California Vacation: Part Deux--Friends!

We spent the rest of our time in California visiting friends. Unfortunately, the weather was not the most desirable. It rained every day we were there from Monday on. And it rained in spurts and fits. It seemed, and I could just be dreaming here, but every time we needed to go outside and drive somewhere, the rain would start up again. It was like the little black rain cloud was following me everywhere. Ella even drew a picture of our vacation. Her explanation of the picture went something like this, "It's Mommy driving around in the red car in California in the rain."

Left: Ella's picture of Mommy driving in our red rental SUV in the rain.
Right: Ella's picture of what she wished her vacation was like: sunny and Mommy driving around in a vehicle somewhat resembling the Scooby Doo Mobile.

But we did not let the weather dampen our spirits! Monday evening we visited with Angie and her kids Henry and Elizabeth, as well as Kirsten and her son Riley. The kids all played together at the Burbank mall play area. Then Tuesday, we met up at Funtown with Heather (Matthew & Max), Jenn (Cam & Kaelyn), Cynthia (Xander & Madi), Maribel (Ben & Gaby), and Angie again. Whenever we drove anywhere familiar or visited some place we used to go to often, Ella would say to me, "Mom, I remember this place!". It was so great to have her remember places and feel good about going to them. On Wednesday, we traveled near USC (I drove on the freeways to get there! Something I never would do when I actually lived there.) to go to the Science Center with Renee and her kids, Kaitlyn and Sean. We had a great time wandering around. The most exciting part was getting to see a baby chicken hatch out of its egg. Ella and Lily were very fascinated by it. We also learned about the Madgascar beetle (or something or other--I've forgotten the name since then.) in one of the Discovery rooms. The kids got to touch it and watch it move around in the attendant's hand.

Wednesday also happened to be my birthday (Happy 31st to me!) and Renee not only remembered and brought cupcakes for us, but she spread the word around the playgroup as well. So I received many Birthday wishes! And thank you to all of you out there who remembered and sent or emailed birthday greetings as well! Andrew had decorated our hotel room with crepe paper and a birthday sign and balloon Tuesday night while we all slept. So when I woke up, it was all decorated! Awww! What a sweetie! And the kids thought that was pretty cool too. :-)

Thursday, we attempted to go to Griffith Observatory. I was excited to go up there. It was closed in 2001 for renovation and only reopened a little bit ago. Our attempt to visit this time was thwarted by the rain. We had a beautiful sunny morning and the second I parked the car, and opened my door to get out, the rain came pouring down (again with the black rain cloud following me around). We spent the afternoon and evening playing with friends, visiting the mall play area and IKEA. Friday, the girls and I decided we needed a day to just relax and veg out so I took them to see the movie Enchanted at the theater. It was very cute and they both loved it!

Saturday, we actually had good weather until the afternoon. It was sunny and maybe 60 degrees. The kids played at the little playground at the hotel and then we headed back up to the observatory for a second attempt. Since it was the weekend and decent weather, a ton of other people had the same idea. We ended up having to park a bit away and walk up to the observatory, which actually was quite fun. Ella was in a good mood and up for walking and Lily was happy to be riding on my back in the Ergo again. We had a lot of fun wandering around up there investigating the landscape and of course taking pictures! It was so clear because of all the rain, we could see everything! All the way to ocean on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other side. The whole time I lived in California those mountains were not snow-capped!

Top: Downtown Los Angeles Skyline from Griffith Park Observatory.
Bottom: The Hollywood Sign from the Observatory (both taken with my zoom lens).

Saturday night the girls hung out with Andrew for dinner and at the hotel and I made my way to Renee's house for a Moms Night Out and baby shower for Melissa who is expecting Baby #2 in the next month. We all had so much fun chatting, eating, present opening and playing the 80's game. How the heck I remembered the family from Alf was the Tanners is beyond me. ;-) But this is why they all call me the idiot savant when it comes to 80's trivia. But "Yeah!" to the blondes for winning the game!! :-) Yes, we played blondes versus non-blondes. :-) We were there until 1AM and then all had to drive home in torrential downpours. It was not fun. There was so much water on the road you hydroplaned if you weren't careful!

We went out as a family on Sunday to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen in Brentwood with the Harveys and the Slussers. Whereas there was once 6 of us for an outing like that, now with all our kids we are at 10 and almost 11 with another little Harvey on the way. We all had a great time visiting and we had a star sighting! We saw Maria Bello (she was on ER for awhile and mostly does movies now) and her family there.

Ella with Grayson Harvey at CPK. Aren't they cute? :-)

We really enjoyed our time in Calfornia. I can't believe it went so fast! It was so nice that the girls and I still fit right into the playgroup where we did when we left. With our world of technology its so easy to keep up with everyone's lives through email, blogs and our message board. I felt like I haven't missed anything and that I wasn't ever gone. It's so nice to know that we can go back anytime and just start in where we left off.

The girls and I made it back home fine on Monday and we had one more star sighting believe it or not (We didn't have star sightings like that when we lived there! Two in one week--unheard of!). We saw Frances Conroy (of Six Feet Under fame) at the airport. And she actually happened to be on our plane. After looking at her resume on imdb.com, it appears she's filming her next movie "Chilled in Miami" which mostly takes place in small-town Minnesota. Maybe they are filming on location? Anyhoo, we made our way on and off the plane without incidence and back home again.

We've spent the week getting back into the swing of things around here and dealing with the freezing cold temperatures here. It's actually warmer, maybe around 30 degrees today! Whoo hoo! And the girls are spending the night at my dad and Clare's house tonight! Yippee! So I'm off to go veg out in front of the television for a bit!

Happy Groundhog Day by the way! It appears Phil has decided we have six more weeks of winter. Bummer.