So on Friday we left at 4:30 and headed to the airport. Our final destination: Los Angeles, California. Did I mention, Josh and I went, by ourselves! I am warning you now, you are about to view a ton of pictures, mostly of us. I know you usually like to view our blog for pictures of our kids, but this is mostly about us! (Selfish I know).
Here we are in Washington DC (yes we had to first fly East to go out West).
We then flew to LAX. The flight was freezing. I had three blankets, here, and still was shaking.
Jill and her fiance Jay picked us at the airport at midnight. We then headed to our house and went straight to bed, to make sure we got enough sleep. Just kidding, we of course stayed up till almost three talking and having fun. That is like 6am our time....yes we are crazy.
Saturday was our first full day in California, and was also the first Michigan game of the year. Aunt Jody and Uncle Doug picked us up and we headed to Hermosa Beach. We are all big Michigan fans (minus Joshua), it is in our blood. We went to Sangria (which is a unofficial or maybe official Michigan alumni restaurant).
Before the game started Jill, Joshua and I walked down to the beach. The sun hadn't come out yet, but it was so beautiful. I just love the beach and the ocean!
Then we got seated, and watched an awesome game.
During half time Joshua and I decided to walk around Hermosa, because they were having a street festival going on, plus we needed to see the beach again.
And the sun came out! After the game (yeah, they won!), we got the beach stuff out of the car and headed to camp out there.
Joshua got in the water first, it was cold.
I stood on the beach and took pictures, did I mention the water was freezing!
Jill and Josh then boogie boarded. I did get in the water, but I didn't participate in the boogie boarding (is that what it is called?)
We then went back home, and got ready again.
We went to Santa Monica pier. Everything here is just breathtaking.
We went on the Roller Coaster in the Pier, which was so much fun! We felt like little kids again.
We went to eat on Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner.
Jay told us some really interesting stories. I am really trying to remember what he was talking about here. It really is driving me nuts, honest.
Cousins
Jay, Jill and Josh
I kissed a dolphin.
We didn't ride the Ferris wheel, maybe next time (trust me there will be a next time). It was so beautiful.
Here is a picture that Jill has in her apartment. If you can't tell, it is a picture of Jill and I (I think Dax favor's me a lot). Aren't we cute kids!
Sunday we went out to breakfast, Jay suggested this breakfast burrito place. Delicious.
We then went home and got ready to storm Hollywood. First we needed to eat, so Joshua and I had our first experience with In-and-Out Burger. Amazing!
This is where Jimmy Kimmel tapes his show.
Then we headed to the Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame.
We had fun looking at the the celebrity hand and foot prints.
Josh has a man crush on Matt Damon, and he is not ashamed to admit it.
So fun!
We walked around the outisde of Madame Tussauds, and got our picture with Shrek.
Behind us is the Hollywood sign.
The Hollywood sign.
Had to get a picture of this for the girls. Went went inside and I found a shirt for myself :-)
After we got done walking around, we then went on a driving tour.
We saw The Laugh Factory
We drove in front of a Rolls-Royce! Yeah baby!
Seriously! Wouldn't you love to live on this street. I want to cry just looking at this picture. I WANT THAT SO BAD!
Then we headed to Beverly Hills.
And then rode down Rodeo Dr. I only took this one picture, which was at the end of the street, I just sat there and stared at all the beautiful things.
We then headed to The Grove, which is this amazing outside mall, with a Farmer's Market there too. It is beyond words. I LOVED it. We had so much fun.
This was this weird robot outside of a toy store in the Market, I needed a picture of it.
We then left the Market to walk around the Grove again. On our way out we walked right next to Phil from Modern Family. Seriously he walked and brushed right next to me!!!!
Here is a video of him. Our pictures were all blurry (he was with his family so we didn't want to be annoying and bother him)
Phil from Chelsea Childress on Vimeo.
So he is actually stading on the other side of the fountain while we were taking these pictures (yeah I live in Ohio, and hardly ever see famous people...we were pretty excited)
We then drove home and decided to pick up some pizza. We left the ordering up to Jay, and he introduced me to the world of meatball pizza. We were pretty excited!
Seriously excited!
(So yeah, while were there we ate good, and I decided it was really important to document all the amazing food - seriously, four days without cooking and getting to eat amazing food, I was in heaven!)
