Mazel Tov from Albuquerque!

I'm so very exhausted but wanted to get a blog post done before I crashed. Amazing how I'm up earlier than I normally am at home- and it's only an hour time difference! Aren't you supposed to sleep in on vacation?? However, it's my own doing. I met my sister both Saturday morn and today down at the fitness center and got a workout in. I think I'll skip it tomorrow though.

This morning began (after the workout) with a small happy Father's Day for Bret in our room. The girls made him a shirt, and we thought it would be nice to keep the moment between the 4 of us. After that we met the rest of the clan downstairs in the restaurant for breakfast, and also gave some Happy Birthday wishes to Tari-Mom. Then we all trekked it into Old Town Albuquerque to wander and try and find a gem/rock/shiny things store for the kids.

We didn't. Unfortunately the kaleidoscope store was closed too. But it was nice to wander around, and we found a great chili store with just about every sort of chili sauce your intestines can (and can't) handle. The names were great too- so great I really hoped my kids didn't notice any of them (yes I took photos). We also found a rattlesnake museum as well, but we ended up skipping it because the kids found their rocks in the gift shop and that was good enough for them.

Bret is slowly getting over his virus, which is good, because he's tired of not being able to eat what he wants and feeling so warn out so fast. Who wants that on vacation? He managed to go down and swim with us after we returned from Old Town for a bit. The girls and I stayed longer enjoying the slightly cooler weather, then it was time to get ready for the reason we came to Albuquerque in the first place. My Aunt Peggy's wedding.

It was a new experience for me. I've been to many a Catholic wedding, I've been to a Mormon wedding. This wedding was a Jewish ceremony. It was held at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, in their back gardens. Although it was a little warm, it was still a beautiful ceremony. Allison said she really liked hearing the parts in Hebrew. Samantha said she liked seeing the glass smashed. Not a dry eye from any of the Radin side when a short remembrance of John-Dad was read. I really wish he could have been there, yet it seemed like he was...

The kids unfortunately didn't fare too well with the vegan dinner that was served. Allison did ok and at least tried it, but Samantha and my nephew Jonah got a surprise visit from the McDonald's fairy. The cake was great too. One tier white, one tier chocolate, and one tier vegan coconut. Quite yummy!

My brother, Andy, photographed the wedding as an official gig to get his new photography business going. He's amazing, if any of you on twitter clicked any of the links to his blog during his Asia travels, you know what I mean. It was a lot of fun watching him work, although it did stink he couldn't really be a *part* of the festivities because he was working. He won't be in any of the wedding photos!

Another very special part of the evening for me, was meeting one of the Radin cousins, Janet. She is a violist who is a career movie-soundtrack-orchestra-music person (is there an official name for that?). She's worked on a gazillion movies, like The Simpsons Movie, Home Alone, ALL of the Indiana Jones movies (not including the latest) and a slew of others over the years! Ever since I moved in with my foster family, John-Dad was always trying to arrange a meeting between us (since I played viola), which just never seemed to work out. Tonight I finally met her, after about 17 years. It was wonderful, and I know Dad would be so pleased that we finally met. Just wish he could have been there for it. What's weird? I kept finding myself thinking, "I have to tell Dad I finally met Janet!" I don't think I'll ever be used to him being gone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who missed him a little more tonight.

Now, here it is well after 1am, and I'm trying to get this finished and upload a few photos. Tomorrow we are heading up to Colorado after spending the morning with the fam, so the first stop on our Summer of Fun is nearly over. I will see many of these family members again in a week or so when we get to Boston, so it won't be TOO sad of a goodbye.

Onward we go! PS- you can click the photo above to get to the flickr site and a few more photos. I will automatically do this from now on!