So originally we had planned on going out to Santz Cruz for our long Presidents Day weekend. Then I got to talking to one of my best buds, Autumn, and we decided we should definitely meet halfway somewhere (she lives in San Diego). We looked online and came up with San Luis Obispo or the Sequoia National Forest, which we both liked equally, so we, being the wonderful wives that we are, let our husbands decide where we should meet. They both chose San Luis, and off our planning began.
It didn't get far however because I one day mentioned to Autumn that Matt really wanted to take the kids down to Universal Studios sometime. "Let's meet in LA!" Autumn said. Hmmmm, LA?! Maybe this could work, I thought. I checked flights and found some very inexpensive Southwest flights and whammo, it was off to LA!
Our adventure started at 11:00 Friday morning with a wonderful hour long drive down to the Sacramento Airport. After parking the car and shuttle bussing it up to the airport, we were on our way! Addie did really well on the flight. I fed her during take-off and she was totally fine the whole time. Granted, it was only a 1 hour flight, but still, she did surprisingly well.
I guess at one point it got a little loud and she couldn't quite handle it. So darn cute!
Our first adventure was to meet up with some of Matt's junior high friends, Dan and Susan. We met up with them in Long Beach and enjoyed a nice dinner at Islands. Of course I only got two pictures and the other one was notso-hotso, so here's the good one. Susan, I'm still waiting for some
real dirt on my husband for next time!
Saturday morning we headed down to Hollywood Boulevard!
The Walk of Fame! Here's the fam posing by some of our favorite stars. So fun!
Next was on to Graumans Chinese Theater. We saw all the hand and foot prints, but I'm still not sure who Sid Grauman was... anybody know?
On the 3rd floor at the mall by The Kodak Theater (which was getting all geared up for the Academy Awards this Sunday!) there is a great photo op with the Hollywood sign. So cool!
After that we started getting bombarded by people offering us Movie Star Home tours. At first we just walked on past, but then we decided to get a picture in front of this cool convertible limousine.
Seeing our amazement over this, the driver pounced on us! After we told him there would be 8 people in our group (Autumn and fam were on their way!) he really started to wheel and deal! He offered us a great rate for a private 2 hour tour in a limo. We had originally planned to go to the Wax Museum and Ripleys Believe it or Not Museum, but for only about $20 more we found we could take this limo tour. I know what your thinking, movie star homes? Says who, right?! But it's something I have
always wanted to do, as cheesy as it is! And it wasn't just movie star homes, it was all around Hollywood. So after Autumn gave us the green light we agreed to the tour. It was sooo much fun! Here we are outside the limo.
And inside...
Since we had it all to ourselves the kids were able to run around and stretch out. I know, not super safe... but oh well.
We got to stop and take some pics.
I took a bunch of pictures of the homes, thinking I would remember which belonged to which celebrity (supposedly), but of course I can't remember any of them. The kids remembered that this one is supposedly Miley Cyrus' house, or one of her houses at least. Christian even memorized the address so he could tell all his friends at school!
And then they let us out on Rodeo Drive for a quick 20 minute shopping spree. We kinda felt like The Beverly Hillbillies, so this was as close as we got to the inside of any of the stores. It was still very cool to see.
And Matt found his next car!
Yup, it's a Maserati. It was amazing how many super expensive cars we saw! By the way, did you notice mine and Matt's shirts? I had them made for us and gave it to him on the First Day of Valentines, it says Matt loves Michelle and mine says Michelle loves Matt. After I ordered them I started thinking maybe I should have made them the other way around, so his said Michelle loves Matt and mine said Matt loves Michelle... oh well.
After our Hollywood tour we headed up for a scenic trip up Mulholland Drive. I didn't really know what was so special about it, but we found out that it's just a really pretty, windy road up on a mountain that overlooks LA, or is that Hollywood? I don't know, but it sure was pretty!
Since that day was Valentines Day, Autumn and I had called around and made reservations for us to have a romantic Valentine dinner at a nice French restaurant in downtown LA called Cafe Pinot. Even though we got all dressed up and we both brought our cameras, neither one of us thought to take a picture! And then on the way back up to our rooms we were gonna get some pics, but as we were walking down the hall we could hear poor Addie crying. And then as soon as we got Addie, poor Lexi started crying! She did such a good job babysitting, but Addie can be a handful when I'm not around. She assured us that she will never be having any kids! At least not for a good 10-15 years! That's some pretty good birth control!
The next day we were off to Universal Studios!
I almost passed out when I saw what was being filmed that day! Desperate Housewives!!! I know, it's not the best show, but they play it twice a day, and in the mornings when I'm cleaning and Addie's napping I like to watch it. Autumns a fan too! Hey, don't judge!
We had a blast at Universal, and got some silly pictures.
We saw some fun characters...
But the highlight of my day at Universal Studios was of course Wisteria Lane! For you non-Desperate Housewives fans, that's the street where all the action happens!
This was the best picture of me from Wisteria Lane. In all the other ones I'm looking around starry eyed saying "This is sooo cool!!!" The brown house is Mike Delfino's and the blue one is Mrs. McClusky's, in case anyone was wondering:).
Autumn bought the kids matching shirts for Valentines day. They all wore them to Universal Studios, but it was too cold to take off our coats, so when we got back to the room we got some cute pics.
On Monday we woke up to what looked like a hurricane! It was raining and the wind was blowing super hard! We had scheduled a whale watching trip for 9:00, but that got canceled. We decided to drive out to Long Beach anyway, in hopes that we could catch a later cruise. Turned out that all the whale watching was canceled for the day, but we did get to take a 45 minute Harbor tour. It was freezing! The water was super choppy but it was still super fun!
I always love it when my hair takes on a life of its own!
After the cruise we had lunch at the Bubba Gump restaurant which was sooo cute and fun! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was so cute. They even quiz you on your Forrest Gump knowledge.
Isn't that the cutest room?!
Autumn and crew left after lunch and we drove around Palos Verdes, Santa Monica Pier, and the LA temple as we waited for our flight, which was supposed to leave at 9:55, but didn't end up leaving until after 12:00! We pulled into our driveway (or I should probably say Matt pulled into our driveway with a carload of sleeping passengers) at 2:30. We've been exhausted all week and poor Addie's sleep schedule is totally and completely messed up! We also realized that it probably would have been cheaper and more convenient to drive, and considering the late flight, it really wouldn't have taken any longer! Ahhh, live and learn, right?! Thanks Dan and Susan, and Autumn, David, Taylor and Landon for the wonderful, busy, loud, and super fun weekend! Can't wait for our next adventure!
I know my cake decorating skills still need some work, but I was pretty proud of myself! I've come a long way! (ps - we dropped our camera the other day and the viewer is all messed up, so I thought this was centered. Oopsie. :)
Addie's reaction to the fire.
The chef was sooo talented! And he agreed to a picture with our birthday boy!
So fun!
Coming home to cake and ice cream.
