Day 1 of the 4 Day Wedding Whirlwind

3/17...Wednesday...Up at 5:30 am and out of the house by 7:00 am to drive to the airport, park at The Parking Spot, take their bus to the airport, check in our baggage, go through security, get our clothes back on, count the kids, head to the gate......a mile away, separate so Chuck can find Starbucks and I can find a Women's Room, then meet up again at the gate and sit down and wait a half an hour to board the plane, then board the plane and wait another half hour to take off.

How do you travelers do this daily? It's exhausting. Rush, wait, rush, wait, rush, wait, squeeze in to an elf seat, buckle up and wait some more.

I got the middle seat. This is early in the morning and we all still love each other at this point.


Mark behind me. Straw hair.

Sweet Catha behind us, too.

Cameron in her Mickey Mouse shirt.

We met Cameron in the airport because she had been in Santa Barbara, CA, for the last several days so flew directly from L.A. She greeted us in baggage and gave all of us souvenirs and goodies from Disneyland and her shopping trips while in California. She's always been a gift giver. Love that about her.

We lost 2 hours heading west so we arrived in Phoenix while it was still morning. An hour an a half later, we had 2 rental cars and were on our way

to meet Jordan for lunch.

Happy to be in Phoenix. Hungry again.

Three of us ate at TruFood, the rest went to California Pizza Kitchen. TruFood is a new concept in restaurants where all the food is organic and some is even gluten-free. Those who ate at TruFood had a delicious meal that was so healthy, but were hungry again within an hour. Not enough fat and sugar, I guess. My meal was a turkey burger on a flax bun with homemade mayonnaise and sweet potato hash on the side. So good. So Southern Cal.

Those white buckets above were their very own freshly grown herbs.

So Martha.

We had to wait around until 3:00 pm to check into our hotel. Catha and I headed out to get our pedicures and do some quick shopping....because. The guys? The guys headed over to the resort to taste the wine we would be serving to our guests and to ask a few more questions. ??? Tough errand to run.

Later we all headed over to Chris's townhouse to meet Mia....J & C's dog. She was extremely glad to meet all of us...brought out all of her toys....and ran at least 3 miles in a matter of minutes in an 8 square foot area. We got her very hyped up and then watched sadly as she had to go back to her crate so we could all go out to eat. Because. It had already been 3 hours since we ate last. Because.

We took up two tables.......the young table here.

The old table is behind them.

You've got to love a restaurant (J.Alexander's) that puts warm croissant rolls and honey butter on the table when they bring your drinks.

After Catha's favorite meal at J.Alexander's, we headed back to our hotel and got ready for bed. I announced to anyone listening that I planned on sleeping in....so nobody wake me up until after 9:00 am.

This information will be important when we get to Day 2.

Day 1 was all about getting to Phoenix. And apparently eating.