California wedding

Now for part two of my trip to California. (See part one here.)

Friday (June 19) was the day of the rehearsal. It was super hot, but we survived.

Bride and Groom practicing lookin' good.

Mother of the bride.

The wedding party (sans groomsman Jay)

Siblings!

Cousins!

Once everything was settled and rehearsed we finally got to eat. Lots of fun stories and cheersing happened.

Dinner crowd.

Happy couple.

Cute parents.

Um...

After dinner I joined the kids for more hanging out. The next day Lauren and I went for a run around her grandmother's neighborhood. (My only run or exercise during the whole trip. Yikes.) Then we were super hot so we hopped in the pool. Ryan and Tess (their dog) joined us. That was also my only time in the water during my whole Southern California vacation. After the pool I helped them finish up some last-minute things for the wedding.

That afternoon more relatives arrived, and that night we had a big family dinner together. Then back at the hotel Sunni and I (with a little help from Jay) assembled the program fans for the wedding and had fun cousin bonding time.

The next day (Sunday, June 21) was the big day! Mom and I went to the venue (The Vineyards) early to hang out with the bridal party. The ceremony was at 5:30. Luckily it wasn't quite as hot as it had been during the rehearsal.

Front row, waiting for the fun to begin.

Ryan, walking Mom down.

Lauren entering with her mom.

The ceremony.

Unity Balloons.

Aw mush.

The ceremony was very nice. It was sweet to hear them read the vows they'd each written. Afterwards most of the guests headed up to the reception, while the rest of us hung out (with our own reception food and drinks) for pictures outside.

Good-lookin' family

New daughter.

Cousins!

More cousins!

Cousins selfie!

Cheers!

Sunni stepped on Lauren's veil and made it fall out. Sunni was mortified. It was hilarious.

Sunni and Aunt Judy with the newlyweds.

Eventually we all got to head up to the reception. We got there for the end of the cocktail hour, then headed in to dinner. The place looked really nice.

Each plate had a little box with the dipped and personalized fortune cookies I ordered.

Bride and Groom joining the party.

First dance.

The slideshow I made.

Dancing with Mom.

Cake!

So the wedding was really nice and everyone had a good time. It was fun dancing with aunts and uncles I'd never really seen dance before. At the end of the night we sent the couple off with sparklers. Back at the hotel that night my aunt hosted a little after-party. It was mostly my relatives, but some younger people from the wedding showed up, which was awkward for them and pretty funny for us. Good times were still had though.

But then the next day I woke up sick (not for reasons you might be assuming, I swear), and ended up spending the next two days in bed. It was no fun feeling sick, but I'll also admit it was a welcome break from vacationing and wedding-prep and grad-school studying to just lay in bed and rest. I needed it. Despite all that, the whole trip to California and wedding week was pretty great. Lots of fun memories were made, and I'm so happy for Lauren and Ryan!

California fun

Now that a month has passed (where does the time go?) I'm finally ready to tell you about my trip to California for my little brother's wedding. Except this post is only the first half...

On June 14 I flew to LA, where Ryan and Lauren picked me up with my parents following behind. But since LAX is crazy even at 10pm on a Sunday, it took forever for them to pick me up, and then a while to get out of all that traffic. But at last, we were all safely in California ready to have fun.

Monday my parents and I went to Catalina Island. We took a boat from Long Beach, and the ride was about an hour. First we sat outside, but the wind made it pretty chilly and uncomfortable, so we moved inside. That was also when my dad decided we needed to relax a little more with some wine. Good idea, Dad.

Our boat.

Cheers.

When we got to the island we walked to a little Mexican place for lunch. Then we got on a glass-bottomed boat for a 45-minute tour to check out some fish.

Glass-bottomed boat.

Fish!

Fish watching.

Fish-feeding selfie.

After the tour we walked around the little town a little more, and got some ice cream. Apparently there are wild buffalo on Catalina Island, which my dad neglected to tell me ahead of time, and we didn't have enough time to see them. Next time.

Front-seat boat ride back to Long Beach.

Later that night Dad and I walked from our Anaheim hotel to meet Lauren and Ryan for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Then those two came and stayed with us, and the next morning all five of us walked to Disneyland!

Naturally when we got to Disneyland we started with Tomorrowland, and apparently Ryan loves the Astro Orbitor (a simple ride like Dumbo, but with rockets) so we rode that first. Then we rode a bunch more. Mom rented an electric scooter because of her bum knee, which meant we got to skip a bunch of long lines with her. It was awesome.

Squeezed into a rocket.

Ready for takeoff!

Blastin' aliens. Dad steered while Mom and I shot. (Ignore the score!)

Ready for a drive.

Attempting to steer in Autopia.

Say cheese.

We ate pretzels for a late-morning snack, then had a nice lunch in New Orleans Square. I got us some popcorn later on, too. And all day long I kept saying I eventually wanted to eat a Mickey ice cream on a stick, which finally happened right before we left.

Yum.

It's a Small World.

Family ride selfie.

The castle is smaller than I remembered...

Ready for Splash Mountain.

"Arms up!"

We got pretty wet. I was soaked.

Jungle Cruise pistachio sighting! Right there on the seat!

Cruising the jungle.

Shootin' stuff.

Thunder Mountain.

Finally.

The only major ride we didn't go on was Space Mountain, because it was closed that morning. Lauren and Ryan and I were going to do it at night before we left and even got in line, but we decided we didn't care enough to stand in line forever after a long day. So we went back to Ryan's favorite rocket ride instead, and our flights coincided with the fireworks show and Tinkerbell flying to the castle. It was the perfect way to end a fun day at Disneyland.

