Day 2: Carmel, CA

Today was a busy day for us Hoaglunds. We started off Thursday morning with a breakfast at a restaurant called From Scratch. I had the best fruit parfait ever - pictured to the left. Homemade granola, vanilla yogurt and fresh fruit. I think the fruit in CA tastes better than anywhere else I have been. The strawberries were seriously like candy. I am sure it helps that the strawberry fields are right down the road.

We then headed over to the hotel that most of my family was staying at called the Carmel Valley Ranch. This is where the wedding is being held and is such a beautiful place. We were on our way to Janine's Bridal Shower hosted by Helen, Janine's mom at the house they rented in Carmel. Scott, Hannah & I picked up Mom and Connie and left Nate with my brother Jon. Scott was dropping us off at the shower and heading back to hit the pool with Nate. The shower was a lot of fun. We met a bunch of Janine's relatives and ate a great lunch. Hannah met so many new people and since she is the flower girl, got a lot of attention. She also got to hang out with Nana and Aunt Connie for a while. I found it so cute that she wanted to hang out with her soon to be Aunt Janine alot as well. The shower was a great success!




After the shower, we had to head back to the Carmel Valley Ranch for the rehearsal. It was a fairly quick practice and in true Gettinger form, lots of laughs and jokes were to be found. I think some people found our "humor" created more stress for them. It didn't for us. The weather was so perfect, no wonder people want to live here all the time.


After the rehearsal, we all had to hurry back to our hotels to gear up for the Rehearsal Dinner. It was being held at a restaurant called Casanova - Carmel's most romantic restaurant. We had the entire back open courtyard for our dinner. We all were sat at the table with Rob, David's best man and his wife and their 3 daughters. They were so great and funny. Nate and Hannah got along so well with them. Well, Nate was charming the Leah, the youngest of the girls until they ran into a problem. She loves bugs and bees. Nate said he didn't like bees and in fact, he kills bees. She basically stopped talking to him after that and told her Mom that there was a problem with Nate. Later, I tried to coach Nate about not giving out too much information too soon. Live and Learn! We had a wonderful dinner with lots of heartfelt speeches to be found by the Gettinger clan.

After the rehearsal dinner, it was back over to the Carmel Valley Ranch for a cocktail, dessert party with many of the wedding guests. I met many more of my brother and Janine's friends. Nate was mesmerized by the drum and guitar player. People kept talking about it all night long. He sat down on the ground and watched the drummer for quite some time. He also tried out his breakdancing skills much to the delight of everyone who witnessed him. Hannah and Nate played with some other kids that were there while Scotty and I mingled with the crowd. It was such a nice night.

Goin back to Cali...

You know I realized I haven't really mentioned the Cali trip we took had which is so odd, because we had the best time. I think its because we hit the ground running when we got home and I haven't had a chance to reflect.

When we got in, we headed to Auntie Patti's house and then went to Ruby's on the pier for lunch and the kids insisted on going into the ocean with their clothes on!! Typical! We spent some more time with Auntie Patti and Unc Ric's and then headed to our hotel near Disneyland.

The next day, Scott went golfing with Lance and Patty, Ric, and the kids and I went to the Long Beach Aquarium which was a ton of fun. The kids then spent the evening with Patty and Ric and Scott and I went off to the Rehearsal Dinner for our friends Lance and Suzanne (Suzance) wedding. We sat with Chip and Michelle, old friend's from Tucson.




We picked up the kids and went back to the hotel. The next day, we dropped off the kids at Aunt Patti's once again. Auntie Jennifer and Little Jen came from Tucson as well. Scott had to go get pics taken with the wedding party. I went and got ready for the wedding and met Scott at the hotel where the wedding was. What a great hotel it was too. Very Tuscan feel to it.

The wedding was beautiful. Suzanne looked so pretty and I loved that she added a deep purple sash to her dress. They are so happy and in love. It was also our wedding anniversary so what a more fitting way to celebrate for us but at a wedding. Lance was at our wedding 11 years ago! We had such a great time it was sad to see it come to an end. Thanks Lance and Suzanne for letting us celebrate your happiness with you! Best wishes and may you be as happy as Scott and I!!


The next day, we went to California Adventures for a bit and then back to the Jones's to meet up with more Mahaffey family! Yeah! We had fun meeting Unc Mike's wonderful lady and seeing Allysen and Chris, Kimberly and their new baby McKenzie. What a nice way to spend an evening.

The next day we went to Disneyland! Yeah! We had a super fun time going on all the rides. We did make the mistake of taking Nate on Space Mountain and he came off the thing crying his head off. So lesson learned: he is tall enough but may not be old enough to ride on something like that.
We did of course have a blast.

This was Nate's first time at the Dland and we tried to make it special - but for the Hoaglund's, anything Disney is just special by default. We are talking about Scotty here! Scott took them on Star Tours, which for him, made his favorite ride even more now that he can share it with both kids. We all sent on Soarin' which was so cool. !

In the evening, we met up with the Jones's and Mahaffey's once again and this time got to see Kristin! Yay

I am leaving out a ton of stuff because we packed in so much in the 5 short days we were there. The kids got to go to the beach, swimming, an Angel's game, the park, ride in the convertible, spend a ton of time with our family, Eat at In-n-Out burger. It was such a great trip, but man we packed so much in there, that it's hard to remember it all.