10/11/11 It is sunny in San Diego as I am writing this in Darran & Marielle's apartment. We took the newlyweds to the airport yesterday morning and they are now in Puerto Rico, enjoying their honeymoon. I'm sure they needed some rest time after all the preparations for their wedding, which was so perfect and beautiful. The ceremony was at 5PM Saturday on the lawn of the Dana Hotel, overlooking Mission Bay. It was sunny and a comfy temperature. I didn't get very good pictures of the ceremony because we had to stay seated in the first row, but I will post a few of the ones we got before and after.
Here is a picture of the newlyweds with her parents, Ann & Bill Gomez, and Elaine and Mary (the Moms):

You can see how beautiful both Marielle and her dress were. Here is a picture of her with her sister, Meg, her matron of honor, holding onto her train:

Marielle's parents put up lots of bucks for this event and many of their family members and friends came from New York, which is where Marielle and Meg were raised. Here is a picture of Ann & Bill walking Marielle down the aisle:

Darran's best friend, Brian Lowe, and his wife Jen, have been such supportive friends for Marielle and Darran while they have lived here in San Diego. Brian has been the main force encouraging and helping Darran start his own construction company, which renovates commercial spaces. Brian was Darran's best man and Brian and Jen hosted a wonderful rehearsal dinner in their backyard on Friday night. It was a tropical BBQ, the food was delicious, and they had entertainers which did dances and music from many of the South Pacific islands. My pictures didn't turn out very good because it was dark, but here is a picture of Brian and Jen at the wedding:

When Darran was in junior high and high school in Roseville, his best friend was Kody Bush and he practically lived at the Bush house when he wasn't in ours. Both Kody and his brother Chase were groomsmen in the wedding and here we are with them:

Terri & Chuck Bush and their youngest son, Jesse, sat at our table at the wedding, which was a real treat for us after all these years of not seeing them:

Maybe you can tell from these pictures that the reception was held in a very beautifully decorated room at the Dana, with wonderful food, great service, and lots of dancing music. The party went on until nearly midnight. We all had ample opportunity to interact with people we hadn't seen for years, and also meet Marielle's family and friends from the East. Darran's Dad, Bob Clemo, hadn't seen his sister and her family for nearly 20 years. Here is a picture of him with his sister, Joyce, who came from Colorado:

For 4 days we were blessed by having all the rest of our kids, their partners, and families with us at the beach house we rented. Here are some pictures of them:
My daughter, Laura, with her fiancee, Dennis, and her girls, Michaela and Paige:

My son, Thomas, lives in San Francisco and drove down with my niece, Kathy, and her daughter Camille. His partner, Robert, couldn't attend due to a recent surgery, so here I am with Thomas:

Kathy is the only daughter of my sister Myrna, who passed away in 2005. Here she is with her daughter, Camille:

Elaine's daughter, Tarra, her husband, Alonzo, and their 3 girls, Ari, Alia, and Analy were such a big help at the condo, and also these girls enjoyed the beach so much, just watching them made us smile the whole time:

I'm sure there are other people I should mention or pictures I should include, but probably I have taken enough time already. Please forgive me if you are reading this and I left you out. Today we are rushing to get laundry done, pack, and do the last minute prep for our flight to Rome tomorrow. Luckily our RV friends, Flo Palumbo and Co Eisele are nearby in their RV and are going to join us for dinner tonight and then drive us to the airport tomorrow. Don't know when we will have a chance to post again, since we will be on a ship for 28 days starting on the 14th.
Watch this space for more travel tales and less family oriented reports....