Monday we decided to stay by the beach. First Jill, Joshua and I headed to Manhattan Beach. We of course ate some more food. Fish tacos! Josh LOVES fish tacos, this was my first experience with them, and all I can say is WOW. I got one Cajun and one grilled. they were both incredible!
So fresh!
Take a bite
We walked on the Pier.
So Happy!
The building at the end of the Pier has a little aquarium in it. It was so neat.
We went under an eel bridge.
There was a huge lobster.
Then Josh lost his arm.
JP and CB
While we were on the pier we heard a helicoper very close to us, and we saw this. It is an advertisement for the Nikita show, a little extreme.
So amazingly beautiful!
We then walked around and looked at all the shops. It was beautiful (one day I will live there, ok probably not, but I can dream)
We met up with Jill's parents at Manhattan and then headed to Santa Monica and laid out on the beach for a few hours, then we decided to go to Redondo pier for dinner and walk around, but first we took a drive to see the place where Jill and Jay's reception is going to be.
We had dinner at Tony's
Here is Joshua's meal
Here was mine. Wow!
On the pier.
The boys.
We went home for a little while to change out of our swim suits, and then headed to Menchies, which is the coolest frozen yogurt place in the world!
Here is Joshua's.
I got Red Velvet Cake and Dulce de leche!
Tuesday morning we decided to take a walk back to Redondo (yes you can walk to the beach from their place!) We saw a pirate ship.
Here is another picture of Tony's place on Redondo pier.
The lifegaurd stands are painted to pretty!
I am really going to miss these palm trees!
and my cousin!
After this we walked home, drove to 7eleven and got Slurpee's.
Goodbye California, we will miss you!
We had an amazing 4 days, but it was also very good to come home to our babies!
Thanks Uncle Doug for all the souvenirs for the kids. Here is Dax holding the gecko, he is very attached to it, and the girls LOVE their shells!
Thank you so much Grandma, Nona, Grandpa and Papi for watching the kids for us, I know they had fun while were gone.
Also as a side note: I took Adra to the Pediatric Dentist today, she has 2 cavities (NOT 8!). She is getting this fixed on the 29th using conscious sedation....no hospital involved! I am happy!
Tomorrow Joshua and I are flying to California to visit my cousin Jill and her fiance Jason. We started planning this trip almost immediately after they came to Ohio for New Years. Joshua racked up a ton of frequent flyer miles back when he traveled to Mexico for his previous job, so we were able to get two free tickets (we paid for taxes - $20 each!). We are leaving Friday night and coming home late Tuesday night. Four nights. Right now I am kind of going through the mourning stage. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited for this trip, we are going to have so much fun, and make tons of amazing memories, but I am leaving behind the three most precious people in my life. I know my kids will be well taken care of, they will be in the care of both sets of Grandparents. I have only been away from Adra and Farrah for one night and I have never been away from Dax, so four nights seems like such a long time. I have to be honest I have shed quite a few tears today since the reality of leaving them for that long has hit me. I have explained to the girls that Joshua and I will be leaving for four days. Adra really doesn't understand, all she knows is that Grandma, Grandpa, Nona, and Papi will be with her a lot, and she is so excited about that! I just put the girls to bed, and Farrah came out with tears in her eyes asking me if I am going to leave while she is sleeping, and then she asked if I was going to leave before Nona got here. I told her that I wouldn't leave until dinner time tomorrow and that comforted her a little. Farrah is in a stage right now, where she gets very sad and scared if she doesn't know where I am, so I hope she does well this weekend. Honestly my biggest fear is that they are going to have so much, and not miss me at all. I mean I want them to have fun, but I also want them to miss me (but not enough to make the grandparents crazy).
That is all for now. I will update when we get back, I plan to take a ton of pictures. I also hope the grandparents will take some pictures too :-)
This past week we walked to the park with our friends Joyelle and Chris. The weather last week was perfect park weather, no humidity and high 70's, low 80's. Unfortunately we found a bunch of broken beer bottles....punk kids!
Dax has been so funny lately. He just cracks himself and us up! He kept putting his feet on the table, and he thought it was the funniest thing. He is such a sweet boy. I love his little personality. He is so goofy!
Fall is just around the corner. I love fall, everything about it makes me so happy. We made a Fall Bucket List (I will have to take a picture of it and post it), because there are so many fun things to do in the Fall. I got my fall decorations out and put a few things up already. One thing I love about Fall is baking, so I decided to bake some bread, nothing smells better then homemade bread!
