Pasadena & Austen's Wedding

We had such an amazing trip this past weekend. We had the opportunity to travel down to Pasadena, CA with my cousin Tommy and his wife Katie to my other cousin Austen and his new wife Kaira's wedding. Tommy, Austen and I were all close to the same age growing up and they are two of my closest cousins. I was born in Pasadena and grew up there until I was 8. We also visited the area almost every summer growing up when we'd take summer vacations down to the beach in Newport or surrounding areas. So the area holds a place so near and dear to my heart. The wedding was amazing. We are so happy for Austen that he has found happiness with an amazing girl like Kaira. She looked absolutely stunning and the whole day was such a blast.

We were able to spend a lot of time with family that day. It helped remind me what an incredible blessing families are. I love my family so much- not only my immediate family but my extended family as well. We had so much fun catching up and just hanging out at and after the wedding.

I absolutely love my cousins! Don't they look stunning?!

The four amigos of the trip. We had so much fun hanging out so much with Tommy and Katie.

The handsome groom and handsome hubs. Austen really reached out to Eric when he became a part of the family, which meant so much to both Eric and I.

All of us are married now! Hooray!

The three cousins, now and then.

This is most of the family that was there. (Uncle Mike had to leave for his flight early).

Kaira was recently baptized into the church, so we are looking forward to the next celebration for these two as they are looking to get sealed in the temple in a year.

We had a blast that night as we spent time just hanging out in our hotel room talking about great old memories. We got a Domenico's pizza, which took us back to great memories of pizza out by my grandma's pool. We had fun with Tommy, Katie and Amy out in the amazing hot tub until waaaay past it's closing time and had some great discussions and laughs about life.

We left Sunday evening, but we were able to have an amazing last day in Pasadena. We slept in and checked out of our hotel at the last possible second, which was sooo nice. Then we went to Annendale Country Club, or "the club", where my grandma has been a member for decades for brunch. It was absolutely beautiful and so incredibly delicious. Tommy has done a lot of research on my Nonno (grandpa in Italian) so we were able to talk a lot about him and what an amazing life he lived. He was in incredible man who I feel so lucky to call my grandfather. We went to visit his grave, which is in the biggest and most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen. His grave is at the very top of the rolling hills that make up the cemetery, in the most peaceful garden guarded by a Cristus statue. It was beautiful and amazing.

Outside our beautiful hotel, waiting for "big blue", the glorious blue Dodge minivan we rented for the trip.

At Annendale in front of the beautiful golf course. What a good looking couple!

Forest Lawn, visiting Nonno's grave.

Pinkberry! Deeeelicious. (Although the customer service wasn't great according to Eric) ;)

 It was an incredible trip, and more than anything I was so happy to show Eric the places that are such a large part of my past and that helped form who I am today. It was a special trip that I will hold near and dear to my heart forever.