Auntie Wedding - #2

Last weekend we drove down to Santa Barbara to attend Renee (Michael's sister) and Jon's wedding. It was a great weekend. First we went to a special dinner the night before, to meet the new family. The restaurant was right on the beach.

Michael gave a small speech to the bride and groom to-be. Karina was brave, and said a few words in front of everyone, too, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her.

Maggie, Renee and Michael

After dinner we took a walk along the beach.


The next day, we had some time to kill, so we went to the beach, and the hotel's swimming pool.

Later, it was time for the festivities to begin! The wedding was held at the zoo.

We have never got dressed up to go to the zoo before!

Maggie and Robert, and cousins Travis and Luke...

Waiting for the ceremony to begin, while listening to Aerosmith, Metallica and White Snake!

Amber was passing out the programs when this picture was taken.

Here comes the bride!

After the ceremony, it was time for family pictures.
Michael with his mom and dad, sisters and brother...

Next, it was time for a ride on the zoo train.

Amber is ready for dinner!

Cutting the cake...

There was a lot of dancing...

We had a great time at the zoo wedding...

Congrats to Jon and Renee!

Camp Tourist

This week was SO fun and busy! Camp Tourist was quite an adventure...

First, my mom, the kids and I took BART to our lovely city, San Francisco. We looked around the Embarcadero first, visiting the Hyatt Regency.

We had lunch upstairs at Nordstoms.

We feel so lucky to live near a city that many tourists visit every year!


On Friday we were headed down to Santa Barbara, for Aunt Renee's wedding. We took this road trip as an opportunity to visit several California missions along the way.

Our first stop was Mission San Juan Bautista. It was a beautiful morning...

I loved this view overlooking the farmland...

For some reason, roosters roam the town of San Juan Bautista. The kids got the biggest kick out of that!

The next mission we visited seemed to be in the middle of no where - Nuestra Senora de la Soledad. It was a smaller mission, and had to be re-built a couple of times due to flooding.

Mission San Miguel Arcangel was one of our favorites. The only thing was it was very hot there, and we just wanted to get back into the air conditioned car. (OK, and this will forever be known as the mission where our back bumper and a tree got into a nasty fight. This trip is going to cost a bit more than we anticipated!) But we braved the heat and looked around.

It wouldn't be Camp Tourist without a stay at a hotel!

There was always time to upload pictures on to Face book. Yay for free Wi-Fi!

Pool Time!

Our next mission was the large Santa Barbara mission.

A funny story was we somehow ended up trapped inside the missions grounds, on a tour that we didn't want to take or pay for. We spend a good half hour trying to figure out how to get (sneak?) out!

The next mission we saw was Mission Santa Ynes. This was a smaller mission, but still in use for mass and other functions.

Amber was happy to add to her postcard collection!

We took a break from our mission tour to see the Danish city of Solvang. I wish we could have stayed longer - there are TONS of neat shops and places to eat. We had a nice lunch here, and tried aebleskivers, a danish pancake "ball" with powdered sugar and strawberry jam - yum!

Karina is thrilled - finally, something with her name on it!

The last mission we saw was Mission San Luis Obispo. This mission has a cute downtown area built around it.

Us gals by the bear fountain.

Good thing we only had 3 kids - otherwise this picture wouldn't be so cute!

Our road trip was fun. I think I am finally brave enough to want to do it again!