Hotel California Part II

I started telling you all about my trip to California earlier this week, and you guessed it...it's time for Part II.

Check out Part I here

The morning of my cousin's wedding, Nate and I, and my sister and her fiance decided a little beach time was in order, so we headed out to Redondo Beach and spent the morning there.

After a while, the boys came to the conclusion that boogie boards would make their morning that much better. So they walked up to the pier and bought a couple.

Cause yes, it's cheaper to buy boogie boards than to rent them.

#touristprobs

And then, after a while, I started to think that boogie boards would make my morning that much 

better too.

And then I would go put my feet in the water to think about it and they instantly got frost bite.

Almost.

Not really.

But the Pacific Ocean is so freaking cold!

So you can see my complex here: boogie boards=fun; cold water=no fun.

Hmmm....

I decided to put my big girl panties on and make it happen.

#YOLO

...just kidding, I'm over that hashtag actually.

I make boogie boarding look goooooood.

You can look up "graceful" in the dictionary and you'll find the above picture.

Just so you know.

After boogie boarding it was time to head back and get ready for the wedding. So we packed up and took half of Redondo Beach's sand with us in our bathing suits back to our hotel room

Really though. 

It hurt.

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Here's the thing about weddings, and monumental life occasions in general.

I never think I'm gonna get emotional, but then when you're there and it's happening, I get a bit of a frog in my throat, I won't lie.

All weekend my sister was like, "I can't believe Jeff is getting married! It's so crazy!"

And I just kind of thought to myself, "Yeah. It happens. I got married. You're getting married. NBD." 

But then when we got to the venue and I saw my cousin all suited up in his Groom attire, there was a little part of me inside that went, 

"Awwww..." 

and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the night.

My cousin is the one in the middle lookin' all handsome and grown up.

My cousin Jeff, and my sister and I were the only cousins close in age growing up. So naturally, we hung out...

hung out, and also ganged up on my sister, since she's the oldest and bossiest and that's just what you do when one cousin is older and bossy.

You continuously change the password to the fort so she can't get in.
And when I say 'change it,' I mean whisper it in each other's ear. And then if she guesses correctly, you whisper in each other's ear and change it again, and tell her she's wrong anyway.

Neener neener.

She still is older...and bossy, by the way.

Muahaha. I'm gonna get a nasty-gram after she reads this =)

We did all kinds of cousin things together.

Like put on parades for our parents. 

Occasionally we would put Jeff in a dress.

Cause that's just what you do when one cousin is a boy and the other two are girls.

  

Neener neener.

He's lucky I don't know where those pictures are...

We also played watched a lot of video games together, cause Jeff always insisted playing video games was fun, except it really wasn't.

Polly Pockets and My Little Pet Shop blows video games out of the water (duh). 

But I think the cat's outa the bag on that one, so he shouldn't be mad at me for putting that out on the interwebs.

We also played various simulated war games and ran all around their two-story house with Nerf guns, and got yelled at for sounding like a "herd of elephants" coming down the stairs.

Oopsie.

So needless to say, when another one of us got married (I was the first. I'm a pioneer, what can I say) I got a little teary-eyed.

It couldn't have been a more perfect afternoon for a wedding!

It was a beautiful ceremony, and by the end of it, they were officially pronounced husband and wife! 

Presh.

While they went off to do their wedding photo thing, we decided to do our family photo thing.

Cause I always like a good family photo.

We all made sure to take advantage of the open bar hours.

...including myself.

And then I also made sure to take advantage of the wine my sister AND my mom didn't 

want with their dinner.

Haaaaay.

Dad and his sons-in-law (son-in-laws?)

  

After the cocktail hour it was time to partaaay...and eat dinner, and do first dances, and toasts, and all that good stuff too.

But then it was time to partaaaay!

But I don't really have pictures of the partaaaay cause I was too busy, well, partying.

But trust me, it was a doozy.

It the midst of all the fun however, we made sure to get our traditional "cousin shot" with the three of us.

Here's us at my wedding:

Jeff's wedding:

And in October will be my sister's wedding, and then we will have completed the 

cousin-wedding-shot trifecta.

All of our significant others:

We're so happy to have Brittany as part of the fam-bam!

It was the best way to end a wonderful vacation!

Congratulations Jeff and Brittany!