On the morning of the 5th of July, we flew to San Francisco, CA for the second leg of our excursion to visit all of our family (we nearly did it too, if only Chris's grandparents were in California as well). Chris's brother and sister-in-law Karl and Angela, and his sister and brother-in-law Becky and Wayne all live in San Jose, CA. When we announced our plans to visit, Chris's mom decided that she needed to come as well because it was the first time that all of the new Rees cousins would be together in the same place. Thomas (Karl and Angela's son) and Paela (Wayne and Becky's daughter) were born last year as well and they are currently Davin and Rowan's only first cousins. After Diane decided to come, so did Chris's dad, Brigham, his brother Bryan, and his other two sisters, Amy and Susan. It was a wonderful blessing to have all of the Reeses together in one place.
Our trip to California started with another reunion, however. Chris's roommates (his last roommates before he became my roommate) Eric Halpenny, Trent Crow, and Terrell Crow (twin brothers), and their families met us at a park in Oakland. It has been five years since we left BYU and it was great to see them all again. Trent and Eric have two children each and it was fun to see our little guys play together. I had a fun time meeting their lovely wives. We talked about the good old times and had a few new laughs too. It was as if nothing had changed and yet everything had changed too. It was exciting to see all of them happily married and successful in their current occupations. Our only regret is that we don't live closer, but hopefully we'll have opportunity to see them again. After we tired of the park, Trent invited us to hang out at his office. Sounds like fun, eh? Well, I don't think that the Pixar Studios are the average as offices go. After Trent graduated from BYU with his masters in computer science, he got a job working for Pixar. He worked on Ratatoiulle and the latest release, Wall-E. The Studios were impressive. It was obvious that they made an effort to create an environment that would excite the creative energy of their employees. For example, what better way to solve writer's cramp than to take a dip in the Olympic-sized pool or work-out in the other athletic facilities? Or how better to solve a design error than to have a bowl of cereal in the office cereal bar? The cereal bar was a hit with the kids as well. With about twenty different flavors of cereal, a fridge full of milk, bread in the pantry, and p.b. and j if needed, all completely gratis, the employees at Pixar have all of the ingredients to continue to produce fine films indefinitely. This was a particularly poetic moment for four Merrill Hall boys who contributed to the shortage of Marshmallow Mateys in the Cannon Center one day during their freshman year. They had an honorary bowl of cereal to commemorate the ten year anniversary.
After grabbing a bite to eat at Fenton's Creamery, we headed to San Jose to stay with Karl and Angela. They were gracious to let us crowd their home and we had a wonderful time staying with them. It was especially fun to play games together after the kids went to bed.
The next day was Sunday. It was fun to go to church with the Reeses; Karl and Becky are in the same ward. After attending church, we relaxed together at a park and had a picnic. The food was great and it was nice to have uncomplicated time together. It was fun to see the four little cousins together at last.
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