Friday - Aquarium

The Friday before the wedding, pretty much all the family was now in town and since I don't see my extended family much, we wanted to all get together and do something during the day before the rehearsal dinner.  We thought that going to the Dallas Aquarium might be fun (too bad that the Garcia family decided that too but went the day before).  When we went to pick them all up at the hotel, we had to be democratic about the whole plan and go over multiple options and discussions about what else we could do together or perhaps in smaller groups ... an hour later, we all agreed on the aquarium after all, haha.

 

For being an aquarium, I actually saw very few fish.  They also have a small jungle/amazon type multi-level atrium thing with lots of other animals like flamingos, turtles, penguins, alligators, monkeys(?), and even a sloth.

Looking up for the birds ...

... and the monkey (?) things... really cute and little, reminded me of the Lorax with the mustache, lol.

Looking down at the alligators and turtles and frogs and flamingos.

Some fish we did get to see were the sharks and sting rays, and during their feeding time.  They have this see-through hallway/tunnel thing that goes right underneath the shark tank, so you can see them as they swim right past and above you.

... it was definitely ... something ... to see them eat at the falling chum and squids and fish and stuff... even picking leftovers off of each other... yum. -_-

... giant sea turtles shared the tank with the sharks too.

... outside, looking at the tiny penguin habitat.

sooo cute!  (... but a little smelly)

(I think he's a little bored with the penguins...)

We also got to see a bit of some traditional dancers with elaborately decorated costumes.

and they even had a jaguar! (... maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought aquariums had fish and other sealife? lol)

... don't we look so energetic?  it was fun, but a long day.

Thursday - Receiving my endownments

Most of the extended family and Danny's family arrived in the Dallas area on Wednesday / Thursday, many of whom came with me to the temple on Thursday night when I received my endownments.  (I might add, this was the first time I even met Danny's dad or his brother David... welcome to the family, lol).  While I was anxious about having such a large audience for the event, I'm glad that I have such a great family that were willing and able to support me that night.

The Dallas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

... meeting new family afterwards.

One totally unexpected thing... just after the session had finished but before we got a chance to change, the fire alarm went off!  Luckily, they let us finish changing before making us quickly leave the building and see the fire trucks.  We found out later that an air-conditioning unit broke or something (or at least, we saw a new one ready to be installed the next day).  Fortunately nothing was damaged or hurt, but it sure made for an interesting night.

Visiting with family - Chuck-E-Cheese

The basic itinerary of the week before the wedding: Thursday, I received my endownments; Friday, rehearsal dinner; Saturday morning, wedding ceremony at the temple; Saturday midday, wedding reception in Mckinney.  I was able to come to my parent's house the Monday before (due to work, Danny couldn't come until Thursday afternoon), to help with a few final preparations as well as spend some time with my family (Amanda and her boys spent the whole week with my parents).  One of the first things we did was take the boys to Chuck-E-Cheese with the entire family (Michael and Meghan joined too).  It was a lot of fun getting to be a kid again, in a way, playing games, eating pizza, winning tickets, and just having fun.  I'm sure the boys enjoyed it too.

Of course, Andrew loved the cars.

Seth... not so much.

... Grandma got run over by my nephew... lol.

... despite many games being a little too difficult for a three-year-old to understand, Andrew was quite dedicated in playing them.

Even Seth liked to help play games when he could.

... a very intense game of air hockey (and note, this is a kid's size air hockey, kinda hard to play on when you have to practically kneel to be at the right height).

but of course, tickets are way more fun than watching others play.  We all contributed to the nephew's prizes / tickets, though the award for most by far goes to Michael, the skeeball champion.  He won the skeeball jackpot three times in one night!

... I guess meeting a six-foot mouse can be a little intimidating for a one-year-old.

Michael and Dad also played a ton of basketball...

... very serious competitors, haha.

There was this one racing game that Andrew really really wanted to play (a little too big for him though, so I helped with the pedals while he steered), but it kept being used.  So he waited and waited sooo paitently, and when it was finally our turn, it ate our last token.  I felt so bad, he didn't understand why he couldn't play.  But thankfully, the workers gave us two tokens free to replace the one it ate, so he finally got to drive.  Thanks Chuck-E-Cheese!

Wedding Week

After months of planning, scheduling and stressing over showers, dresses, food, invitations, photography, guest lists, and a million other details that all felt equally as important and crucial to the entire event, the week of the wedding finally came!  All the planning finally had to stop and we just had to do it.  And whatever happened with all the other details and things I'm sure I was forgetting, nothing really else mattered.  And so, on August 14, 2010, we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Dallas Temple and became Daniel and Sarah Garcia.

The next few posts will be a bit of all that went on during the weeks before and after the ceremony.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog!  I felt that between graduating and getting married, it was a good time to start a new blog, one for not just me, but our new family.  Mostly this will be a way for us to keep a journal and hopefully, also as a way to keep our family and friends (and any other readers) updated on the lives of the newest Garcias.  Thanks for reading!