CA: A Family Dinner

There are several posts to come about our July trip to California.  We had a fantastic time, and as usual, I took a lot of pictures!

The first day we were there my mom had arranged a big family dinner.  My sisters Daja and Keira had both traveled home as well, with their families in tow.  On top of that, my brother and grandmother drove up from the San Diego area.  And for good measure, a couple of sister missionaries had dinner with us as well.  The house was so full, and the weather so perfect, that we ended up eating outside on my parents' backyard patio.

A big part of the reason that we traveled to California this summer was to see my Grandma Hayman.  We had hoped to be able to spend time with my Grandpa as well, but he passed away before we were able to travel.  I was really excited for Ephram to meet his Great Grandma Hayman for the first time.  He really liked her!

Actually, it was the first time nearly all my family had met Ephram... we all live so far away from each other!  Ephram spent half the meal with my Grandma and the other half with my Dad.  My Dad loves teasing all of us, and was having some fun teasing Ephram with the food on his plate.  Ephram had only been eating solids for about 3 weeks at this point, but he obviously thought that he was ready to eat everything he saw!

Most of the cousins have met each other before.  Of course, none had met Ephram yet and our family had yet to meet Daja's youngest, Dustin.  (We would have met him at Christmas had I not been 37 weeks pregnant and unable to travel!)  It had been awhile since the cousins had seen each other and they all had a fun time that night.

There are three cousins that are all just two months apart in age... the four year old group.  Quinlan, Brinly and Charlie all ate at a table together that night.  For the most part they had fun, I think, although there were several arguments over the positioning of the table.  Quinlan and Charlie kept moving it around.  Brinly didn't like that too much!

This was a fun way for us all to spend our first night together.  The only person we were missing was Liel!  Luckily I get to see her in another week or so.