Darn Happy: Auntie Cyndie's Wedding!

To get to Auntie Cyndie's wedding this weekend, we landed in Oakland. We had dinner at a great place called Francesco's (which totally satiated Christina's need for some Italian-American cooking and decor, and which had the BEST spumoni we have ever had!) and then tried to drive to Santa Rosa. Unfortunately, we got a bit turned around and ended up at the naval base on Treasure Island. It had a great view of San Francisco (or would have without the fog).

We eventually got ourselves turned around, up to Santa Rosa, and the girls ecstatically jumped from hotel bed to hotel bed as we hung out with Grandma and Auntie Lissa. The next morning we met up with them and also with Christina's Uncle Everett and Aunt Linda for breakfast.

The rest of the day was wedding prep with a little bit of Farmer's Market for fresh peaches and In and Out Burger for a yummy lunch. Steve took the girls for the afternoon and Christina went to Calistoga with Melissa to decorate cakes for the wedding.

When the girls arrived at the wedding venue Clara was in great spirits, and looked just adorable.

She and Auntie Lissa took pictures of each other.

Elena was a little sleepy and took a few minutes to warm up, but she got in on the photo-taking action too, snapping this one of Clara and Christina.

The best of the three of us together that day - grumpy Elena and sunny Clara. Pretty soon things got way too fun for us to stop and take pictures, so this will have to serve for our memories!

The girls were great with Steve and Auntie Lissa during the ceremony. They didn't understand why Christina was up in the front, but aside from one "Boo!" from Clara, trying to get a reaction from Christina (and a surprised Boo, not a derogatory Boo!) they were really quiet. Christina tried hard to wait in a dignified manner, despite the funny girls.

Then, in came the couple!

Christina didn't have legal power to marry them, but she just spoke a few words and helped them move the ceremony along as they wanted to.

The moms took the wedding rings around to get "warmed" by everyone present.

And, they're married!

Married, and exuberant!

Two sweetie nieces with their Auntie Cyndie.

We had lots of pictures taken - not sure how they'll come out with wiggle-worm girls in them, but with a few breaks (like this juice break with Grandma) they did great!

There was a bridge that went between the ceremony site and the reception site, and the girls were pretending to by "grumpy old trolls" from Dora the Explorer and not letting people pass. At one point, Lee (Cyndie's new father-in-law) wouldn't let THEM pass, and we called him the grumpy troll. He wanted them to give him a nickel to pass. They demanded a nickel for HIM to pass. He went to get a nickel and came back with a dollar for each girl, so that he could pass all night. This escalated into the girls selling place settings and favors to Lee and Uncle Everett, and making $10 that night!

Cyndie and Russell had a basket of flip flops anyone could take if they were were sick of wearing their heels. Christina took them up on the offer, and got a little ridiculed by Lee, who demanded a shot of his cowboy boots with her flip flops. (We're going to point him to the post before this one where we show how country we are, after all).

Steve and Clara, checking out the place settings and lavender name tags.

Christina and Melissa, on their 40th take of this particular picture (we were being so picky!).

Clara, happy about her dinner!

Toasts and speeches, from and for the wedded couple.

Okay, then we started getting really silly - there was a photobooth full of props and the fun in there started spilling out to the reception area, and we all started taking goofy photos!