Last one...

Ok, promise this is the last post about California. How did a week go by without posting anything? Time is going by waaayyyy too fast for me. That is why I am obsessed with remembering details lately. So bear with me while I go back and recall certain details from our trip. There might be a lot. Actually I can guarentee this will be the longest post you have ever read in your entire life. Feel free to skip.

We stayed at the Marriot Bayview...or whatever it was called. It's by the newport back bay...beautiful. Dave would always run the trails around the back bay so we purposely chose that one so he could have a trail nearby. We swam only once or twice at the hotel. I loved when night time came cause we were exhausted from a full day and would just crash. Before bed we loved to hang out for a bit and read to the kids. The one of Dave, coop and reese on the bed is one of my favorites.





Sunday, after attending our old ward and feeling completely at home again, we went to fashion island with some our FAVORITE people in the world. Our old neighbors and dear friends, Paul, Larisa, Tino and Maya. Coop and Tino were best buds and hung out all the time when we lived there. We hung out almost every day. I miss them so much. Anyway, just like old times, we hit up fashion island to go see the fish pond and wander around. It was a weekly activity of ours.



there just happened to be a guy sitting by the pond...with a snake. Guess who thought it was so cool...

larisa and sweet maya


aaaaahhh....the carousel. Can't forget that carousel.


On Monday, after disneyland, we walked in our hotel room to find a box of one dozen sprinkles cupcakes. Words can't...no, seriously...words can't express the jollies I got at that moment. I remember angels flying around and a light glimmering down on them. It turns out my more-than-wonderful sister, Melissa, had a dozen cupcakes delivered to our hotel room for my birthday. All you need to know is that every cupcake was gone by the next day. And I believe I only shared a couple with Dave and Coop. Melissa, I love you. And thank you once again. If you haven't tried there vanilla coconut.......my word.
Oh, and disneyland was awesome. The highlight of the trip for a certain 3 year old blonde boy was seeing Mickey and Donald of course. Actually, the only thing he recalls when asked about the trip :) I hate taking pictures at disneyland.



The beach. What more to say...





Tuesday was fantastic. We got to see more of our favorite people. Kristin, Jared, Brecke and Cove. We miss them. I love love love Kristin. We have similar opinions on certain debates ;) I miss our kids playing together and living across the street. I miss our beach days. Anyway, they came down to play at the beach with us and the kids definitely played. Larisa joined us with her kids for a bit and a blast was had by all. After the beach we walked to B.J.s pizza. The greatest pizza in the world. Mmmm...I crave the buffulo chicken as I speak.






Look. Just look at that hair. She is three people. THREE!!!! I want just a handful for Reese.










I think Wednesday or Thursday we went down to Balbao Island to walk around. We used to love doing that. As we did in every neighborhood, we would pick out the street we would live on if we could choose, and the house.



For lunch that day I met up with another favorite friend. I worked with Wendy at the Scrapbook Oasis up until I had Cooper. That was my favorite job EVER. She managed the store and hired me. The job was awesome but when we worked together it was always a party. I love you Wendy. And she has the cutest family. She has 3 girls and her youngest is a boy, Tayden. So cute. And his hair....ooohhhhh so cute. We ate at Rubys on the balboa pier and then played at the park right on the sand. Oh, I miss it all. It's just awesome that I chose to take every picture on the same day so Cooper is wearing the exact same thing in every one.








Friday night some friends of ours planned a small bbq on a little beach in their neighborhood. It was a perfect night. I remember standing their when it was almost time to go just soaking everything in. I wanted to stand there forever. I stood there thinking "one day we'll be back here." We ate food and then toasted s'mores over the expensive neighborhood grill. Next door to the beach front was Nicholas Cage's previous home he had recently sold. That neighborhood is the one I would choose to live in if we could. I decided that night :) Beautiful homes full of character all close by eachother. I loved it. Anyway, our friends Tracy, Adam and Kaelin were there. I love them. We lived next door to eachother and share simliar interests in almost everything. She is so freakin cool. The only mom I know who has subs in the trunk of her car. She also surfs and loves Sublime. And for some reason, I love that about her.







My whole body hurts from the amount of time I have spent on this bloody post. You can probably understand now the love we have for this place and people who live there.

As promised I am posting more pictures from our trip. For my sake, of course. I am already forgetting the great feelings and memories from that time. That is why a picture is so amazing to me. Each one can simply bring me right back to that moment and all of a sudden I can remember everything.

These pictures are from Thursday night, I think. After eating at Wahoo's (one of our favorite places to eat), Tracy, Nicole and I took our kids and our cameras to the beach one night and snapped away. It was fun for us, but waaay more fun for the kids, as you can see. We had only a small window of time before the sun went down. I remember the weather being perfect. It was cloudy but not cold. The water wasn't freezing. The second we got to the sand, the kids ran into the water right away, naturally, and were drenched within 5 minutes. Cooper was wearing a bright orange sticker that the cash register at albertsons gave him. (Reese had a fever that day so we had to go pick up some pain reliever for her). After we were done, we washed the kids off at the showers and walked back to Nicole's house, who is lucky enough to live across the street from the beach.

I have the most fun when I am taking pictures of kids, but especially kids I know. So here is an overload of pictures from that night. You will get sick of seeing pictures from this trip. Just to warn you. There are more to come...hopefully throughout this week.

