Just The Two Of Us: June 2015

On May 20th, just before we left for vacation, we received news that Collin's grandpa had passed away. It felt so sudden, yet we knew that it was his time to go. We flew from Virginia to California to be at his funeral.

We got into town on May 28th and stayed until June 4th. It was great to see the rest of the family the night that we got to California. We got to see the viewing for Collin's grandpa, David Cummings, the following day. It was just so touching to hear the testimonies and speeches from family members. I cried quite a bit... We ended the day by going with the Cummings family to a Mexican restaurant called Dose Coyotes.

Saturday, May 30th, was the day of David's memorial service held at the Rocklin Stake Center. The eulogy and talks about his life were so sweet. I will also never forget the musical numbers. Collin had been practicing a musical number with his brothers and cousins called "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy." Their voices blended so perfectly together. Later, Collin's sister Jocelyne sang "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul." I love the song and she sounded beautiful. She touched the whole audience in the congregation, including me. After the service, we enjoyed a luncheon with family members. We were invited to come to Collin's cousin's graduation party that same night. We went and had a great catching up with the Wheeler aunts, uncles, and cousins.

We had the burial for grandpa Cummings the following Monday. He was buried at the Newcastle Cemetery, the same place where my grandpa Carter was buried. It's always so hard to say goodbye, but I know that it wasn't the end. Collin and I both have faith that we will see him again as well as all the others that have gone before us. I will never forget what a wonderful, spiritual man David Cummings was. I will especially never forget when he sealed us in the temple as husband and wife. It was a special privilege to have him perform this sacred ordinance in the temple. He leaves behind a great legacy with many more generations to come.

Collin with his siblings at the Newcastle Cemetery. What a beautiful view!

The only picture I could find of me and grandpa Cummings. (third from left.) Collin has more, but I decided to share this one. The best moment of the big day was when he sealed us in the temple.

I know that grandpa Cummings would want us to live our lives and be happy. So after all the tears were shed, we went to the Santa Cruz beach as a family. Collin's cousin Matt came with us too. We stayed at this really nice hotel suite called Seascape. I used to go there with my family, so I was excited to hear that we were going there again!

On the way there, we got to entertain our very cute little niece named Lila. She has so much personality! She absolutely loves to play and hear music. We had fun singing nursery rhymes in the car. Lila did so great on the way there. I even have a happy picture of her to prove it.

She loved to be tickled. That smile just melts my heart. :)

I have probably said it before, but I love the beach! Best of all, it was the perfect weather to go on a beach trip. So we grabbed our boogie boards and headed for the beach. It was great to go out and get some sun. Although, some of us got a little too much sun. :) If we ever needed to cool down, it was a blast to go into the water and go boogie boarding. We also tossed a Frisbee back and forth to each other. My brother-in-law Justin showed me some cool tricks on throwing a Frisbee. Collin and I went on a few walks on the beach together. We found some pretty neat seashells. Some of us got into building sand castles (or cities). What really stood out to me was when Collin and his family made a heart for grandma Cummings and her husband. I had their initials with an infinity sign under it. It was super cute.

Here are the rest of the highlights from the beach trip:

The view from our hotel

We got to play with Lila on the beach. She LOVED it! :)

Lila having fun with her mom and Uncle Miles

He didn't know I was taking the picture

Our beach picture. We're pretty classy...

This girl was born to be a beach babe. :)

She had a lot of fun with the sand. :)

The picture of all the boys and the heart they created for grandma Cummings.

All the ladies!

They created the sand couch. Best invention yet! :)

Just keepin' it real!

Joce is a model. ;)

I was testing out my camera and got a pretty cool shot of Mikaela

Joce on the beach

We found a bunch of sand crabs

Looking off towards the beach

After all the beach excitement, it was almost time for us to go back to Loomis. But we couldn't head back without one last hurrah at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. I have MISSED it there. It has been about 5 years since I have last been to the boardwalk. I used come there every 2 years with my family growing up. I've always loved roller coasters, so I wanted to take advantage of our time that we had at the boardwalk and ride the Giant Dipper. Matt came with us too. It was well worth the $9 that we spent to ride it.

