Northern CA

Scott and I traveled up to my hometown of Walnut Creek in Northern CA this past weekend to visit my parents, see family, and attend to wedding things. On our drive up north, we stopped by Murrieta's Well Winery in Livermore (our wedding venue) for a quick wine tasting pit stop, before our grand arrival in Walnut Creek.
Upon arriving Friday afternoon, we promptly changed into coordinating outfits (dark jeans, black shoes, sand shirts) and headed to the open space in the hills for our engagement photo shooot. I've never done a photo shoot before, and it was so much fun! We did a bunch of poses, and half the time I couldn't stop laughing, especially when we had to pose nose to nose =)
Friday night we enjoyed dinner at home with parents, and brothers Jason and Max. Saturday morning Scott and I met my high school friend Nina for breakfast and then had an appointment to meet with a florist. We talked for 2 hours about wedding flowers! I think I spent about half of that time reminding the florist I do NOT want huge centerpieces that spew flowers up, down and all around.
Saturday night my whole family reunited for my Aunt Janet's 50th birthday celebration. The Vetterli's know how to announce a party! My grandparents flew up from Claremont, Aunt Janet, boyfriend Judd, and cousins Julianna and Christian flew in from Park City, Utah (and Julianna and Christian's grandparents from the Bay Area); Auntie Anne and cousin Hank from Twaine Hart, Uncle Dick and Kim, my brothers, and parents. This is my Uncle Dick, Aunt Kim, and Auntie Anne. Uncle Dick is going to marry us in June. There were 18 of us in all! My grandparents brought Mexican food from a local restaurant and my dad was in charge of margarita preparation. This is a very serious job, involving stimutaneous blending in 2 blenders. Once we were all happily satiated with margaritas, we ate a feast of tamales, enchiladas, burritos, beans, rice, and a healthy salad (I'm not sure how the healthy food made it onto the table). It was a fun night, and was repeated in the morning at brunch in Lafayette at a restaurant called Chow (sans margartitas, but the same crowd).
After brunch, Scott and I drove to Berkeley to meet up with Kelly (Scott's sister) and her boyfriend Levi (we were the first in the family to meet him). We wandered around Telegraph Ave, had a few beers and browsed through Ameoba Records. It was a short visit, since Scott and I had dinner plans with my grandma Marianne that night in Walnut Creek. My brothers (Jason and Max) at dinner with grandma Marianne.
Finally, we drove home on Monday, and made it back to the OC in time for kickboxing! Next weekend we take off again, this time to Flagstaff, Arizona for a wedding.