A Meine weekend

Ander and I had the opportunity to go to a family reunion this last month in San Diego. I'm sorry to the Meine family that this post has taken so long for me to put up. I had troubles with the videos loading. 

I had never been to San Diego, and all of my clients told me it was the most beautiful place in the world...but also one million dollars to live there. So I settled for just visiting.

It was beautiful. And it actually rained while we were there. FOR REAL! None of this sissy rain we get here in Austin, if we get any at all. San Diego is gorgeous, and I loved all the cute little houses. The architecture is really cool over there. But once again... one million dollars.

When we got to the airport in Austin we had to wait in a big giant security line. Both Ander and I had to go to the bathroom super badly, but we had to wait. So after security we both went to the bathroom thinking we had plenty of time. When we came out, Ander said, "Did you hear that? Wasn't that our flight? It's in final boarding!"

"Nah, you must have heard it wrong,"

"No, really, we better run."

Sure enough, our flight was in final boarding and within another five minutes we would have missed our flight.

When we got the LA airport, we had a two hour layover, so we ate some yummy food and Ander passed out on my lap at the gate. Poor thing, we had to be up a 4 a.m. to catch our earlier flight. So I did the practical thing, and put both of my headphones in and played my video game. I kept looking at my watch thinking, "Aren't they going to board yet? I thought they were supposed to board about 10 minutes ago," while still playing my game.

Finally, something just didn't seem right, so I pulled the headphones out of my ears, and I heard a voice overhead call our name and say the flight was in final boarding and we needed to come NOW. Ander's eyes snapped open and I said, "Quick! Grab your stuff! We've gotta go!" Seriously, we would have missed our flight and we were sitting at its gate. Second time that day we almost missed our flight.

But we made it to San Diego on time and everything worked out. Our hotel was beautiful and I saw people in Ander's family that I hadn't seen since our wedding, and to be honest, I didn't really remember anyone. It had been so long!

We took off that day to Mission Beach... or pier... or something, and we had a picnic on the beach where huge seagulls literally snatched the food out of our hands. That was pretty awesome. It also took us hundreds of years to get there because our ride, Ander's cousin Clint, kept getting lost. But I don't blame him at all... Sand Diego roads are nuts.

The weather was so nice, I just drank it all in, getting to know all of these different peeps from Ander's side of the family.

That night we had a Christmas in November BBQ for Grandma and Grandpa Meine so they could open all our presents to them with everyone. The food was delicious, and the presents to the grandparents we wonderful. The spirit of the Christmas was definitely in the air.

Ander and I were given some seriously rockin' headwear for this holiday BBQ. Ander's cranium was decorated with small gingerbread, and I rocked the mistletoe. Also, Ander is eating a salmon burger. He said they were pretty good!

 Ander and John Morgan (Ander's second cousin) pulling poses

Everyone was into playing musical chairs, and it was so great because most of the little kids didn't really get the idea, so when the music stopped, their parents would grab them and sit them down on a chair. It was pretty awesome.

And Ander's Aunt Jillair had presents for everyone who got out... which is an odd way of playing the game, but it worked for everyone because all the kiddies got little gifts. Perfect!

The next day we were supposed to go to SeaWorld, but it was supposed to rain so we put SeaWorld off until Sunday. Half of the family stayed at the hotel, and half of us went to visit the Mormon Battalion monument/visitors center. I am not going to lie... that place was freaking awesome!!!

This monument guy had a Book of Mormon in his bag.

Ander in a covered wagon. Mormons are partial to those.

That visitor's center was so awesome. They had moving pictures! It was so great! There were all these pictures hanging on the wall of men and women, and halfway through the presentation they started moving in their frames! I felt like I was in Harry Potter with moving pictures. The story of the battalion was really cool. Apparently San Diego owes the Mormons for helping California become a state! Amazing.

That night was one of my favorites. KARAOKE! Karaoke and pizza, what more could anyone ever want? And when karaoke is mentioned you know I come a runnin'.

Ander's cousin Clint and his darling little girl Brailyn singing a country song together. She totally knew the words and it was so incredibly adorable!

This video is Grandma and Grandpa Meine singing New York, New York

Ander and John Morgan singing The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

Aunt Shanda and Ander singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

 

Ander and Dylan attempting Rapper's Delight by Sugarhill Gang

 

This was my favorite thing of all. Little Axyl, Tyler and Kandace's little 3 year old, loved to bust a move! Here he is dancing his little 3 year old buns off. Too bad I only got this video of it

 

This karaoke party was so great! And I was quite surprised that Ander sang MULTIPLE times! He even sang Can You Feel the Love Tonight with me in front of everyone. It was a great night. Thanks to the Culbersons!

