Wedding fun in California

Dane and I went out to our cousin's wedding last month in California.  What an amazing weekend.  We booked our tickets for the trip a long time ago.  We bought them based on who is the cheapest, and we just have to accept that there is probably a reason why that air line is the most affordable.  Recently, we've been riding United quite frequently and because of this trip we know why United is consistently the cheapest.

We flew out of Boston just fine on June 7th.  We were scheduled to have a layover in Denver for a few hours.  When we arrived in Denver we found that our flight had been delayed.  We were bummed about that, but we figured we'd still be ok, and could get there by the family party that night.  They kept pushing back our flight, and we kept calculating what time our arrival would be.  When all was said and done, I think they pushed it back 4 times... The last time they said they didn't know what time the plane would be ready.  We were just sitting there waiting for our plane and we both had headphones in.  They started to make an announcement, and we looked up in time to see tons of people turn simultaneously and start running.  We were thinking that they changed gates or something, but that didn't quite make sense... Why would they run to our next gate.  I had to ask someone and he told me they had cancelled our flight.  WHAT!!! Who cancels flights when everyone is there waiting for the plane!?! Well, United does I guess.  We were late to the party at customer service, so there was about 100-150 people in front of us. Considering that and if there was a later flight, there was no way that we were ever going to get a seat with everyone in front of us taking up those seats.  So, as a pilots daughter, I figured there was probably another customer service desk somewhere in the terminal.  I left Dane in line there, and I went on the hunt.  I found another customer service desk, but there wasn't anyone there.  I did, however, spot the tell tale bank of phones that I have unfortunately grown accustom to due to flying standby on Delta.  I walked over, picked up the phone.  And was getting our flights rebooked in no time.  The customer service lady (out of the Philippines) let me know there was no flight to San Jose for the rest of the day and was trying to talk me into getting a flight tomorrow morning.  I called Dane on my cell and had a phone on each ear, found out that we could go to a couple other airports, and got booked on a San Francisco flight that was leaving two hours later.  It was a miracle.  I printed out our boarding passes and walked back to Dane, who hadn't moved up much in line.   A couple hours later we were on our flight to San Francisco and I couldn't help but notice the standby list and feel bad for those 34+ people.

We got to San Fan and had a fun evening at the family party.  We loved seeing family and everyone, including ourselves were surprised by how quickly we had gotten there.  Everyone had heard the saga of our trip to that point.  We loved seeing the Bride and Groom and the rest of our family.  We chatted it up with everyone and eventually headed back to the Hodgman's house to chat it up for another hour or so.  Chatting with family is one of Dane's all time favorite things, so after we had been awake for 22 hours straight we called it a night.

The next morning Dane went on a hike... for the record, I would have gone if I had brought the right footwear. :) At least that's what I like to tell myself. Here are a few photo's from the hike that Dane snapped.

Story telling is the best.

Redwoods are so cool!


We had a leisurely morning and enjoyed the continental breakfast.  We headed up to the temple and met up with Adam and Christina! We were so happy to see them.  We hadn't seen them in a couple years.

The sealing ceremony was so great.  Stephanie was sealed in the same dress that her mother and aunts all wore at their weddings.  It was amazing watching another couple be sealed and start their married life. They were so happy.

We had an amazing time at the reception.  The wind had fun with the decorations. We had fun with the flip book station, food and dancing.  We also got to meet not just one, but two new nephews.  Once again we're so glad Adam and Christina made it! I also ran into my friend Amber from BYU.  It was fun catching up with her.  It made me wish they had taken a job offer back here in Boston!  After dancing, chatting, sparklers, and clean up we all sat down and do what we do best.... Chatted it up- and before we knew it the night was ending.  Not to worry though.  We had more fun the next day where we had two baby blessings in church.

Dane and I could only stay for a short time after church since we had to catch our flight out.  We ate and ran out the door. Only to get delayed in Denver again.  Our flight, which was already getting in late, got pushed back another couple hours.  We got to bed that night at about 4 am... Dane needed to be on a 6:45 am bus that morning to get to a test at school.  He didn't hear his alarm or slept right through it, and at 7:15 woke up (by some miracle) and I drove him to the T station.

It was a fast weekend, but it was a highlight of our summer! Congrats Steph and Jon!