I miss California

The title says it all. We miss it way too much. I want to go back to last week when our family lived in a little hotel, didn't have access to the internet, and hung out 24/7. It hurts how much I miss that place....e v e r y day. The trip was wonderful, perfect in every way. The weather was mostly cloudy, but it was perfect. We saw friends every day...amazing people we miss every day of our lives. We ate at our favorite resaurants. We went to the beach a few times. Went to disneyland once, and shopped only a little bit. What made it wonderful was not the weather, the beach, or being at disneyland...but being with my family every minute, being with friends most of those minutes, and eating lots of unhealthfood. Anyway, I could go on and on. Thank heavens for pictures that are able to bring me back to memories that I love. Each photo I edit causes me to drift off thinking about every memory from our heavenly little world in newport beach. Not just our vacation, but our life when we lived there. Aaahhhh...here I go again.

Ok, snap out of it.

Anyway, you got the jist of it...the trip was fantastic. I will probably post later and share more pictures, but I wanted to write down how I was feeling right now. After a week in our own little paradise.

My lovely friend Karrie, who I miss with all my heart, (she's in new york for only two months, but whatever, I still miss her) has been telling me how she wants to simplify her life. I can't help but want to do the same. I live a pretty simple life, I don't like a lot on my plate, but I want to simplify more. One of the greatest things about being in the hotel was being away from the compter. I can't tell you how much I loved it. I want to get rid of stuff. I want to organize and lessen. I have come to apprecite small living spaces. I like being together in the same space. Karrie has been sharing her insights with me, and I can't help but love what she says and want to change as well. So let's see if it happens. Doubt it. I don't enjoy pouring out my heart on here, but that is what I have been feeling, like non-stop, so I thought I'd share. So thanks Karrie for being my example. I miss you.

Ok, nuff said. Way too much said. Onto a few of my favorite pictures from the beach. Will hopefully post lots more later. Yeaaa right.



SUCH a classic cooper face. Making some weird face while being blinded by the sun.

must.update.blog

Neglected blog. Why do I feel a need to update it? Don't know. But I must. The weather has been wonderful, we've been outside playing a lot. Cooper could live outside if I let him. 8:30 in the morning I hear the door open and he's gone. Or we'll be eating dinner and he runs by and says "see ya mama" and he's out the door. It's funny. But how could I get in his way? He's got things to do and people to see. After all, he's almost three.

I've got one thing on the brain, and one thing only: CALIFORNIA. Home (used to be). Heaven on earth. Beach. Friends. Oh, lovely friends who we miss more than words can express. We are heading back to the O.C. next Friday...where we will reside for a week...a week of complete and utter bliss. I get giddy just thinking about it. Can't wait to be back. However, I can wait for the round-trip car ride.

On to some pictures I took last week of a sweet little girl named Daphne. Aaahhh... SO refreshing to see a little girl with a t-shirt and jeans on. With un-done, messy hair. A kid being a kid.

For you Tori...

I almost have your pictures done. WOOO! Until then, here are few sneaks. More than a few. Thanks for letting me play and have fun with you guys. I think they turned out pretty.

boring, boring, boring

I know, my blog is so boring. But seriously, I've just had no desire to update it. Life has been so busy. I hate busy life. I like my simple life, but for some reason I have let it get busy the past couple weeks. I have been editing photos like crazy (which I will get to posting), but also trying to enjoy my husband being home again. It's been soooooo nice. Catching up on our thursday night t.v.

Speaking of, is anyone watching parks and recreation? I think we will like that show. And did anyone watch 30 rock last night? Awesome. We can't get enough of that show. That is the #2 greatest show on tv. #1 being arrested development...by a far stretch. If you haven't watched it, YOU MUST. Since it's over, go to hulu.com and start it. Your life will be better, take my word for it.

Holy side note.

Ok, anyway, can't do a post without pictures. Last week it was overcast and Cooper was outside playing with our neighbors. ("his guys", as he calls all his friends) We live in a parkside home, which means we are on a row of homes perpendicular to the street, and we are facing another row of homes. So in between we have a nice little grass area where all the neighbors and kids like to come out and play. We LOVE it. I can send cooper outside whenever and (usually) don't have to worry about him running out on the street. He just rides his little scooter around the sidewalk in front of our homes. ANYWAY, here are some pictures of a couple of our neighbors who are just plain cute. I can't understand why I just wrote about our neighborhood for 15 minutes.






Alright, I'm off to my weekly friday chick-fil-la date with friends in a bit. Mmmmm...I'm craving a juicy fried chicken sandwich this instant. It's been a couple weeks...I'm going through honest withdrawls. Have a great weekend!

Easter

Easter is over, but we have enough candy to last another year. This holiday is way worse than Halloween. But don't worry, I'm taking care of it...by eating a piece of candy, or two, every hour. Coop had the time of his life this week by participating in three easter egg hunts. On saturday we hit up the Wallace household and hunted like mad. Coop had the time of his life with his bud Izak...as they always do. Thanks Kristen for hosting a kick butt easter party....complete with fresh fruit and chocolate banana muffins. A dozen of which were devoured by yours truly.


This kid wasn't messing around. Oh, and the pink basket was 100% his doing. At target I asked, "Do you want a blue, green or yellow basket?" And he replied with a firm, "pink". Ok then.

the after-party



My very own easter egg. Scrum-didly-umptious.