The Giant Dipper Sign

Our picture on the ride. I can't tell who is having more fun... Collin or me.

This picture cracks me up. I love how the kid next to Matt looks like he's praying.

It was a long drive back to Loomis because of heavy traffic. But I enjoyed every moment on the family beach trip. We came back just in time to celebrate my dad's birthday. We enjoyed a nice chili dinner and, my dad's favorite, German chocolate cake for dessert. He also received some really nice gifts, including the wedding album we sent to him. I was glad Collin and I could be in California to spend time with my dad on his birthday. I feel so blessed to have him as a father.

I love the excitement in this picture!

The gifts he received for his birthday. So spoiled! Haha.

The next day, we flew to Denver with Collin's family. We were late for our connection flight to Austin, so we had to run and catch it. The rest of his family just barely made it to their flight back to DC. We had so many memories from two week vacation. There were tears shed, while at the same time, smiles and laughter. We always love coming to a place where we can see family. I miss it, but look forward to getting to know my new homeland of Texas.

From the memorial luncheon. Lila loved playing with Uncle Justin.

She also loved playing with the volleyballs. :)

Girl's night with my two best friends.

Abbey is crawling now! Yay!!!

In front of the pirate ship at the boardwalk. I loved riding it as a kid

The Wheeler Family together again!

After a week and a half of moving and getting our place set up, we headed to Virginia to see Collin's family. We stayed there from May 21st-28th. It had been over a year since we have been to Virginia. We really like the area, so it was great to back again. My in-laws live only 30 minutes away from Washington DC. We got to spend a lot of our time there.

After our flight to Washington DC, we went to a high school choir concert for Collin's brother Justin. He was in a jazz choir class at his high school. They performed a variety of modern songs like "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars, "Geronimo" by Sheppard, "Firework" by Katy Perry, and much more. It was just so much fun! I was cheering Justin on the whole time. (I think the whole stadium could hear me. Haha.) It brought back a lot of memories when I was in choir in high school. I remember getting into the music and having so much fun performing on stage. I didn't get any pictures of Justin performing on stage, but he did so great! :)

The following day, we went to Washington DC. There is literally SO MUCH to do there that sometimes it can be hard to keep track of. I will give you a warning, this maybe a long blog. :) We decided to explore Smithsonian's National Zoo. It was so neat to discover all the different types of animals that come from all over the world. We went on the American, Asian, African trails. It was so huge that it was nearly impossible to see everything in one day! I was glad we got to see most of the zoo areas. I've always had an interest in biology, so this was just the place to go to learn about how these animals live. Someday, I hope to take our future children here.

Our picture from the zoo

We saw some river otters. I thought this was a cool shot of them playing.

Panda

This elephant was hungry...

Sealed with a kiss. :)

Tarantula!!!

Collin really liked looking at these frogs. Apparently they're poisonous...

This picture makes me smile. :)

He should be a dinosaur trainer, like Chris Pratt. ;)

This alligator stood perfectly still for a LONG time! A lot of people thought that it was fake.

I got a pretty good shot of the zebra

As the week went on, we made a visit to Holocaust Museum. There was so much sad historical events that occurred that I didn't even know about until we came to this museum. It had so many different artifacts and videos to look at. We went inside this memorial which had candles around the names of the concentration camps. It was in remembrance of the people who died in those camps. It was just powerful to look at.

Collin's grandpa Wheeler helped liberate the Dachau, which is worded above. I was glad I got a picture of it.

