Friday morning our flight left at 6am, which means we left the house at 4:30am. Brutal. Thankfully our flight was nearly empty and I was able to sneak in a napper on the plane.
We rented a car and set off for the 7 hour drive north to Crescent City. The drive was beautiful, full of Redwoods and so much greenery. We could see the ocean for much of the last hour of the drive.
our silly rental car, so worth it!
We went straight to Mike's grandpa's house when we finally arrived and I met a lot of Mike's wonderful family. We had a delicious dinner before heading back to the hotel. Mike and I took his niece swimming and then hung out with a few of his cousins before we hit the hay after our long travel day.
Saturday we woke up early and had breakfast with Mike's mom, his brother and his wife, as well as their precious baby boy and one of Mike's nieces. Then we got ready and headed over to the birthday party. There ended up being 50+ people in attendance. What a sweet day. It was truly amazing to think that everyone there had traveled from all over the place to share in this special occasion. We had lunch and then celebrated with wayyy too much cake. I obviously got teary eyed as the entire family sang "Happy Birthday." Mike's uncle made a nice toast and we spent much of the afternoon meeting, visiting and mingling with the family. It's nice to finally put a face with the names that I've heard so much about.
sweet, sweet baby Mason
Mike's brother Tyler, his wife Liz, Baby Mason, Mike's mom Jody, Mike and I
Later in the afternoon, Mike, Sean, Ian, AJ and I took a little trip to the beach. Again, it was cool to see the places that Mike had told me about visiting as a child.
the lighthouse
it was reallllllly windy
We headed back to his Grandpa's for dinner. I had the chance to talk to one of Mike's cousins who works in the building that I will be attending class in while at UW! Small, small world. Mike's grandpa seems to be doing well and seemed to truly enjoy the company of 4 generations of his beautiful family. After a few cups of coffee, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday we made the long drive back to Santa Rosa. We made a few pit stops, including one so that we could take pictures with Paul Bunyan and Blue. We had lunch and hung out with his mom and niece for a while before we headed to the airport. My mom met us in Oakland and took us out for a drink before we got on our plane back to Phoenix. It was so nice to see her, as always.
Mike, Takota and I
Weekends like this always make it so hard to come back to Phoenix. While I love it here, I do miss spending time with our families. I guess our time apart makes our time together that much sweeter.
How was your weekend?
xoxo,
whit
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