San Diego Wedding

Last Saturday Bree and I were lucky enough to attend my great friend Kristina's wedding in San Diego.  (Chad had to work, and I bribed a friend to babysit Mason).  Girls' weekend!  Kristina has been my friend since we met in sixth grade.  We were together in honors classes all through junior high and high school, and we attended community college together in the Running Start program, and graduated with our Associates Degrees before we got our high school diplomas.  We starred in school plays and musicals together.  And when we were sixteen Kristina joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She's an amazing example of faith to me and everyone she's touched.  Her new husband Brad's mother caught me in the bathroom at the reception and said, "Kristina told me you were the one who gave her a Book of Mormon."  Her eyes welled up with tears as she thanked me for sharing the Gospel with Kristina, because so many lives have been changed as a result, including Brad's and his family's.  I was touched, and was grateful to her for reminding me what a wonderful conversion story Kristina's is.  I can only take a small part of the credit, of course.  Kristina had an awesome group of friends during those teenage years, all of whom were great examples to her.  And Saturday I felt a lot of pride watching Kristina take that wonderful step, and seeing her so happy.  Bree, of course, became instant best friends with everyone on the temple grounds, as per her custom, including the family who only spoke Spanish.  To them she said, "Muchas gracias" (credit due to Dora the Explorer).  I was constantly pulling her out of the way of wedding pictures...and there were a lot of weddings that day!  She wanted to be in all the pictures, and could not stop hugging Kristina and touching her dress.  That evening, the dinner cruise reception was awesome, and Kristina and Brad had a beautiful sunset ring ceremony.  The food was delicious, and Bree monopolized the dance floor for a large portion of the night.  The adults in our party also embarrassed ourselves, showing off our white dance moves.  Bree and I had a great time, and were completely worn out by the end of the night.  We made sure the traditional honeymoon basket found its way into the right car, and said our goodbyes.  It was a wonderful weekend, and I'm so glad I made the trip.