A San Francisco Treat

Shad's BFF from high school called in October to tell Shad he was getting married ... & he wanted Shad to be in the wedding ... on December 3rd ... in San Francisco, so rather than exchange Christmas gifts this year, we thought this would be our little 'treat' to ourselves, so that we wouldn't break the bank with the holiday season approaching.

We are very fortunate for Shad's mom to get free flights (because Shad's sister works for Alaska Airlines - Holla!) So, Grammie flew in Friday night before the wedding so we could go on the trip without Cashe.

The night before we left though, Cashe knew something was up & got up every hour throughout the night. Therefore, we both were up every hour throughout that night as well.

We flew into San Jose & got a hotel there since it was less expensive & only an hour to drive to the wedding. We went to get our rental car & had decided prior to getting there that we would take a little extra time & drive up the coast.

And what better way to do that than rent a convertible in the 60-degree-CA-December-weather??

Well, wait though ... although there was a discount on convertibles that day, our other option was a Kia Soul (my very favorite car that Shad will never let me own because he thinks they're dorky). As depressing as it was to disappoint the poor sales girl at the Budget Rent-A-Car counter, I told her that renting the Kia Soul was just something I had to do (& Shad was praying I would just get it out of my system & never speak of the Kia Soul again ... plus, I saved us $20.00 in an upgrade, so he was secretly just as excited about our car choice).

This is taken from the Kia Soul overlooking the steep cliffs over the ocean on the 1.

Lovebirds at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The magnificent bridge.

What a gorgeous day we had too.

When we got into the San Fran area, Shad called Peter to see what the plan was. He was at the restaurant where the reception would be held later that night making sure all was good to go for the event. He asked us to stop by & have lunch with him before we went to the beach houses to get ready.

Why I didn't get any pictures of us having lunch on the patio overlooking the bay is BEYOND me. It was gorgeous though & sunny & warm & I was in a short-sleeved shirt in HEAVEN.

Here are the two nerds after lunch.



Here is a photo of all the tiny, little flower girls.

The bride is one of SEVEN children & her sisters have a lot of children as well. I had gotten ready at the girls' beach house before the wedding & rode to the church in a giant van of these cutie little kids. It was a riot! They all kept asking me to blow bigger bubbles with my gum to see if I could pop it over my nose. It felt like I was home with Cashe + 10 more kids though.

The boys messing around at the front of the church waiting for the girls to come down the aisle.

The view from the church doors was INCREDIBLE.
Again, not sure what I was doing (blowing bubbles with my gum, probably) & why I didn't take better photos of the church or the location. It was breath-taking.

Beautiful bride, Martha & her groom, Peter.

This is just a tiny glimpse of how gorgeous it was there.
The wedding party was stunning too (especially my handsome husband).

The church was set in a little field at the top of this mountain that overlooked the bay. It was in a tiny town called Tiburon, CA.

Just amazing.

The groomsman himself & HIS lucky bride.

Bride & groom hustling to get photos before the daylight was gone.

I was witnessing Shad witnessing the marriage.

We had our photo taken with the lovely newly weds at the restaurant where the reception was held. That too, was very beautiful & overlooked the bay. It was decorated festively for the Christmas holiday despite the confusing 60-degree sunny weather.

The groom: Peter, Shad, & Peter's brother: Andy.
Shad grew up with these boys & their other brother Darryl, I mean ... PHIL, not Darryl.

(Shad even lived with them in their parents' home when we met!)
The Maneys are a big part of Shad's life & certainly consider him a brother & a son.

My favorite picture of the night.

My other favorite picture of the night.

This is me posing super sexy on our Kia Soul.
(I need to leave the Kia advertisements to the hamsters, I think.)

Then there was this poor dog parked behind us at 10:00 p.m. at night. Weird.

Overall, it was a great time & as soon as we got back to our hotel that night, you might think we enjoyed our time alone without having a 2-year-old bouncing off the walls. Well, we did. Not the way your dirty little minds THINK we did though. Shad went out & got us cheeseburgers, fries & shakes from In & Out Burger & we gorged ourselves on our giganto bed & passed out!

Wishing you all the best, Peter & Martha! Thanks for inviting us away for a fun Christmas trip!