Cousins Visit

Just over a week ago we said goodbye to our cousins Ben and Katie as they headed back home to Chicago after spending a few days with us. We all spent May 24th together celebrating my other cousin Jonathan's wedding. By the way, Michael was the photographer for the wedding and the pictures are awesome! He hasn't finished post-processing them yet, but when he's done I'll give you all a little taste of my wonderful husband's photographic talent. I even got to take a few pictures too - not so easy to run around with a pregnant belly! We'll post some of the pictures soon.

Ben and Katie came down to San Diego with us after the wedding since they were going to be flying back home out of San Diego. We had quite the fun trip coming back down to Southern California. I wish I had pictures to document the whole experience because it was, well, quite humorous. However, when we were in the midst of it and stranded in Valencia, CA it was a little unnerving.

Yes, stranded! Well, not really! The days before we made the trip up to the wedding Michael had noticed that our alternator wasn't working so well. He said that we should probably get it looked at when we got back. Famous last words! Little did we know that our friend the alternator would give us problems on the way home. Just as we headed over the Grapevine the car radio shut off. Shortly after we tried opening a window and it was as though the car had less and less battery juice to do anything! Rather than getting stuck in the middle of some rural highway (we were going to take the scenic PCH back to San Diego) we decided to pull over at a gas station in Valencia and hope that they had a mechanic.

By the time we stopped at a gas station, the car barely could move. Had we not had roadside assistance through our insurance I would have been a little worried. Thankfully, we had just paid our bill (I had just said the week before what a waste of money it was to pay for roadside assistance we never used!) so we were able to call and get a tow truck to come out. After a half a dozen calls Michael found a mechanic that was willing to come to his shop (on a holiday, mind you!) and take a look at the car.

Well, I won't bore you. The car did get fixed and it was the alternator, just as Michael had said. After a few hours at the mechanic shop we were able to get on our way and proceed down the road to the PCH. It certainly made for a funny experience as we look back on it!

The rest of our time with Ben and Katie was just as exciting, but thankfully, it didn't involve any other unexpected troubles. We took them to all the fun spots in San Diego and spent plenty of time talking and catching up on life.

Once again, I was reminded of how much I love and appreciate the families that God has blessed us with. Now that we are married, we have "inherited" each others families and we are both truly glad for those blessings in our lives. What would life be like without the support of family? Certainly, a lot harder.

So, a little shout out to our families. We love you! Thanks Ben and Katie for making some time to hang out with us poor San Diego folk. And remember, even though life will be changing a little for us with a baby coming soon, we still love to have family and friends stopping through to see us! Our home is always available!

And now for a few pictures of our time with Ben and Katie...

We stopped for fish and chips along the way

Look at that big belly!

Cousins...and friends! And photography aficionados...

A picture of the cute couple

A stop at Sunset Cliffs

The men show us their attitude