After we ate lunch, we met my family at Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum! It was such a happy, yet unbelievable moment to see them at the East Coast. My dad, stepmom, sister, brother-in-law, and niece were all there, so that made it an even bigger reunion! :) Justin was so kind and decided to come with us too. We not only spent time with my family at the air and space museum, but also at Smithsonian's Natural History Museum on Memorial Day! If that wasn't enough, we ran into them again at the National Archives!! It was quite a fun filled week with them. My family members are a lot like me and like to take pictures. Here are the highlights from our time spent with them.

The group in the air and space museum. These are my favorite people. :)

I had to squeeze a picture with my amazing sister. We're like two peas in a pod. :)

Carter Sisters with their husbands. I love this picture!

Kisses for Miss Abigail

She got some uncle time with Collin. :)

This little girl knows how to steal hearts!

Love this with grandma Patty

At the natural history museum

Yawning like the hippo

Love these girls. Spending time with Abbey was so fun. She loved to be bounced and look at the different animals. She eventually fell asleep. Too much excitement for this little one. :)

Collin and I had originally made plans to meet with them in specific locations in DC before we left on our trip. My stepbrother Preston was getting married in Buffalo, New York, so they decided to stay in DC for a few days before the wedding. I was sad that I missed his wedding, but I couldn't be happier for him and his new bride, Colleen. They are such a cute couple. Now I have a new sister!!! :)

We couldn't have picked a better time to go to DC than Memorial Day. We quickly found out that Washington DC is a patriotic place. Of course, there's a lot of American history found, plus the White House is here. :) There was a parade going through the city with a lot of people gathered around to see it. We didn't watch it, but still had memorable day.

As I have said before, we got to go to the National Archives. There, we saw the actual Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, which were signed by our Founding Fathers in the 1700's. It's amazing that they have been preserved for centuries! You can't take any pictures of the articles because the lighting could damage them, and I can't blame them for that rule. The archives are so old that the writing on the documents are already faded. However, they are still visible for the public to view them.

I think that the biggest highlight of DC is that we got to cruise through it... in a segway! We went with Miles and Mikaela as well. At first, it was quite an interesting experience for me. Let's just say that it took me a long time to really control the segway. I kept speeding ahead of everyone else, because I had a hard time stopping it, which was kind of scary. At the same time, I probably looked like someone out of a funny movie yelling out "how do you stop this thing?!" Once I got the hang of it, I was getting by a lot more smoothly. I look back now and laugh about the experience.

All in all, the segway tour was incredible! The segways are so much fun to use. (when you know how to handle them. Haha.) We got to tour around the Capital building, White House, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. Here are the pictures to prove it.

About to go on the segway tour. Another perfect photo bomb achieved by Miles. :)

We stopped for a picture in front of the capital building. It was under construction because it needed some retouches. I was glad I got the "I <3 DC shirt as a souvenir. :)

I love this of the Wheeler boys and their wives in front of the Washington Monument.

Can you tell we're excited?!?!

Haha. I like how everyone is looking at me.

On our last day in Virginia, Collin has been wanting to take me a mini golf course called Woody's. However, I wasn't feeling too good that morning and wasn't sure if I could go. Luckily, it was just congestion so I felt better in no time. Woody's was only 20 minutes away from his family's house. Collin was telling me that he took a girl on a date there before his mission. He said he enjoyed it, so I was curious as to why he was excited about going. When we got there, they told us that we had to wait until they cleaned up the golf course. It had rained before we got there, so it flooded a little bit. After they reopened it, we went inside. I immediately noticed that there were animatronics in a jungle themed golf course. I had never seen anything like it. Now I can see why Collin was so excited. It was like traveling through the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, except less thrilling. You had to make it past all these different jungle obstacles. I was even squirted by an animatronic crocodile. Of course, Collin laughed... Every time we got the golf balls in the holes, they were filled with water. It was really fun to go on this date with Collin! I thought that the course was cleverly done. I'd go again.

In front of the golden idol as a part of the golf course

Trying to get a hole in one...

The next day, we headed out early in the morning to the Baltimore Airport, getting ready for our next trip to California. More to come about that in my next blog. :) Here are the rest of our highlights from DC.