I signed the kids up for the Library Summer Reading program last week (I procrastinated), and we finished it on the 28th. Here are Farrah and Dax sporting their earned T-shirts. They also earned pencils, sunflower seeds, pots to plant the seeds and a water bottle. Pretty nice right! Adra was napping during our photo shot.
Dax got a sink bath, which hasn't happened in awhile.
We went to Jungle Jim's this week and we got lots of fun food. We got to look at some very interesting things there too, including pig, cow, and sheep heads. Joshua took the kids to the grocery store (yes he is amazing), because I had a migraine, and Farrah told him, "Daddy I am still thinking about the heads, I want to think about a rabbit, I am trying to think about rabbits, but I am just thinking about the heads". We may have scared her for life.
Here is Dax enjoying our watermelon.
We bought a coconut. The girls were so excited!
First we poked a hole in the coconut and drank the delicious juice.
Then we cracked the "nut" (which is what the girls called it) in half.
I have never had fresh coconut before, but it was amazing. No one else liked it, so I ate the whole thing. It was really hard to get the meat out though. I think it took me like two hours to eat it.
The girls are good spots, and tried the "nut".
Adra had her first Dentist appointment on Monday. Here she is waiting in the lobby.
Here she is right before she gets her teeth cleaned.
I was very sad to find out she has 8 cavities. Yes you read that right, 8. I started crying in the dentist office. The dentist told me that Adra will have to go to a pediatric dentist and be put to sleep to get her teeth fixed. More tears! She has an appointment on the 9th, so we will see what happens, I really, really, really do not want her to go under to get her teeth fixed. I will keep you updated.
And just so you know, I do brush my kids teeth twice a day. And no they don't eat candy all day long. My Dentist asked me all those questions and made me feel like a horrible mom!
We went to the pool on Monday night. The outside pool is going to close soon, so we wanted to go one more time. Farrah totally learned how to swim, I just wish I remembered to take my camera.
Farrah wanted to play with chalk, and we were all out, so I made some chalk. Equal parts cornstarch and water with food coloring. The girls had fun painting the driveway.
We usually play in the back yard but there was this amazingly big spider on the back patio. I sprayed it with bug spray, but I couldn't pick it up to throw away, so I waited for Joshua to come home. Turns out I didn't have to wait, Adra picked up the spider and flushed it down the toilet. My brave girl.
So, I decided to make this blog private. I really hate that I have to do this, but I feel it is best. I am sorry for that extra step you know have to take to view my blog. Eventually I may go back to being public but who knows.
If you have a blog, you might have noticed the new tab that says "Stats" in your Dashboard. There is really interesting information in that tab and I urge you to check it! I just found that there are people finding my blog by searching for different things, and I was very uncomfortable with that. There are also people all over the world checking my blog (I don't know anyone in Russia, but it frequently gets looked at there). I figured I started this blog so that friends and family near and far could check in on our family and see my children grow, so now it is only my friends and family that can see it. I know that most of you will probably not check it as much (or ever), now that you have to go through an extra step to see us, but I really hope you come back and check in with us (often!).
Thanks so much for working a little harder to see us. I will be updating with pictures later in the week.
Just a little update on the family. My parents went out to Washington last week, and my Dad ended up in the hospital, and we found out he had pneumonia. We also thought he needed a stint, because of a blockage in his artery, but when they did surgery they didn't find anything :-) He got released the other day, and they are flying home tonight. We can't wait to see them! Check out my Brother and Sister-in-laws site for pictures!
Joshua and I are leaving on Friday night to go to California to stay with my cousin Jill and her fiance Jason (Thanks for letting us come). We are so excited for this trip! It has been a really long time since I have been able to spend some quality time with Jill, usually we see each other during holiday's when things are just crazy, so I can't wait to see her. The kids are staying home with Nona and Papi, and my parents....THANKS SO MUCH! Because of my Dad's condition we decided to call in extra provisions (the kids were originally going to stay at my parents house), so Nona and Papi are reluctantly coming up to stay with the kids. Hopefully between the four of them they can control our kids, although the kids have all four of them wrapped around their fingers (I promise they will still love you if you say "no" to them everyone once in awhile :-) )
