So Cal

So fortunately we were able to go on a little family trip to Southern California last week. Brandon and I have been dying to get to the beach. It has been far too long! We wanted to see our friends Sam and Ashley who live in San Diego, so we planned to stay with them. Well then they got tickets to go to Texas to see Ashley's family and go to the BYU vs Oklahoma game (which they ended up not going to) so they weren't even there! But they were SOOOOO wonderful to let us stay at there cute apartment while they were gone anyway. We did get to see them briefly Wednesday morning before they left which was nice. So anywho, we got there Wednesday morning and were just exhausted from lack of sleep from the 3 previous nights and looooong days of work for me. So after Brandon took Sam and Ashley to the airport we all took a little nap. Then late that afternoon we headed to Seaport Village and walked around and enjoyed the wonderful ocean air. It was actually a heatwave for them, but NOTHING compared to AZ.

Then we went to stroll on Mission Beach as the sun set. So gorgeous! I just love the beach! Then we didn't think Ty would be able to make it through dinner too so we picked up some yummy bar-b-q to go and got a few essential groceries for the week.

On Thursday we hit up the beach at Del Mar. Love it! SO many memories of that beach from growing up. The water was incredible! The warmest I can ever recall. We got some boogie boarding in which was super fun even though the waves were breaking too close to the shore. I'm not sure how Ty felt about all of this. He got really tired but for some reason didn't realize how nice it is to sleep on the beach! :) After much work he finally gave in and snoozed for a good 2hrs. Yeah! That night we went to Horton Plaza - love this outdoor mall in San Diego. I was so good, promise, mostly just window shopped and got some dinner.

Friday we packed up the car and headed for LA. Took us longer than we thought due to the traffic...we should have left earlier. We walked around Hollywood Blvd and went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. It was actually super hot there! Me in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Our cutie in his stroller

We really wanted to go to Rodeo Drive and to drive around the incredible houses in Beverly Hills. We shouldn't have, because we were already running late, but ended going there briefly anyways. Then we had to hurry off to get to Camarillo (about an hour north of LA) where we were meeting up with our friends Debra and Patrick. I swear that traffic is ridiculous! I can't handle it! We were always at least an hour late for everything because of the dang traffic. Our poor Ty was just being dragged all around the place with no real naps and meals very spaced out. He would be hungry and we would just say...oh he can wait 30 more minutes until we get to wherever...and then it would be like 2hrs until we ended up getting there! I felt like such a bad mom! If only it were possible to breastfeed while driving! It would have saved lots of time and hunger for Ty.

Well we finally made it to Deb's house and she and Patrick had a wonderful dinner waiting for us! Delicious fajitas and the best lemon cheesecake dessert! They are so wonderful. Well as soon as we finished eating we had to rush off again to go back to LA! We went to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams and The Music of the Movies. He's the one that composes the music for tons of movies and he conducted the Philharmonic orchestra. It was very good. The best part is when they play Star Wars and all of the dorks bust out there light sabers (is that how you spell that?) and wave them around. :)

Ty looks possessed by the water bottle.

Once again we kept Ty out very late. Poor kid! When he finally fell asleep in Brandon's arms he was attracting a lot of attention which Brandon quickly grew tired of. That's what happens when your babe is a cutie I guess! :) When we left the Hollywood Bowl we got a special treat. We went to Dunder Mufflin! That's right...the real deal where the Office is filmed. Patrick figured out where it was. We saw the office park with a sign that says Scranton Office Park...and there cars were in the parking lot too! We are such dorks but it was cool to see. It was too dark for the pictures to turn out. Well it was after 2am by the time we got Ty in bed...and he was not too happy with us.

On Saturday we slept in a little then Debra and Patrick came and got us and we went to the beach. It was another fun day. The water was much colder than in San Diego, but we still braved the cold and got some boogie boarding in.

Late that afternoon we went back to Deb's house and started watching the fab BYU game on their huge projector screen. Brandon was in heaven. Unfortunately we had to leave halfway through the game and had to listen to the rest in the car. It was so good to see Debra (my old roommate), we miss her! We drove to Anaheim and met up with my cousin JD and his wife Katie for dinner. They are so cute and it was great to see them. We had never even met Katie yet. Sad I didn't get any pictures. It was another very late night when we made it back to San Diego.

Sunday we slept in, then drove to Mission Viejo to the baby blessing of cute Remi (our friends Aimee and Rich's baby). They recently moved to Cali and we miss them. Our friends Matt and Jennae were there too so it was fun to be together briefly. I still hadn't had any fresh seafood so we had to head to Newport Beach to go to the Crab Cooker. It was impossible to get a parking spot (I guess for the holiday weekend) but the food was well worth the wait. Crab cakes, shrimp and scallops...yum! Then we strolled along the pier and the boardwalk. Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE the beach? The breezy ocean air, the smell of the salty water, the sunshine, the gorgeous views. How could you not be happy being there? Went over to Balboa Island for a short walk around and for a yummy frozen banana.

I was so sad to have to say bye to the ocean. We drove back on the Pacific Coast Highway which was beautiful. That night at Sam and Ashley's I got to play Guitar Hero for the first time and love it! (although I am terrible at it). On Monday we had to pack up and drive home and get back to work on Tuesday :( but we had a wonderful little trip. AND I got to read the Last Lecture which was so good and I never get time to read books for fun. Again, Ty was so good for being stuck in his car seat for soooooooo many hours and being starved sometimes (although you can't tell). We hope he grows up to love the beach as much as we do! Hopefully next summer he can go boogie boarding too!