Last Chance, McAllister: California

After a beautiful week in Hawaii, we flew back to California and Matt flew in!!! Reunited and it feels so good.

That week we had celebration upon celebration. All the family members came down to bond, my aunts and cousins threw me a bridal shower, and we partied it up on the 4th of July. Matt fit right into the Layne side, and the older boys and Uncles had another guy to rough-house with.

Here are some highlights:

The beach! We love the beach! I got caught in a riptide for the second time in my life, which was pretty scary, but I made it out alive. Matt loves body surfing so that was fun for him. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so great but we still made it out a few times.

Awkward cousins. I LOVE my family. I love them a lot. Going to california for family reunions is one of my favorite things to do, whether its going to grandma's house, swimming in the pool, going to the beach, barbecuing at Kym's, bike riding down in San Diego, sea world, bull taco, Pat & Oscars, or family outdoor movie nights. Some of my favorite memories are with these people, and I wouldn't trade one of them for the world. 

This little girl. She cracks me up. We took her swimming all the time and me and matt bought her a little Monster's Inc. kickboard. One day me and her decided to wash the car... which just ended up being me washing the car, but it was cute while it lasted.

She and Matt love each other :)

Registering! Wasn't actually that fun, but when we got tired of it, we just went to the kid's section and registered for a bunch of board games.

Matt's first time to Disneyland! It's hard when you're first time to disneyland is when you are 24... It was a bit of a letdown I'm afraid, ha. The magic isn't quite there. His favorite disney movie is sword in the stone, so we had fun with that, and I think his favorite ride was space mountain. Wasn't impressed with the matterhorn... (who is?), but we had a good time overall 

One of the things that my parents did when they were newly engaged was to go to "Snow White's Grotto", which is a little random place on the side of Sleeping Beauty's castle that has a wishing well, and they made wishes. They always tell us about it when we go to disneyland. So Matt and I decided to go there for nostalgia's sake and make that our own "special spot". We realized we didn't have any coins to make wishes though so we ended up finding/wishing on a blade of grass and a stepped on jelly bean we found on the ground. Pretty much the same thing as a coin, ha.

Getting Endowed. I went through the temple on July 5th. It was a pretty incredible day. The temple is a beautiful place, and I feel peace every time I go. It was wonderful to be surrounded by family members at the temple and to feel the spirit there. Yes, the first time was pretty freaky, but going often has helped me learn a lot about myself and about Heavenly Father's plan for me. A couple of things I remember from that day is that while Rach & I did initiatories, Matt also did initiatories. Rachel got pretty emotional before we even started, which made me feel a little bit better about myself, ha. Mom was Rachel's escort and Grandma Layne was mine, which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed talking to the temple matron beforehand; we got a lot of good information before going in and it calmed my nerves a little bit. It was nothing like I expected, yet it was nothing new. I knew that I had been living righteously my whole life up until that point and didn't feel uncomfortable making sacred covenants in the Lord's house. I remember that my temple clothes were too big and kept slipping off during the session, which was kind of embarrassing. The celestial room was beautiful. I loved being there with my family. They gave us a tour afterwards of the inside of the temple which was really cool; the San Diego Temple is one of the most beautiful I've been in. I remember my dad pulled me aside and told me 2 things: Every time I went to the temple I should try to learn something new. The second thing was that the more I saw the temple ceremonies through the eyes of the Lord and less through the eyes of the world, the more meaningful it would be for me. I loved that, and I try to follow that advice every time I go. The temple is the real happiest place on Earth.