Down With Love: Cousins Wedding-Shivley, California-2015

This last week we headed up North to a little town called Shivley. It's about 20 minutes from Eureka, CA and about a 7 hour drive to Oregon to attend my baby cousins wedding. The wedding was located on a beautiful farm that his fiance Shannon's family has owned for many years. We left Thursday morning and flew on a plane from Orange County to Sacramento and then drove another 5 hours from there. A few weeks leading up to this trip, I was a little nervous on how the kids would do with the flight and the long drive we had ahead of us. They both did awesome and did better then I could have ever imagined. They slept the whole way on the flight (yes it was only an hour) but I was still happy that they did not cry once and the drive was also pretty easy. Nothing better then having an iPad, snacks and movies to keep the kids busy. We had 9 adults and 5 kids on our flight and I have never seen so much luggage in my whole life. This was Dylan and Hayley's first flight....

Dylan watching the planes coming in

We stayed at a great hotel and shared a nice big suite with my sister and her family and my mom. My cousin and her family came in on Friday and also stayed at the hotel with us. Everyone else in my family stayed at a beautiful farm house that they rented for the week. On Friday they hosted a meet and greet at this old cute little hotel in down town Shivley. This town was probably still the same as it was since the old days and I don't think much has changed. The churches were beautiful, the people were so nice and the scenery was amazing. After the meet and greet we went and had dinner at this awesome Italian restaurant with fantastic food!

There is nothing more in this world that I love and that is spending time with my family. My family is my whole life and it makes me so happy when we all get together for big events and especially a wedding when we get to add another amazing sweet person to our family. On Friday my aunt hosted the rehearsal BBQ for friends and family that came from out of town, which was mostly our side of the family as Shannon's family and friends all live up in Shivley. My aunt hosted the BBQ at a cute little barn house up in the red woods- The scenery was absolutely beautiful!

The best thing about my cousin Owen and Shannon is they had something planned everyday leading up to the wedding and even the day after. This really makes it fun and memorable to get as much time as possible to spend with family and friends, especially when people are traveling far to attend the wedding. The few days leading up to the big day were so much fun! Most of the events were in the evening so it gave us time to work out in the mornings, enjoy some great room service for breakfast and swim in the indoor pool with the kids.

It was so nice to have a hotel that had lots of stuff to do for the kids that kept them entertained at all times. Oh....and not to mention it was a casino we stayed in, so the adults were very well entertained as well into the later evenings. The wedding was on Sunday at one of the most beautiful farms I have ever seen and all 40 acres of it. They requested that everyone dress "country chic". They hosted this amazing day with 330 guest and you would have never thought there were that many guest attending with it being on a big farm. The wedding was beautiful. They had a short and sweet ceremony, with a perfect reception to follow. They had a band, 3 course meal and a full bar to keep the guest going well into the night. We tried our darn hardest to stay as long as we could, but the kids were exhausted from a very long day.

Well it was the last day of our trip and we headed over to the farm house that my aunt and uncle rented for the week to spend one last day with the family, and to let the kids run around and see all the fun farm animals and enjoy the beautiful scenery. This house was awesome! It had a main house and then 2 other little houses/studios around it. I love where we live, but every time I see houses like this and nothing but property and land all around it, it makes me want to live somewhere else.

The last day of vacations are always the hardest and for me it's even harder. I wish all of my family lived closer so we could see each other more often, but I always cherish the moments and times that we do get to spend together. On our drive back to the airport we stopped at this place called "Chandelier Tree" It's a huge red wood tree that you can drive through it with you car. It was pretty cool! This trip was one of my favorite yet. Dylan and Haylee were some of the best travelers and I could have not of asked for anything more. Dylan especially was my little trooper. He loved walking, site seeing and looking at all of the animals around the farm. He was the happiest little boy and loved every minute of his time with cousins and family. Congratulations to my cousin Owen and his beautiful wife Shannon. To love and happiness and hosting one of the greatest weddings yet. We can't wait for our next family trip!