The next day my parents and I visited the Huntington. When we arrived we ate lunch outside at the cafe, then we walked around the gardens, checked out some art, and took a spin through the library exhibits. The place is impressive and I could have spent a lot longer there.

Taking time to smell the roses.

Bonsai garden!

Chinese Garden.

I couldn't get over how high the mountains were!

That night we had dinner at a Mexican seafood place. We ordered several things and shared them all. It was delicious.

The shrimp cocktail was my favorite.

Thursday we drove to Simi Valley, where the wedding would be and where we stayed for the rest of the trip. We had a fun all-you-can-eat sushi dinner with Lauren and Ryan, and later that night Sunni (who had just flown in) and I helped Lauren assemble wedding favors late into the night.

Now stay tuned for the wedding post in part two...

family celebrations

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to Richmond to hang out with family. That Saturday was my cousin Sunni's high school graduation. How time flies! The ceremony was nice (though long), and then we had a nice meal at home. (Afterwards Sunni and I went shopping, which was also fun.)

Sunni's cheering squad.

Our motley crew looking for Sunni after the ceremony.

Leslie with the graduate.

A surprise banner!

And surprise cake!

A good family friend, Geneva, was also in town visiting the family that weekend. On Sunday, we had a party for her. We had catered southern food, and live music. After eating came music time, which is a common occurrence there when we have guests for a meal. We all gathered in the music room and sang hymns. Then the caterers, this nice couple, came forward and we learned they were amazing musicians. The wife sang and the husband went to town on the piano. Everyone else joined in singing, too. It felt like a really rockin' church service, and was really fun and special.

Gathering the gang for music time.

Geneva, on the right, singing along.

Good times!

work hard, play hard

It's knuckle-down buckle-down time over here. On July 7 I'm scheduled to take my comprehensive oral exam for graduate school, and I have a whole lot of work to do to get prepared. I have a book list with ninety-five books spanning the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. I have read all of the books at some point over the past five years, but that doesn't mean I remember most of them. So I'm reviewing all my notes and making a note card for each book. It's taking me roughly an hour for each card, and I'm aiming to do fifteen books per week, which will leave me about two weeks at the end to review larger questions and themes bringing lots of different books together. Anyway, getting these fifteen note cards done each week is no easy task when I have a full-time job and am still trying to have a little bit of a social life and enjoy the beautiful weather. It's no fun, but I'm managing.

And I'm still managing to have some fun, for as my adviser always says, "work hard, play hard." Last weekend I went with Patrick and his friends to Norfolk for the Virginia Beer Festival. We drove over Saturday (after I spent a depressing Friday night studying), stopping for barbecue in Williamsburg for lunch. The festival was at a park right next to the water, and it was a beautiful day. The festival ended at 6pm, so afterwards we all went out to dinner. The next day most of the crew left town after brunch, but Patrick and I stuck around. We visited the aquarium in Virginia Beach, then went to the beach itself for a little walk and an early seafood dinner on the water. Then we finally headed home after a very fun early summer weekend.

Montalto Challenge 2015

Last weekend I ran my 6th Montalto Challenge 5k, my favorite race of the year. I had held off on registering since it was only one week after my marathon, but within three days of the marathon I wasn't sore any more and knew it would be fine to run. Thank goodness.

Patrick joined me for his first Montalto. We got to the Monticello visitor center in time to pick up our bibs, then he took the shuttle down while I jogged the two miles down to the start of the trail. We met up with JoAnne and Kurt at the starting line, and then were shortly off.

I was attempting a PR. In the past I've sometimes tried to take it a little easier during the first two miles in order to save energy for the really steep last mile, but this year I decided the last mile was going to be hard no matter what and if I wanted a fast time I couldn't dilly-dally in the beginning. Not that running up the trail there ever feels like dilly-dallying. Anyway, I pushed myself more than I usually like to. (I usually hate 5ks, remember?)

I made it up the easier portion of the trail with sub-9:00 miles, then started up the switchbacks of Montalto. There was a water stop at the 2-mile mark, and I did stop very briefly to get a sip in (I can never drink out of cups while running). Then I just slowly chugged up the mountain. There was definitely a time or two when I wanted to walk, and almost did, but I reminded myself that I needed to stay in the race mentally and not give in. I've made it up the past two years without walking and there's no reason I can't do it again.

And sure enough, I made it up without walking. When it finally leveled out toward the top I picked up the pace a little bit, and a woman who could see the clock around the bend let me know I'd make it under 30 minutes. I tried to sprint to the finish, and came in at 29:45, only 4 seconds off my 2013 PR. I'm a little bummed I didn't beat it, but plenty pleased I made it up without walking and under 30 minutes, which is only the second time I've met both those goals.

Once I'd caught my breath and had some water I went back to watch Patrick come in. Then we hung out at the top eating snacks, chatting with friends, and taking in the amazing views.

See how high we are, with Charlottesville way below?

It was pretty chilly this year, but luckily I'd come prepared with two jackets and they had heaters at the top we could huddle around to keep warm. We stayed through the award ceremony, then walked back down Montalto with JoAnne and Kurt. (Last year they wouldn't let us walk down, which was a big bummer, but this year they actually encouraged everyone to walk.)

Happy finishers.
(Photo credit: Ian Atkins)

Another successful Montalto Challenge!