On Sunday we went to Sea World. It was a beautiful day full of fish!

My favorite part of the park was the Sea Lion show. It's amazing how much you can do with animals if you give them their favorite treats.

This is the Seymour and Clyde show, and I was thoroughly impressed by all of their tricks.

And as we were ogling the sea turtles all the blue and yellow fish started swarming around the bottom of the tank. I thought it looked kind of cool...

Sea World was great, but at the end of the day when the sun went down it got really cold. We were all freezing by the time we reached the car.

The next day we headed out to the Wild Animal Safari Park. This place was really cool. It reminded me of the Animal Kingdom in Florida. We got to see some really awesome things. By the way, we're posing like lions in this picture. Don't judge.

Elephant feeding, we were so close! And we got to see a little baby elephant too! He was about 7 weeks old and super tiny. This big guy here was the bull of the herd. He was gigantic!

I hunkered down and fed some ducks while we were there. I was afraid, but their beaks didn't hurt at all. It just felt strange. They were so cute! I tried to grab one but they were too smart for that.

Gigantic pelican...

Ander's hand against a gorilla's hand.

If anyone mentions goats, or Ander hears goats, or sees them, or is anywhere near them, he gets all giddy. They had a small petting zoo full of a bunch of cute little goats, and Ander was completely in his element. He tells me we'll get a goat someday, and I say....we'll see about that.

The COOLEST part of the day was when we watched a cheetah run full speed down this little grassy runway. 70 miles an hour! Amara, the cheetah, chased her favorite toy down the runway with all her might. First we watched Amara's little dog friend Hopper do it, and he took 10.7 seconds to run 330 feet. Amara took 5.2 seconds to run the same length of runway. It was unreal. I wanted to take a video, but I knew that I would never capture Amara as she ran.

Amara and Hopper. Big kitty.

These next pictures were taken on a safari tram that we took out among the animals in their habitats. This safari park had these huge areas that were supposed to basically be Africa and Asia. We were only able to visit "Africa" but it was pretty amazing to be so close to these animals.

Our weekend was awesome with the Meines. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a wonderful time. I was so grateful to be there with the Meine side. Although I think after all the hubbub of the weekend this is how I felt.

Couldn't have put it better myself, Jett.

Before I end this post let me introduce everyone that was there with us. Jillair made these awesome little scrapbook pages with everyone's pictures and contact info, so I scanned those pictures to put on here.

This is Clint Culberson and his darling daughter Brailyn. They live in Arizona.

 So top left we have Zach and Ambra Gardner (Ambra is Ander's cousin) and their kids. The twin girls are Jerzey and Jazmin, and the boy is Boston. They live in Draper, Utah

Next is Grandma Meine and Kandace Meine. Kandace is married to Ander's cousin Tyler. Axyl and Jett and her two boys. Axyl is the crazy dancer :) Kandace and Tyler also live in Draper.

And last but certainly not least we have Grandma and Grandpa Meine. Bill and Misty. It's thanks to them that we were able to be at this reunion. Bill and Misty live in San Ramon, California.

 Jordan, Jillair, and Doug Meine. Doug is Ander's uncle. They live in Draper, Utah as well

Here we have Ander's dad Kelly Meine, with his wife Janell and their daughter Hannah. They live in Walnut Creek, California. Wish we could live there too!

Okay, I hope you all will be able to tell who is who in this one.

On the left we have Lexi, Kelly, Shaila, Jen, Brailyn, and Shanda. (whew!) Kelly is Ander's cousin, daughter of Aunt Shanda who is on the right in that picture.

The boys in the pool are Jett and Axyl with their dad Tyler Meine, Ander's cousin.

And at the bottom we have John Morgan, Jen, and Bill Culberson. Bill is Ander's cousin, Jen his wife, and John Morgan who is Bill's step-son. Almost everyone in these photos lives in Arizona, except Tyler and the boys. They live in Draper, Utah.

To the left is Ander's second cousin Dylan, who is his cousin Kelly's son. And finally we have the two of us. I'm sporting mistletoe on my headband so...naturally...

We had such a great time in San Diego with the Meine clan!!! Thank you so much to everyone who made it possible for us to be out there and have such a blast!!! We love you all so much, and I apologize once again for how long this post took. We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holidays...which are giving me small panic attacks...