What do you do when you have to be gone all day?

We had plans to go to my aunt's house for Easter Dinner and if it was cool enough i was going to leave Olive in the car in her crate. I was going to leave the windows all the way open and she would have been fine. Well it's going to be a little too warm and sunny to leave her in the car and my aunt doesn't want her in the house. My mom is calling her to see if she'd be ok with me leaving the crate in the backyard with Olive in it. I think that would be ok, but can anyone think of a reason not to crate her outside? It's not hot here. Just too warm to be in a car. I'd leave her with water and food and take her for a walk at some point.

It got me thinking about what the rest of my life is going to be like though! I guess a lot of people leave their dog for the whole day when they go to family functions, but I can't see myself ever wanting to do that and definitely not right now when she is so young. Do most people on here bring their dogs with them for stuff like this?