Today was awesome awesome awesome, firstly because I got the hell out of that hotel room first thing in the morning - the scary part was that I didn't notice the urine smell anymore by the time I got up, indicating that I grown used to it during the night - kind of a scary thought. It was a little more friendly in the daytime, but not much. I realized what a awful area it really was.
Anyway, I drove over to my aunt Nancy (who is in NH right now unfortunately, but for really good reason) and my uncle Kayo's house to meetup with mi familia. I knew Kayo was going to be at work, but two of my cousins, Josh and Stephanie were there. I've seen them pretty recently, and they were a blast to hang out, so I was excited.
Josh chillin on the couch, Stephanie talking on the phone in the background.
We tried calling everyone else up, but for some reason no one else was around at this point. My uncle Frank stopped by for a bit (just to explain the family tree, Nancy and Kayo are married, Nancy being my mom's sister, and Frank and Chris were married, Frank being my mom's brother). He headed out, and then we headed to a movie to wait for everyone else to give a call.
STEPHANIE IS SOO EXCITED TO DRIVE! Far too excited.
We saw Anchorman, its my 3rd time seeing it, and it just keeps getting funnier. Anyway, I got a call from Chris saying that everyone was looking for us, so we called around and got everyone to come over to the house. Eventually everyone showed up, it was awesome, I hadn't seen Damien for a few years, and we always got along really well, so it was cool to see him again. I was really excited to see Tanya, Malia, and Kanoa as well - I haven't seen them for ages and I really missed them quite a bit, the last time we met up I think I was around 12 or so. Tanya has a 3 year old son as well, Pauly (Pauli? I assume just because I spell my name with an 'i' doesn't mean everyone else does ;) ). Anyway, he's a wicked cute kid, I got a great picture of them both.
And Damien relaxing on the chair - this came out fuzzy, which I was pretty upset about.
A bunch of the pictures in Fresno came out blurry, I don't know why. Anyway though - we decided to grab some food at a local pasta house (Before we left Kayo showed up and we talked for a second, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to have any good conversations with him just because I only spent a day there). Chris showed up as well, we got 2 really good group shots that a waitperson took for us.
From left to right, its Kanoa, then to the back is Josh, then back in the fore is Chris, then Stephanie, then Tanya, then Damien, then some freak in a Hawaiian shirt behind him, then Malia's boyfriend Larry (God I hope I got that right, I'm terrible at remembering names), then Malia. Josh's friend showed up later as well, we had a packed table. It was cool to hear stories and whatnot about everyone.
Eventually we finished and we decided to go bowling, which is awesome, because bowling is the best sport ever. Anyone who doesn't think it's a sport is a FOOL! First we stopped by the hospital I was born at (I didn't mention - I was born in Fresno, and this is my first time ever being back since I was like a month old or so). Here is a picture of the outside, they wouldn't let us go in because it was late.
We made it to the bowling alley, and got a lane. Damien talked some pretty serious trash, but in the end the scores told the true story.
As an added bonus, after everyone left and we were the only ones left, "Beans" from Even Stevens showed up (Here is a lame hollywood picture of him from the Van Helsing premier), everyone was kind of freaked out to ask him if he was the kid or not, but eventually someone did, and he was indeed Beans. The girls got a picture with him, and as you can see from the shot his hands wandered a little too "south" on both Tanya and Stephanie. You just can't trust Disney show kid actors.
Anyway, we headed out, said goodbyes, and I spent the night at the house. I was actually quite sad to leave - its so awesome to see everyone again, I don't really know much about what's going on in their lives being on the other side of the US, I really think I want to visit more frequently in the future and really keep in touch with everyone - when we were all hanging out it was just like no time had passed, even though we hadn't seen each other in ages it was just familiar and cool, it was a really nice feeling. And the Loveless' were really awesome to let me stay at their house as well, thanks guys! Anyway, I got Kanoa and Damien's e-mail address, I need to get everyone elses home/e-mail address and just really keep in touch, I definitely don't want to lose touch with them again.