I'm Comin' Back from Cali!

Actually I'm already back. It's a sad day when you have to come back to the real world and go back to work. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight, but man when the morning comes and I have to go back to work =( sad.

Brandon isn't so much sad as he is mad. Ok, ok, he didn't like the camera in his face.

Brandon and I went to southern California for five days and had a really great time. It was nice to have a little vacation.

We arrived Friday evening and first things first... In and Out burger!! mmmmm. It was delicious, I'll be honest though, I didn't dig the fries, the first time, but we didn't eat them fresh, they are amazing when they are fresh!! We got in about seven at night which was not my plan, I really wanted the whole day to play, however it worked out well because there were plenty of things that needed to be done before we left. We decided to start in on some "24" season four that night. We had big plans, 17 hours of 24 baby, but none of us were up to the challenge.



Saturday we had the whole day to play with Adam and Dickens!! We had breakfast at this little place called "Bread and Porriage", I had strawberry pancakes. During breakfast we were discussing going to the "Hollywood" sign. We found out you have to hike up to it, and once we found the trail head we realized that the hike is to a viewing point. We decided to hike a little farther and see where it took us, then we decided to take a short cut up a hill, from there we found out that only 15 more minutes to the actual sign. We went for it and after hiking and hiking we made it, the "Hollywood" sign! Well, the back of it with a huge fence in the way! No fence was going to get in our way. We found a hole and shimmied through, climbed down a hill and took some memorable photos. It was all fun and games until we heard the familiar sound of a helicopter, we saw an LAPD one on the hike up. You never saw three people scurry up a hill so fast! Lucky for us it was just the traffic helicopter. We got back down and well, I've been feeling it since. After that adventure we headed off to a Dodger game! Yay, Dodger dogs for all! It was fun, a little chilly, but I love going to professional games. We also got our fill of kettle corn and cotton candy. We left a little bit early, the Dodgers weren't doing so well and we wandered around the parking lot for a while looking for the car. Good Times!!!


The first picture is after the first hill, we thought it would take us right to the sign, as you can see the sign is still a ways away. Jessica and I were extremely disappointed. Once we got to the sign there was still this big fence in the way. Scroll down, you'll see how we remedied that problem.


These past four pictures are a re-enactment of our shortcut up the hill. The real thing would have been better because I hung my leg down so Jessica could climb up easier. =)


This is the remedy to the fence problem. There was this sign on the Hollywood sign too...


Up close and personal!


Sunday we went to Sacrament in Jessica and Adam's ward. There was a couple that spoke. She is a convert and he was excommunicated and came back to the church after some struggles and trials. It was a really great sacrament meeting. After, yes after. We were on vacation! We went down to check out the Santa Monica farmers market. It was small, but cool. I think the big thing there was the food. They had omlettes that were amazing! Those people whipped those things out too, they also had pancakes that were huge, Brandon couldn't eat all of his! We also went to the Promenade to check out all the wonderful shops. Mani/Pedi's for the Dickens and I. We stopped at "Pinkberry" too! We so need a Pinkberry. Frozen yogurt with fruit and other fun toppings. It doesn't sound exciting, but I really liked it! There was a Laker's game that night that Adam wanted to watch so he was doing that and during half time he ran to the store for drinks and the rest of us drove down Rodeo drive and stopped at "Crumbs" mmmm big, fat, expensive, but delicious cupcakes. I think this should be Heidi Peterson's new calling. We had pizza and cupcakes for dinner. Nothing like a well balanced meal.



Monday was Bakersfield. Adam and Jessica took us to the airport to pick up a rental car and then we headed up to Bakersfield for a BBQ at my friend Olesa's house. Another friend, Robert, came down from Fresno. These two were my boys while at BYUH. I haven't seen them for six years! Crazy. They are both married with the cutest families. It was so fun to catch up with them. Olesa's little girl didn't even know I existed, but she loved Brandon, came to him multiple time to have him fix her shoe.


1. Olesa's family 2. the boys and I 3. Robert's family (his boy was making that scrunchy face all night, so cute, he also said I could take his sister, but not his brother home with me. The middle child always gets the shaft!

Did I mention I don't like rental cars...We had this stupid looking car that was hard to see out of and it's really stressful to drive is crazy California traffic in a car that is not yours and you can't see out of! All I could think was "please don't hit me, please don't hit me". AAAHHH!

Tuesday we hit the beach! It still wasn't that nice. The weather was a bit chilly the whole time, but we were not going to leave Cali without going to the beach. We walked down, Brandon played in the water a bit, sat on the beach, Brandon played in the sand then we took a left at the bum and headed back to get ready. We went up to Malibu to eat at Duke's. We started with the Hula Pie! MMMM. Duke's was a fave place to eat for us poor college students at BYUH. My roomates and I would head into town and eat their $9.99 salad bar and then it always happened to be someones birthday when we went and so they would bring us out a free Hula Pie! It is this huge piece of macadamia nut ice cream with a chocolate cookie crust and chocolate sauce on the top and macadamia nuts sprinkled all over. Oh my goodness it was good. After that we headed into Hollywood through a whole ton of traffic that made Heathies crazy! We walked up and down Hollywood blvd past the Kodak theater and the Chinese theater, the Scientologists, all sorts of shops, with all sorts of crap. It was a bit of a rough walk, I was in heals and nice dress and I am still recovering from the blisters from walking ten plus blocks in said heels.




yes, he stuck his face right in the sand!

We went to "Wicked" that night. It was awesome! I loved it! I could watch it over and over again. Brandon even liked it. I don't think he was excited about it like I was, but I heard him laugh quite a few times. Such a great performance. I love Glenda! She had such a funny role. I really loved the whole thing, they all did such a great job. The story was so clever and I love the twist it is on the whole "Wizard of Oz". I highly recommend to anyone with the opportunity to go see it.





Wednesday was just getting ready, packing, stopping by the Santa Monica pier, getting some more In and Out, dropping off the rental and getting to the gate.



It was a fun trip, would have been nice if the weather would have shaped up and been warm, but it was still a fun filled five days and as usual never long enough. It was great to spend time with Adam and Jessica and to catch up with old BYUH friends!