Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

On September 29th, Jonathan’s sister Katie got married to Ranjan in Monterey, California. Of course we weren’t going to miss that, so the Stephens Family once again piled into the car and left town for a wedding. And once again, our dog Friday was left all alone.

He wasn't happy.


On Thursday September 27, Jonathan, Jaime, Cassie and Jill headed to San Jose. We got on the road late because we spent 2 hours trying to get the kid’s little TV/DVD combo player to work. Actually, Jonathan spent 1 hour and 55 minutes of failure, then Jaime took over and had it working in 5 minutes. Annoyed, Jonathan decided to give Jaime the silent treatment for showing him up. Jaime responded to the silence by taking a nice, relaxing nap.

Fun Fact:
To get to San Jose from Murrieta, take Highway 15 North to 210 West to Highway 5 North. Drive about 3-hours up the 5 and then take Highway 152 West to 101 North to 85 North into San Jose. The distance is approximately 415 miles and driving time is about 6 1/2 hours.

We arrived in San Jose around midnight and stayed with Dave, Michele and Ashley, who were kind enough to provide us with our own rooms and access to their Hi-Definition TV (the better for Jonathan to play Halo3 on). Cassie and Jill had a great time playing with Cousin Ashley, who enjoys throwing her little plastic balls up into the air.

Next afternoon, we went to Grandma’s to catch up with Dan and his family, who had arrived from Utah the night before. Cassie and Jill loved seeing Grandma, Uncles Dan and Ben and Cousins Josh, Shayne, Micah and Maddy again. Micah apparently messed up his leg recently in a mini-bike accident, so he was hobbling around in a huge Velcro foot cast.

That night, while Jaime stayed at Dave’s to work on Katie’s wedding dress, the rest of the clan went to downtown San Jose to see Ben perform ComedySportz in the old Camera 3 Theatre. We got lost, but did finally find the place just in time for the show. Ben was the “Designated Jokester” for the night, so he played for both the red and blue teams, which meant that he was guaranteed to be on the winning team no matter what.

Rumination:
Doesn’t that also mean he’s guaranteed to be the loser too?

Fun Fact:
ComedySportz is an award-winning interactive comedy show where two teams of "act-letes" compete for audience laughs and points while improvising scenes, games and musicals based on audience suggestions.

A referee calls fouls and keeps the match moving at a blistering pace. The audience is always a part of the interactive show, voting for the winners and sometimes even winding up on stage.

It's clean, fast and fun for all audiences. San Jose's longest-running show, ComedySportz has been named Editor's Choice by The Wave Magazine and Best Local Theatre by The Metro's Best of the Silicon Valley.

On Saturday, September 29, we drove to the beach north of Monterey for Katie’s wedding and met up with Joe, Jen and Cousin Reese. The cousins had fun running around the condo, but they really wanted to be on the beach. Especially Ashley.


At around noon, Katie and Ranjan exchanged vows right on the beach, with Dan officiating. This was the first wedding we’ve ever attended in bare feet!



After the wedding, Ranjan’s family provided a wonderful meal. We hung out for a few hours, eating, chatting and taking pictures.


Here, Cousin Josh eats ... something.


Look over here and smile! No, over HERE!


Uncle Joe has picture posing down. Except for the smiling part.




We left on Sunday morning to drive back to Murrieta, but stopped first to have breakfast with friends Heather and Sergio and see their kids Alex and Lucas. Everyone had a good time and it was fun catching up.





“I liked going to San Jose for Katie’s wedding, except for sitting in the car for five hours. Or was it six hours? I don’t know. I liked that the wedding was on the beach. It was a little cold, but I survived – it’s not like I was freezing. It was interesting that we were REAL flower girls for the first time (Cassie, Jill and Cousin Maddy got to spread flower petals before Bride Katie). That’s how long a wedding should take – it was only like 15 minutes, instead of waiting around doing nothing for an hour. I liked Katie’s husband and seeing all the cousins again.”






“We went to Aunt Katie’s wedding on the beach. It was really fun. I ran in the water and got my dress a bit wet. I saw my cousins Maddie, Shane, Micah, Josh, Reese and Ashley, I got to play with them during the wedding. We stayed with Ashley, Dave and Michele at their house. Katie looked beautiful in her dress. I also got to see Alex and Lucas.”