ethan were already there. Aunt Donna greeted us and we all ate a quick lunch that she had prepared. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and waiting for everyone else to arrive. Luckily, Aunt Donna had a pool at her house which made beating the Merced heat somewhat bearable. Once everyone arrived, we decided to play a game of Dodgeball! Yes, we are kids at heart. A couple of the cousins picked up some rubber balls at the store and by sundown, we were all playing. This is where the broken camera story comes in. Everyone including the kids, were so excited about playing. I had said that I wasn't in the mood to play so I was going to be the photographer of the evening. I was in the middle of taking some pictures when everyone was throwing the balls around. Jayme threw one at me unexpectedly, caught me off guard and there goes our camera flying to the cement floor [enter sad face here]. It was broken. So sad. I didn't blame her but I was so disappointed that we would have to buy a new camera now. Well maybe it was meant to be because we have a new camera on the way! So after a few games of dodgeball, we all ate a delicious spaghetti dinner and called it a night. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday
When we woke up, Aunt Donna had prepared a wonderful breakfast of eggs, ham, sausages and fruit for us. Once we all ate, we all headed to the reception venue to help set up. That was a quick task so we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves since the reception was set to start at 7pm. We decided to check out the Merced mall. There wasn't much to see there - definitely not like the malls here. After that, we headed home and relaxed in the pool again. We finally all started getting ready at 4pm. We headed out to the country club at 6:45. It was a nice gathering of family of friends. In all honesty, it didn't seem like much of a wedding. Heavy appetizers were served, no wedding cake, no traditional wedding traditions, which is fine by me but the couple wasn't even in wedding attire. So it seemed more like a big party. The couple seemed very happy and we all had a great time being together and dancing. It was a great night! Here are some pictures of us at the reception...

Everyone with the happy couple (she's wearing the green dress, he's standing next to her)

Adele, my sister-in-law Sheila and me

Adele, Kimberly (cousin), Sheila and me

Handsome husband and me

Sunday
Woke up, got ready and headed back out to LA. The drive was okay. Thank goodness for A/C since it was one of the hottest weekends ever! We stopped for lunch at In-N-Out and it felt like a sauna outside. We finally got back into the LA area and Gerric's cousin wanted to stop by the Citadel shopping outlets. We don't know what we were thinking. It was a miserable idea. It was HOT, crowded, HOT, crowded and oh, did I mention it was hot? We left after 20 minutes. We got into Orange County (home sweet home!) and relaxed in my sister-in-law's pool the rest of the afternoon. Then Gerric and I finally went home. We showered up and had dinner at Hanabi Japanese restaurant in the city of Cypress. It was delicious! After that, we were so tired so we headed back home and went to bed.

Monday - Labor Day
Since the Canadian cousins were still in town, we had a BBQ at Sheila's that day so enjoy the pool and some good grub. It was another HOT day in Southern California so we beat the heat in the water. Later that night, Gerric and I wanted everyone to experience Yogurtland with us. I don't know if it was due to the holiday or the warm evening but the line was the longest my husband and I have ever seen it! We all enjoyed our yogurt and headed back home.

The cousins flew back home on Tuesday. It was a great weekend overall. Luckily, the weather has cooled down quite a bit the past couple days. My husband and I are coming up on our 2 year wedding anniversary at the end of this month. Amazing how time flies by. I haven't done anything exciting the past few days. Got some new glasses for night-time driving, accompanied my dad to the doctor regarding a surgery he may need to have done (nothing too serious luckily) and started working out again last night.

Henry continues to do well thankfully. He has his next MRI on the 19th of this month so please pray for good results.