2 became 1. Then partied all weekend!

I have a cousin, his name is Claude. He's actually really my mom's cousin, but he's much closer in age to me and his mom is much closer in age to my mom. Well, after dating the lovely Bonnie for close to 10 years, they got hitched. And as one of their bridal party members said during one of the toasts, "After 10 years, we're turning this into a 3 day celebration!" And that it was!

The festivities (for us non-wedding party folk) started on Friday. Paige, Kaitlin, and I headed out of Hilmar before my parents so we could go to Monterey and visit with Chris for a bit before the wedding. We got to his dorm while he and his roommates were cleaning up (before they had to check out for the summer). We dragged Chris out and went to lunch at Pizza My Heart. The ceremony was held at the San Juan Baptista Mission where Bonnie grew up going to church. It was a beautiful site, very old and rugged.

Followed by a reception (#1) just up the road at a nice banquet restaurant site. It was nice to start the celebrations with the newly married couple. Something that they did for this reception that I had never seen before were to have 2 different food buffet lines. One was the bride's buffet with more salads and cold dishes, and the other was the groom's buffet with more the meat and potato items. I went through both. And both were yummy.

I was totally in love with the view that we had behind us.

As the (reserved) party started winding down we headed back to Monterey where we were staying the night. Paige with Chris in his dorm room, Kaitlin, Mom, Dad and I in the Cabo (white trash camper shell). It was interesting staying the night in a college parking lot on moving out weekend the night before graduation.

By about 9 the next morning wer were moving about. Being as I got to drive in style, Mom's Pathfinder, and had extra room in the back, we loaded some of Chris' stuff up. He stayed behind in Monterey to clean up, pack up, and head home. The rest of us got into our respective vehicles, truck and suv, and started making our way down to the ranch (Santa Margarita) for another night of festivities, but this one with more family, friends, people, drinking, dancing, well you get the picture.

We got to the ranch around 11am or so. Setting up tables, chairs, and the bar was underway. But! We had another agenda. For my birthday, it was my request to have my birthday meal (knowing it would be a couple days late) at Firestone Bar & Grill for lunch. I love Firestone Bar & Grill. So we drove over the grade into San Luis Obispo (my old stompin' ground) where we walked around downtown and had lunch. Side salad with ranch for me with fries that we shared. That was my thing to order there. I know, boring. But it was delish!

Knowing that it was time to head back and offer our assistance, we left the (not so cool) SLO and head back over the grade.

Now this gets to be the point where I can bore you and post 248 pictures of my family, cousins, aunts, and all, goofing off and having fun. But I'll be nice and save most of those for a later day. So here is a nice selection of say...5. Yea, I'll narrow it down to 5. Maybe 6. But no more than 7! And I'll save the pictures of the ranch itself for later. You don't care what a barn built by the Indians looks like right now.

The newly (day before) married couple!

The Arnold women. At least the cool ones! Starting at the left going counter clockwise we have: Aunt Missy (mom's sis), Me, Aunt Kate (actually my mom's aunt and my great aunt, but she's mom's age, long story for another day), Paige, Mom, Tricia (cousin), Kaitlin, Aunt Boo (mom's sis), Whitney (cousin), and Breanne (cousin).

Aunt Kate with her most adorable grandson, Clayton. By the way, Aunt Kate is the MOG (mother of the groom).

Two of my favorite people ever! My sisters! (You know, I think I need to print this picture and hang it on my wall!)

Kaitlin, my sister that is gone...forever...for the summer... maybe for fall too. *sniff* In case you're wondering, that is, uh, not an adult beverage. No, it's not! It's, uh, it's limeade. Yea, that's what it is. There is no tequilla in that whatsoever. In fact there's not beer in it either. Nope, straight, normal, plain limeade. Yea...

All of the immediate girl cousins. Me, Paige, Breanne, Tricia, Kaitlin, and Whitney. Yep, that's us. We're here to carry on the maiden name of our mother's, Arnold.

Shortly after the sun went down, and we were all tipsy enough, the dancing started. We, the cousins and I, realized that we do not have the dancing gene. But luckily, we were related to half the people there, so neither did they! Here's Paige gettin' down with her bad self!

And that's pretty much how we ended the evening. Some dancing. Some mingling. Some skipping out to go to bed (ok, that was just me). All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Good to get away, good to see family, good to visit SLO. Just good.