It was such a crazy fun week I just really wanted to take a few minutes (or what will most likely be half an hour) to document all the fun! It all started the week leading up to the big week...COnnor had spring break and I think I blogged about that. We went to the zoo and had a great day. And spent the other days of the week cleaning and finishing some last minute decorating I had started. I love things to be nice when my family comes and love having at least one new project on display. I'm weird like that. But anyway...I had found this amazing party planner to work with to help me do Felicity's birthday. It started out with her just needing a picture of a table skirt that she was going to let me use then turned into...well...this:
But I'll get back to that. My mom, dad, Desi and Avery left early Friday morning and met us in Irvine at Ikea. We never do things the normal way- we ALWAYS have to involve a surprise of some sort when it comes to seeing each other! So this is how we did that:
The kids were over the moon of course and had such a fun time with grandma and grandpa and Avery was SO excited to see Connor. She just loves him and he can really make her giggle her guts out! I'll try to find a video of that from Desi.
We had a little shopping trip then headed over to the bowling alley to bowl a couple games. I got the kids bowl free pass for the summer so we'll be doing a lot of that this year! I was even able to add my parents to the pass I got so that was nice. The kids LOVED it and they had this awesome ramp thing to send the ball down on that made it really fun for them.
We headed home and made a stop at Trader Joes to get stuff for paninis. I was so excited to make them for my family and
Our flight was full but fast and getting around was SO easy. We were able to take the subway, or BART to a spot a few blocks from our hotel. Getting out of the subway and coming above ground was crazy because suddenly we were in this city that was so reminiscent of New York but...different. It wasn't dirty, smelled really good, the buildings were close together but you didn't feel as trapped in the middle of them the way you do in NY. We were both gawking like tourists the whole walk to our hotel. We were instantly in love. Our hotel was super nice, the Omni hotel. I got a good deal on Groupon! I laid in the bed and just wanted to go to sleep right then and there but we had to get out and enjoy a yummy meal first! We went to this little alley at the recommendation of our concierge that had a row of restaurants. The matire d's were all out trying to convince passersby why they should pick THEIR restaurants and this guy at Tavern totally sold me when he said they had a pork chop that would change my life, cooked for over 30 hours. "Ok, let's do it!" The food was probably the best we had the whole trip. So yummy, their bread and hummus was to die for (as was the butter but man that hummus...) and my food was perfection. Ben's was too- beef stroganoff. Mmmm...we were off to a great start! The bartender/waiter kept trying to get us to drink haha but we settled on dessert instead which was warm butter cake. I was so excited to try it but WHY DID THEY HAVE TO PUT LEMON IN IT!? I'm weird about lemon and don't always like it as a flavoring. I love fresh lemons, lemon cream pie...but not lemon flavored pastries. Blech. So that wasn't a win but Ben loved it!
We went back to the hotel since it was dark and pretty chilly and we were staying in the financial district so there wasn't a ton to do. We had a big day of sight seeing to do and after a big day already we needed rest!
The next day we slept in til a whopping 7 a.m. (no alarm- just habit) and had breakfast at Subway across the street. It was Sunday so all the cafes were still closed due to the weekend and being in the financial area. We had tickets for a bus tour (we decided to be as touristy as possible) and started that around 9:45. We took the tour on the top level of the double decker bus. We stayed on until we got to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Let me tell you- my eyes were almost sucked from their sockets on that trip across the bridge sitting in the open air on the top level. Holy! But it was VERY cool. We got on another bus to Sausalito and spent a couple hours there where it is much warmer because it's more enclosed and the wind doesn't blow as hard. We had lunch at a place called "Hamburgers" where apparently even Britney Spears has eaten...lol. We wandered around- it reminded us a lot of Catalina Island with the shops and restaurants. It was a nice little jaunt and we checked out some cool places. We took that bus back over the bridge again then back the other way haha and transferred back to the main tour bus where we went back over the bridge AGAIN! Haha! We were at least smart to stay on the lower level this time. We took the bus to the next stop which was the Palace of Fine arts where we strolled around for a while. Ben thought it'd be fun to walk to Ghirardelli Square from there. We were on Lombard street so I figured at any point we'd get to see the crooked road area. But...it ended up being over a mile walk and we didn't realize our bus would have taken us to the bottom of the hill and saved us a lot of energy! Oh well...we got to see a lot of..gas stations? Haha. We had heart attacks climbing the insanely steep hill to the crooked area of the road which was cool to see. And then we saw it again as our cable car drove past it later that night...so...that effort was TOTALLY worth it! Haha. We walked to Fisherman's Wharf next and walked around. At this point it was only about 3 in the afternoon. We killed time til around 4 when we had an early dinner at The Franciscan Crab Restaurant. Ben was brave and got mussels and shrimp while I got a delicious sea bass plate. It wasn't oozing flavor until I was scraping the plate eating the capers that had fallen off the fish. Apparently I love capers and they were a must on the fish...but man it was all pretty good as a whole! We even had calamari as an appetizer and it was DELISH. It was our most expensive meal but fun with the ocean view!
