Back to Cali...

This is a crazy long blog but I'm way behind so it's coming at ya all at once.

A couple of weekends ago, I came back to the OC for a visit. It was non-stop fun! On Thursday I drove down from UT and went straight to the beach!!! Once I passed Barstow it took every ounce of self control I had to drive slower than 100 mph. I was so excited! As soon as I got to Laguna on the 133 the beach smell hit me and I couldn't contain myself! I parked at Aliso Creek beach and my toes were in the ocean in minutes! So HAPPY!!!

After getting my beach fix, I headed to Lauren and Casey's house to drop off my stuff. This is what I found on the door to my room...

Lauren is hilarious! I love it that my room was labeled just for me...and obviously Zorro is welcome here too! lol. I had just enough time to wash the sand off my feet and snooze for a few minutes before meeting Lauren at the mall to get our hair did.

Lauren looked like a super-model...

I wasn't crazy about the way Kelly styled my hair this time, but the cut is fantastic and totally worth the drive!

This is Kelly...she's hilarious...

After the salon we went to Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

On Friday, I met Jodi and the Phyllis for lunch at Oami. I have totally been craving this and when it came, it looked sooo good I had to take a picture. Heaven!

Here's me and the Phyllis...Jodi was present but not pictured...

After lunch, Casey and I went to see G.I. Joe. If you haven't seen this movie...don't. If you have, I am sorry. I wanted to gouge my eyeballs out. It wasn't even cheesy fun, it was just BAD. The best part of the whole move was when Casey accidentally threw Reece's Pieces at me because of a freakish hand-twitch! lol lol

After the movie I went to see my Monkey...oh and Heidi and Jason too. :) I haven't seen this kid in two months and she's grown up so much in that short time. I was having serious Monkey-withdrawals and this visit was just what I needed.

She's jumping here and her crazy hair is even more crazy!

We're playing cars...

So happy together again!

Such a serious Monkey...

Thanks Heidi and Jason for the delicious dinner and my Monkey fix! Love you guys!

After seeing the Monkey I got to spend some time catching up with Shanda, Mike and Ali. It was super fun chatting and getting all the latest gossip! I even forgave Mike for showing up in his Ducks shirt...Blech!

Saturday morning Lauren woke me up bright and early with this yummy smoothie brought straight to my bed. Such a great way to start the day! I only wish I would have been awake enough to remember to take the picture with her in it too.

The plan for Saturday was to spend the whole day at Corona Del Mar beach. Which, of course, meant that we had to stop by C'est Si Bon bakery for turkey sandwiches and those little cookies that I have no idea how to spell. We got a baguette too, just because...

The day couldn't have been more gorgeous!!! I'm sure it was meant just for me. :)

...Or maybe some other people had the same idea too...the lot was full at 11 am!

We were still stoked though...

We just put on our nerdy, but fabulous, backpack chairs on and huffed it down the hill.

Martha joined us too!!! So fun!

Sisters

It was crazy crowded since it was the second to last weekend of summer.

This picture was taken after "the incident." Lauren and I were out in the swells floating and having a wonderful time...all of the sudden...a set of HUMONGOUS waves started rolling in. We swam out to them and Lauren made it under the first wave, but I didn't get low enough fast enough and I got drilled. The next wave was equally huge and instead of getting drilled multiple times, I took it in to shore...Lauren did not. lol She was stuck out there with the huge waves, one after the other. Once she finally got back to shore, I was in big trouble for ditching her. Sorry Lauren, but I had to save myself. :)

After all of the beach fun, it was time to come back and get ready to see Spamalot at the Ahmanson theater in LA.

The girls...right before the show. Terri was supposed to meet us there but she got a flat tire on the way and couldn't make it. :( We missed you Terri.

Spamalot had moments of greatness, but long gaps of boring. I'm glad I got to see it finally but I wouldn't really recommend it. After the show, we hit up Denny's and ate a bunch of crap at midnight which I used to be able to do without a problem but not any more. I woke up at 4 am with a killer tummy ache and a 'food hangover' the next morning. yuck.

We went to church on Sunday and since we didn't learn our lesson at Denny's we decided to make homemade Mac and cheese afterwards. It was cheesy delicious-ness!!!

I was pretty excited!

Yum-O!

Believe it or not...that was just lunch. Yikes! A few hours later, Ryan and Naomi came over for dinner! It was so good and then we played the new Wii Resort games. So fun!

Naomi showing off her mad archery skills.

The best way to end a night like this is with Thrifty's Chocolate Malted Krunch ice cream cones!!! It's my favorite ice cream of all time and I can't get it in Utah. So sad.

As you can see, I was just a little happy about my ice cream cone!

Freaking DELICIOUS!!!

I was supposed to come back home on Monday, but I decided to stay an extra day! Since Tom is moving to Atlanta in a few weeks, we decided to squeeze in another beach day! Woohoo! It was crazy foggy in CDM. Normally this would have bummed me out but because Saturday was sunny and hot, it was kind of nice to have a chilly cloudy beach day too.

I was a little cold but happy.

It was fun hanging out with Tom before he takes off on his new adventures in Georgia. Good luck on the move Tom! I'm so excited for you even though I'll miss going to lots of Kings games with you.

After the beach Jodi, Lauren and I went to my new favorite place...the Bali foot spa in Westminster. For $20 you get a whole body massage. It was fantastic!!! I was like a walking marshmallow incapable of making complete sentences afterwards. Fabulous!

Then we had fried chicken dinners at Jodi's favorite little cafe that I can't remember the name of right now. I had to take a picture. Yum!

On Tuesday morning, I met Cameron and Garrett for breakfast at Bagels and Brew. I wish I took pictures but I didn't. :( It was so fun to hang out with them and it was a bonus to have my favorite bagels. There is not one bagel place in St. George! Isn't that crazy!?!?!

After a really fun breakfast, I hit the road and headed back to Utah. This trip was crazy good times! Thanks Lauren and Casey for letting me stay with you and for hanging out with me. I love you guys! I don't think I could have packed more fun in to this trip if I tried! I came home happy and exhausted and excited to make BBQ pizzas with John. I will blog about that soon. :)