Evan and Valerie's Wedding

Evan and Valerie were married in the Los Angeles temple on July 20, 2013.  They make such a great couple and we are so glad Valerie is part of the family now!  Their wedding day was perfect and a little extra special.  Here's why...

The man in the middle of this picture is Elder Cardon or so he has always been known to the Finlay family.  He is one of the elders who taught Ian's parents the gospel and baptized them into our church.  They have stayed in touch and has been to the sealings of many of the Finlay kids.  Elder Cardon taught the Finlays the gospel, but the Reeves family first introduced the Finlays to the gospel about 23 years ago.  Because of their influence, Ian's parents joined the church.  Now, 23 years later, their daughter Valerie married Evan and were sealed in the temple.  Needless to say it was so special to be in the temple with all of these people knowing how they have influenced each other's lives.    

The nieces and nephews were so cute dressed up.

The Finlay Fam.

Brothers.  

The reception was beautiful.  Since Valerie has spent a lot of time in France, a macaroon eiffel tower was made.  

I got to help these ladies do the flowers for the wedding.  We took a few trips to the LA flower market and had a great time putting the arrangements together.  

Cousin Convention 2013

Growing up, Ian's grandparents would take all their grandkids on vacation and call it a cousin convention.  Ian and his cousins have so many fun memories of these trips.  This year, the cousins decided to recreate the cousin convention.  We met at Lake Tahoe.  Here is the whole groupie that was able to make it.

I felt right at home at Lake Tahoe as it reminded me of the Colorado Rockies.  We enjoyed several great hikes.  

I love this picture of Ian.  He is truly in his element outdoors.

  

I fell in love with kayaking.

We tried the stand up paddle board.  It's harder than it looks!

Ian also did some cliff jumping with the more daring cousins.  

A picture of the ladies.  (Most of Ian's cousins are girls and we have a great time.)

Thanks Finlays, Crumps, and Fergusons for a great CuzziCon 2013!

Bachelor Party

Ian's youngest brother Evan got married in July.  Before the big day, the male members of the family threw him a bachelor party.  It included golfing at the driving range with appetizers.

Followed by a pizza party at neighbor Larry's home.  

Congratulations Evan and Valerie!

Camping

Ian and I both get to work with the youth ages 12-18 in our church.  Ian recently went on a camping, rafting, and zip lining trip with the boys near Sacramento.  Ian now wants to buy a similar rafting company nearby and build it into a big company.  He also wants to become a river rafting guide telling people when they get into the raft "welcome to my office":)  
 

I also went camping (or stayed in cabins in the mountains) with the girls.  I stayed with the first year girls most of the time.  We did a great hike to Lake Cachuma. 

Camp was at Camp Rancho Alegre near Santa Barbara.  All 12 girls from the ward had a really great time.  One highlight for all young women was a faith walk planned by the sixth years.  Each sixth year girl was positioned at a station in a circle on a path around a small pond.  Each had a personal story to tell of a burden they had been carrying.  All other campers were given a small backpack.  In small groups, they rotated around the pond and listened to the sixth year girls tell their stories of burdens they carried.  At the end of telling their story, the sixth year girls put a cup full of rocks in each young woman’s backpack to symbolize each young woman taking on some of their burdens.  The young women were all deeply touched by stories of loss of a parent, mending relationships with a parent, self esteem, depression, health, etc and literally felt those burdens as their backpacks became very heavy by the end.  After hearing all the stories, all young women hiked about a quarter of a mile up to the main cabin.  Once there, each young woman in turn walked to the front and dumped out their bag of rocks and was given a picture of the Savior in return symbolizing the atonement and that Jesus Christ has taken upon himself our burdens.  This activity strengthened each young woman’s testimony.   

A Few Random Events

So much has happened this summer.  Here are a few events that happened in July.  

Ian and I helped out at a local Relay for Life event.  We always love helping out good causes and this was one of them.  

We got to attend Ian's friend Whitney and John's wedding in SLC, UT.  In usual form, I didn't take many pictures so I had to steal this one from their Facebook page.  It is way better than anything I would have taken anyway.  They are a good looking couple and it was so fun to celebrate with them.

  

We got to see Brea and Michael at the wedding too.  We missed the rest of the groupie - they have   been friends since college.   

You are probably tired of seeing pictures of our garden and produce now, but we have been so excited about our garden and fruit trees this year!  Our peach tree gave us a nice crop of peaches.  

Our garden has been producing veggies like crazy.  We love harvesting in the morning and thinking up new meals we can make with them for dinner that evening.  We are hooked on gardening and are excited to start cold weather crops soon.  

Morro Bay

Ian and I took a quick weekend trip up to Morro Bay to celebrate the end of his first year of business school.  Morro Bay is a sleepy little town on the west coast about 2 hours north of Santa Barbara.  We took our bikes up with us and rode along the beach.

On our bikeride, we saw seals in the harbor.

I always love visiting Morro Bay because it gives me an opportunity to slow down and appreciate the simple things in life.

A Visit From Nate

My brother Nate came to CA for a visit last week.  It was a whirlwind trip but we fit a lot of fun things in.  Nate learned how to boogie board.  He was a natural- catching on really quickly. 

Monday we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain.  It's probably been over ten years since I was at a park like this and rode roller coasters.  Admittedly, I was a little timid to go on some of the roller coasters, but I still went.  This was one of the worst scariest rides and I screamed the entire ride!  It might be another ten years before I do this again.

Isn't my brother so cute?  It was so fun to hang out with him for a few days.  Come back soon!