Chelsea, Claire, Hilde and Chelsea's friend Jenny picked me up at LAX Tuesday afternoon and we went straight to Ben and Jerry's to take advantage of free cone day!! Since the ice cream was free, I took a chance and tried a new coconut-7-layer-bar flavor and it was absolutely delightful!
From there, we made our way to Santa Monica -- what a beautiful day!!! I had never been to Santa Monica before and it was so fun walking around and enjoying the weather. We hung out on the pier and enjoyed the scenery then jumped back in the car.
Next stop -- Hollywood! Yet, another touristy thing that I hadn't previously taken the time to explore. We saw some of the stars (you know, the star shaped ones on the ground), the Kodak theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood sign! Grauman's made me think of an I Love Lucy episode and the stars made me think of Pretty Woman. I had lots of funny movie/tv scenes going through my head : )
A trip to So Cal is never complete without a day in Disneyland!! And what a blessing to be able to go with friends! It was Hilde's first trip to Disneyland and Claire hadn't been since she was really little so Chelsea and I had a blast playing the Disney experts and showing the girls around.
First stop: Main Street USA! Well, it's not really a stop but Donald Duck was there and Hilde had to get her picture taken with him to show her brother Lars. So we had a little photo op. before dashing of to Tomorrowland.
Our first ride of the day: Space Mountain!! We really just wanted Hilde to start her day off on the BEST note possible. Okay, and actually, we knew that Space would have the longest lines later in the day so we wanted to get a chance to go on the ride without having to stand in a horrendously long line. It was quite possibly the funnest ride I've EVER had on Space Mountain. Chelsea and I were in the very front, which I don't think has ever happened to me on this read, and it made the ride feel so much faster and more twisty and just funner in general. We were both just laughing really hard and Chelsea was screaming like crazy. I thought our Space Mountain picture was absolutely hilarious. Because of how fast we were going and the fact that we were sitting in the front, Chelsea and I both had tears streaming down our faces -- she was trying to wipe those tears BEFORE the picture was taken but since she's screaming she looks like she's absolutely terrified. Not true. She loved it. Hilde was a little shaken up but she survived by holding Claire's hand : )
We were just running all over the park and snagging fast passes and it was marvelous. We packed a lunch so that we could afford some Disney treats like churros and pineapple floats and ice cream sundaes on Main Street. Hilde had ice cream THREE TIMES while we were in Disneyland! But I won't tell you that because I don't want to embarrass her.
Chelsea and I took a trip on Dumbo The Flying Elephant and we had to ask a little girl to take our picture because we didn't have anyone else with us at the time. I think she got a great photo -- we all look so cute!
Don't worry, we closed the place down. We stayed and played until about 11:30pm and then stopped at an ice cream parlor on the way out for a late-night snack. There was still a little shopping to be done post-ice cream so we went out to the Wonderful World of Disney store and shopped until nearly 1am!!!! 15+ hours at Disneyland -- well done! I drove us all home while everyone else snoozed : )
Sadly, Claire and Hilde had to leave to drive home to Seattle the next day but Chelsea and I still had some time to enjoy her swimming pool and her adorable niece, Kenzie.
Since Rachel just happened to be in Pasadena on spring break, we got to meet up with her on Friday. It was so lovely to see her! How random though -- I live in Seattle, she lives in Hawaii and we met up in Southern California... fancy that.
My time in Beverly Hills with the kids was, actually, quite relaxing. We stayed in a lovely, and rather large home, with Toby's grandma and mostly spent time with family. On Saturday we went to a Persian New Year Party -- the kids were pretty overwhelmed so we didn't stay long but the food was lovely -- and later went to a cute little park, where I was told to watch for celebrities but I didn't see any : ) On Sunday we went to Venice Beach to hang out with Toby's aunt, uncle and grandpa. The rest of the time we were at the house just doing whatever. Toby spent a lot of time outside on his bike and in the swimming pool.
And Miss Serena was just as cute as can be, all the time : )****
One of the best parts of vacation is always coming home. Flying into Seattle is just beautiful. The first thing I noticed when I spotted the city was that the fire-boat was out with all of it's big water spouts on. It looked incredible from the sky. What a cool city we have. I doubt that any other city you fly into would have ferry boats AND a gigantic fire-boat fountain. Steven picked me up at the airport yesterday and it was SO good to see him!!! I think I should always take him with me on vacations from now on. That was a long time to be gone. He brought me m & ms. What a sweetheart. We went to Sushiland for lunch and then to the Arboretum for a lovely walk. We saw TWO bald eagles at the park!! What a wonderful welcome back to Seattle. Following the park we went back to my house for a little chill time -- aka food network shows with Tara and THEN we went out for dinner. Sort of. Actually, we got to do a tasting with the catering company we are using for the wedding. Free food. And tasty too. Get excited. We had some leftover Christmas movie tickets so we saw How to Train Your Dragon. I HIGHLY recommend this film!!! We really enjoyed it. Toothless is pretty much the cutest/coolest dragon ever.
I'm off to get Paige from the airport! She's spending Easter weekend with my fam so we can work on wedding stuff -- I can't wait to spend time with her!!
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