Visit to Nevada, California, Nevada again and then Utah

This is the story of how Eliza and I got to Utah. We originally flew out to attend my cousin's funeral in California and to spend some time with family while Brian is away. So the trip started with Eliza and I flying for 5 1/2 hours from Baltimore to Las Vegas. The flight went really well and I attribute that to the fact that Eliza flew in her car seat instead of on my lap. It was a little frustrating getting all of her accouterments (you like that word, don't you?) through the airport without another adult to help out but we managed just fine. We met up at the Vegas airport with my mom and aunt Corinne. Then we went to a hotel where we met up with my uncle Carl and aunt Peggy along with another aunt, Lesa. They were all hungry so we went to a buffet to eat despite the time being midnight in Maryland. After some sleep we all woke up and drove to Ridgecrest, CA where we met up with more aunts and uncles (Debbie and Wayne, Lorrie and Robert, Max and Wendy, and the parents of the cousin who passed away, Charlie and Carol). We spent some time trying to figure out all of the cousins since we hadn't seen this part of our family in nearly 15 years. We got everyone sorted out and had a wonderful time visiting despite the sad occasion. The funeral was nice. Eliza broke out clapping and cheering "yeah" every time the soloist finished a song so I spent a lot of time preempting her little cheerleading bouts. We spent the entire funeral day visiting with family members and the military members who came to be part of the honor guard.

Cousins-Cassey, Heather and Me

My mom with all of her living siblings.
L-R: Lesa, Wendy, Lorrie, Marilyn (my mom), Charlie, Corinne, Carl and Wayne
One set of cousins from California.
L-R: Tawni, Robert, Jewelie, Sally and Katie.
Sally is my first cousin and the rest are her children, my second cousins.
Katie and Jewelie are twins.
Some of the family gathered after the funeral.

After the funeral, we drove back through Las Vegas but stopped along the CA-NV state border to do some shopping at some outlet stores. Then we spent a few weeks visiting my family in Utah before returning to Maryland.