CA: Wedding/Beach/Temple/Cemetery Fun.

California continued. Sooo where did we leave off? Friday afternoon we went to lunch with Dad, ah yes. 

After that, we drove out to Thousand Oaks {which, by the way, I was dreading even the thought of driving by, through, or around L.A. on a Friday afternoon... but it turned out to be a breeze!}

So we were heading to our friends' wedding, Susan and Arash-- but it was an adult event only, which meant that we needed to distract Nathan for a couple hours while we weddinged.

What to do? What to do? The correct, and likely only, answer is... CHUCK E. CHEESE!

We took Jason and Nathan to Chuck E. Cheese in Thousand Oaks and left them with a ton of tokens and an ordered pizza-- ready to be picked up whenever they got hungry. Done, and done.

Then we headed to the Four Seasons-- about a 10 minute drive away-- where the wedding was going to be later that evening. And let me tell you, Susan and Arash know how to do a wedding. Wow. 

Seriously, the most impressive and extravagant wedding I have ever been to. 

Well, after that (and probably about three days worth of calories later) Freddy went back to C.E.C. to pick up Jason and Nathan, and to check into our hotel room at Marriott (thank you, employee discount!), across the street. 

So we pretty much crashed at the hotel as soon as we got there. We were all pretty drained. 

But, we definitely did wake up in time for the complementary breakfast! Yes, sir!

After that we packed back up and headed to the beach. From where we were, it seemed like the best option was somewhere in Malibu, and it had been a while since we'd been to any beach, so we were just glad to be going.

Don't get me wrong, it was nice to be at the beach, but that was the ugliest beach I had ever been to. Ever.

 First of all we had to walk, not just from the street parking (since we didn't want to pay $20-something to park when we only had about 1 1/2 hours tops to spend there), but we also had to walk wayyyy around some sort of beach construction site. Weird.

And then the water was not only freeeeezing cold, but like, way gross brown. Hmph. And to top it all off-- there was seaweed and dead crabs everywhere. What the heck happened there? 

Anyways! Regardless, the beach is the beach, and we were happy to be there!

Cute boys!

We took pictures with the nice rocks, rather than the gross seaweed.  How nice.

 So we got our beach on, dipped our toes in the water, took some pictures to prove that we went, built a sand castle and called it good. We had an important meeting to get to!

We were headed to the... dun da dun daaaa... Los Angeles Temple! We were meeting some of our besties at the temple-- Maria and Brett R. and Darren and Isis G. Yay! (We stopped at a mall along the way to change from beachy to dressy.)

(Considering that this was one of the highlights of the trip for me, it's pretty sad that this picture is all we have to show for it.) But it was pretty much the best ever.  We did sealings together as a group, and it was so awesome.  I couldn't help but feel that we were so lucky to have friends that after years apart, we come together and go to the temple.  Some people reunite at bars and parties, and instead we do this. Awe.some.

Jason and Nathan with their matching glasses that they redeemed their tickets for (along with a handful of other stuff). So sick, J. Rocking the glasses. ;) 

After the temple, we went out to dinner with the whole group-- and grabbed J and N from the Visitors' Center where they (N) was showing off for the sister missionaries. 

Dinner was delicious, but made even better by having the best. friends. ever. to share it with!

Fast forward, we to took J home and went to Darren and Isis's apartment for a couple rounds of Taboo. Woot woot! We always play boys against girls and Isis and I always pull off the win. 

(Have they ever won? Hmmm.. Hard to remember..) ;)

And now Sunday, since it's time to move on from CA posts. 

Sunday, we went to Sacrament meeting in Walnut, and then stopped by F's grandparents' graves to leave some fresh flowers. We were there right before his grandma's one year mark from when she passed. So it seemed fitting for us to stop by and pay our respects. They were both wonderful people, and both are missed very much by their family members.

 {It was a bit of an ordeal to get those flowers up in the little vase up there, but we pulled it off in the end.} 

 {If it wasn't 10 feet above me, I would have styled the flowers better, but eh, we knew they were really pretty.}

Nathan, trying to understand the need for reverence in a cemetery. Really, really trying.

And after that we headed home to AZ, since F needed to be up for work at 4:45 am the next morning.  It was good to be home-- hot! (90+ degrees inside our house), but good. Yay for our trip to California! :)