Girls California Trip

WARNING: this post contains A LOT OF PICTURES... and if you have an invite to Amy's blog, you're basically going to seeing a repeat of her post.

Back in September, my Mom, Amy and myself made a trip to California to see my other sister, Annie, who just had this cute little guy.

Ian was born on August 25th. We were in California from September 9-14. Flew out late on the 9th and flew in early on the 14th.

Both my Mom and I got searched at the airport after they do the scan. She said I was flagged near my waist, thighs and my butt. Naturally, I lift my shirt and she told me to put my shirt down, I don't know why, I just figured my waist was flagged and she needed to look there. My mom did the exact same thing. We laughed so hard. Of course Amy was in the clear but she did have to sit by the stranger on our puddle jumper of a plane while mom and I got to sit next to each other.

Don't you just love this picture? Amy set her camera up, put it on timer mode and sat down to get a picture while mom and I were on the phone.

Sierra let me do her hair. Granted, she was watching cartoons but Annie said that was the only way I was going to be able to do it, was if she was distracted.

If there is ever a baby fresh from heaven (recently seeing Micheal) good luck prying Amy away from him. :)

NEWPORT BEACH

Yes, Amy and I are crazy! Not that that is any new news to anyone.

Marcus came home early on Friday and we all hit the Newport Beach. I had only been in the ocean one other time. Needless to say, I was making up for lost time.

Mom and Annie relaxing on the beach.

Can't tell me that doesn't put a tear in your eye? Always does for me.

I figured that the world wasn't ready to see me in a swimming suit, hence the reason I am still wearing my pajama bottoms and a shirt over my suit.

Yep, refer back to comment a few pictures ago.

This was my Mom's first time touching the ocean. We had so much fun and the rest of the family all but had to drag me and Amy out of the water. We were boogie boarding. That was my first time and it was so cool. A wave took me under and I inhaled a lot of sea water. NASTY!


THE PARK

I loved seeing Stefan trying to get a drink.

Yeah, their spicy chicken sandwich was good but at one point I had to drink Marcus' Dr. Pepper.

Marcus was in gymnastics as a kid.

This stupid chair. It sits on an angle and we spun Amy on it...

When she tried to get off, she fell off...

She still couldn't get up. She had a migraine the rest of the day.

Yeah, Marcus had to help me off.

Marcus got off just fine and walked a straight line. What's that all about?


San Clemente Beach

When we went to the beach on Saturday, it was much, much colder. I decided to leave my shorts and shirt off to keep me warm instead of having soaking wet clothing clinging to my body. So, I let the beached whale come out to play. It's real embarrassing to be in a swimming suit next to Amy.

Like I said, it was FREEZING!

Like how we act like we're total beach bums who do this all the time?


ME BOOGIE BOARDING

A wave caught me big time and pulled me under. I flipped under the water and hit my head on the ground, all the while I was inhaling salt water. No joke, I honestly started heaving and almost puked. I could hardly breath, I had taken in so much water! It happened another time after that too!


AMY BOOGIE BOARDING

Check out just to the right of her. We didn't even see anything until we got home and I was going to crop the picture closer in on here when we noticed what looks like a shark fin. No joke, it doesn't look like anything else but a shark. We have looked at it a hundred times. CREEPY!!!

I'll give you one guess as to what she's doing in this picture.

As she was coming in to the beach to take pictures, she started acting like a Baywatch Babe. I think she's got it down pretty well. From now on you can refer to Amy as Pamela Anderson.


MARCUS BOOGIE BOARDING

Yeah, he's just body surfing in this one.

Needless to say, he was so much better than the rest of us.... granted, he does live by the ocean but I don't think that would have really changed anything.


Good times. Marcus had to tell Amy and I that we had 5 more minutes to play in the water before we had to leave. Look what happens, you leave your children home and then you start getting treated like one. Ha ha ha.... we laughed about that one for a while. Seriously, they all but had to rip us out of the ocean.

The wusses, just kidding. It was so very cold and Annie can't get in the water anyway.

What? We could kick your...

Annie and Marcus' neighbor has 2 Porsches so Amy and I jumped on the chance to be weird. Mission Accomplished.


THE SUSHI

That night we had Sushi. I do not like Seafood or Sushi. Granted, never tasted Sushi so this was quite the experience for me.

A "California Roll"

It was... interesting!

The 3 sushi/seafood connoisseurs.

Ginger is supposed to clean your palate.

It clean all your sinuses and tastes like cleaner. I swear it was soaked in pneumonia. Sick, sick and sick again, hence the pictures.

After Amy tried some wasabi.

The wasabi is the tiny little green thing on my finger.

The wasabi psychos:

Yeah, that stuff is soooooo nasty. I'd rather eat all the ginger in the world that eat that again.


That night we played a game called Stone Age. Throw that on my Christmas list!


P.F. CHANG'S and SHOPPING

We went shopping in this outdoor mall by the restaurant.

Yeah, I think I gained about 20 pounds on this trip. Oh well. P.F. Chang's was so good. See that delicious cheesecake in the background? YUM!!!

I brought back other things for Josh and the kids but I had to get these ducks. Yes, Josh's duck's shirt says "FIT HAPPENS". I'm a surfer bum now, Chloee is a pirate and would you really expect anything less for Halle, she's the little devil.

Annie's overgrown tomato plant and her "mood" lights.

These little guys keep eating Annie's tomatoes. They are actually quite big, cute though.


SUNDAY BEACH

On Sunday we went to a beach and I took Annie's family pictures. They turned out beautiful. I would love a beach picture of my family. This was an absoutley gorgeous beach too.

Gotta love that seagull for posing just right for my picutre!

Always a beautiful sight.

The sun setting.


GOODBYE
Mom asleep with Ian.

We went to bed late every night. Marcus was a dear and drove us to the airport just before 5 AM. Thanks for such a great time everyone and for all of the memories that were made!