We walked some more and bought some souvenirs then headed to Ghirardelli Square and had dessert to share. Walked some more out to a little walkway in the water and watched the sunset. It got REALLY cold after the sun was gone and we rushed back to the cable car turnaround and waited forever to get on one. It was pretty cool to watch them manually turn the cars around then push them with their backs. I had no idea! Original mechanics and really awesome. We ended up on a super crowded car next to some unsavory characters which sort of ruined the ride for me. We were cramped like sardines! We ended up walking a few blocks to our hotel rather than get on another cable car. Since we'd had an early dinner I was sorta hungry so we got some soup in Chinatown and went back to our hotel. The soup was nasty with NO SALT but it was ok cuz we were exhausted after our day and crashed so hard! The next day we slept til 8:00! Haha. We went to breakfast at a little diner after walking too far and backtracking to another place we had been looking for that ended up not being what we wanted as far as menu items. We rested at the hotel for a bit after we ate then loaded up our stuff, left it with the bellman and got back on the tour bus! Haha this time we got off at the stop to see the Painted ladies which was fun, then back on the bus for the full tour. We crossed the bridge AGAIN, making it 6 times across, 3 round trips. Haha. We got off at Fisherman's wharf and had lunch at Boudin's. We almost ate at the overpriced restuarant upstairs but thanks to Yelp I realized the cafe downstairs had the food we wanted at half the price so we left and ate there instead. It was SO WINDY and cold that day! I ended up buying a sweatshirt for the last 2 hours of our vacation hah! We wandered a bit more then headed back on the bus, grabbed our bags, hit the subway and went back to the airport. It was so fast getting there that we were 2 hours early for our flight and ended up getting on the earlier flight home which was awesome! We were home before our original flight even boarded. It was so good to be home but was SO nice to get away! What a great much needed trip alone!
The next day we had birthday breakfast for my mom and Felicity at Denny's! We let Connor skip school and we all headed to Disneyland for the day! It is always so much fun to go there with my parents and Desi and Avery. Having our adorable princesses was SO fun and everyone thought they were twins all day! 6 months apart and Avery is so fat she looks almost the same size as Lissie! What a fun way to celebrate a birthday! We wore ourselves out and had dinner at Red Robin after we left the park. Awful service and I'm pretty sure the waiter forgot to put our order in since everyone in the restaurant was fed before us and our poor tired children who were begging for their dinner so they could go home to bed. Which is...pretty unheard of with my kids! Eventually we ate and got home and the kids crashed so hard! The next day Connor went to school a little later than normal for his first field trip! They headed to Pretend City, a children's museum where he apparently had a hard time sticking with the group. I blame the SG Children's museum for being so accessible haha. We went to Nordstrom Rack and The Shops in Mission Viejo for a little while then home to get Connor and to lunch at La Siesta for happy hour specials! SO. MUCH. FOOD. for such a low cost! Seriously my favorite place and we never eat there even though it's walking distance! Mmmmm....
We came home and lounged around the rest of the day. Took some adorable pics of Felicity for posterity, then walked up the street and wandered through a few thrift stores where we found a couple cute things. We had a light dinner of cous-cous salad since we were still full from late lunch. We had birthday cake and ice cream for my mom after the kids went to bed and watched the new Night at the Museum movie with popcorn.
The next day was supposed to be the day they went home...but I convinced them to stay one more day! We had breakfast at Cafe Calypso...the BEST breakfast burritos in San Clemente...mmmmm....then after pictures that were supposed to be our goodbye pictures, I talked them into one more day. Desi still hadn't cut my kids hair and we hadn't gone to the beach...things that HAD to be done. So we went to the beach for a couple hours, came home and had naps, did hair cuts, then since we had skipped right over lunch we went to a place called the Point in Dana Point and took advantage of THEIR happy hour specials! I know we sound like such fatties! But having my family here turns us into tourists too and we always try somewhere new. It was really good food for a really good price. And we got to eat outside and afterwards drove around Dana Point Harbor. I love where we live. It's so gorgeous! So we went to this beach called Baby beach ONE TIME at the end of summer last year...and yesterday as we drove through the harbor Parker saw it and said "It's the baby water beach!" Um....really? What a memory!
We came home and dropped off my kids then headed to San Juan where we shopped at Marshall's for a bit, then Trader Joe's for some supplies for my fam who doesn't have one in SG. Then onto home where we laughed at youtube videos and ate leftover cake. Lol we are SO FAT! :)
It was the perfect day and I'm so glad they stayed that extra day! I even got all my laundry done while everyone napped! So today I'm determined to catch up on life since I've basically been on vacation all week having not a care in the world. I'm so blessed with amazing parents who watched my kids while we got away and made life fun for them. My dad is so awesome to take a week off just to come hang out in our small apartment and play with his grandkids. And my mom- for always cleaning up after us and making it so I didn't have to wash any dishes for a week! And it's always so fun when Desi comes and I have a friend. Who'd have thought the sister I fought so hard with a few years ago would be such a friend to me now!? I love having our babies together and watching them play. We are determined to make sure they are friends forever!
So that's the big entry of our crazy fun exciting week! How am I ever going to top a week like that?!
