Red Soles

I didn't find the shoes I was looking for at the mall so we took a special trip to the Louboutin store in West Hollywood.  One of my friends watched our kids so we could enjoy it a little bit more:) It's  2 story store of just shoes.  I had to take a moment to soak it all in.

How great is the red carpet to match the soles of the shoes.

And here is the winner.  They may just look like plain black pumps to some, but I've been dreaming about these shoes for 5 years.  Every pair is hand made and fits a little different than the other.

Al looking at the most expensive pair in the store which were covered with Swarovski Crystals.

29 and 364 days old with my first pair of Louboutins.  Could this weekend get any better?

My actual Birthday fell on a Monday and Al had to work.  We met my friend Laura at the mall for a couple hours.  

 Al met us for lunch at Tender Greens.

 I don't have too many pictures of Alex smiling and looking at the camera these days.  He must have known it was my Birthday.

 My two little buddies.

 Al's Dad was in town for work so we met him in Huntington Beach for dinner.  We ate at Gyu Kaku, a Japanese restaurant where you cook your dinner at your table.  There was 12 of us there so we got the party platter.  I couldn't believe how big it was.

A 4, 6, and 5

 Birthday dessert, smores.  You get to roast your own marshmallow, so fun.

 Thanks for a great birthday dinner Al 4, it's always fun to see you. And another thank you to my husband Al, it was such a great weekend.  I might just expect this every year :)

Surf City 2013

Grandma and Grandpa Cameron stayed with us a couple weeks ago for the Surf City Marathon.  Friday night we had dinner at Palermos in Silverlake.  The Al's were in heaven with their Italian food.

Coles new nickname from Grandpa is Kaipo Cocos.  Mostly he calls him Coco but Cole is still his real name.

On Saturday we went to the race Expo for Al 4 to check in and we had a yummy lunch at 21 Degrees

On the way home everyone was asleep in the car except Al and I.

You can even see Shelly in the very back asleep.

Love that Cole

Saturday night we had dinner at Whole Foods.  Alex devoured his pizza.

I have to be careful about what I order to drink because he always ends up drinking it.  No more soda for me.

Sunday was race day.  This year I stayed at home with the boys so Al and Shelly could enjoy spectating.  We had a ton of food for Superbowl Sunday that made up for the calories he burned in the race.  Lets be honest thought I could give Al 4 and 5 my pregnancy weight and they would still be thin.

Labor Day 2012

Labor Day weekend was filled with lots of fun family time.  Al built Alex his first fort and then he thought he could walk on top of it, yikes.

Fun in the fort.

Sushi dinner.  Alex thought it was pretty cool to dip his chopsticks in his dads miso soup and then lick them.  I ordered him a cucumber roll thinking he would love it since he loves the taste of seaweed, but his favorite thing was Gyoza. 

On Saturday my friend Laura had a huge yard sale at her house.  She lives in the prime location so it was great.  She advertised for it to start at 8am, but there was a group of people at 7am.  I've never been into yard sales, but people take these serious.  They have to be hoarders.

Alex was finding all sorts of cool stuff to take home.

Laura and I

That afternoon we went to El Porto Beach.  Alex enjoyed a Happy Meal mixed with sand, so nutritous.

Al entertained him for at least 30 minutes by digging a hole.  

Coolest Dad ever.

Trying to look at magazines with Kristin, but it doesn't really work with Alex :)

Family picture and 1 of my 2 maternity swimsuits.  I'm already sick of wearing them.

I forgot the baby powder so Al showered with Alex, haha.

That night we had some friends in town from our old ward so we went to dinner with a big group in Glendale.

3 of us are pregnant.  Pricella is 32 weeks, I'm 30 weeks, and Celia is 28 weeks.  

Sunday morning I made German pancakes before I realized it was fast Sunday, whoops.  Good thing I'm pregnant.

That night Alex got his very first haircut.   He hates bibs so he screamed until I took off the cape.

I ended up holding him and then he was fine.

I love his new hairdo and I saved his curl in a ziplock bag.

On Labor Day we went to Huntington beach with some friends.  Mia and Alex love each other.

Free entertainment is the best.

When we first got there we made the mistake of letting him go in the water.  Al let him play until he started shivering and then we took him out and cried until we walked far away and played in the sand for awhile. He thought sliding off the sandbar was pretty cool.

Nude Beach Models

One more trip in the water before we left the beach and then he cried for about 5 more minutes.  Hopefully next summer will be more relaxing when he understands he can't just run in the water.

Happy Labor Day

Fourth Of July

We had a fun filled weekend full of Fourth of July festivities. I had hoped for more beach time, but June gloom apparently still exists in July. On Saturday our beach plans changed to the pool which got cancelled because some little kid decided to use it for their bathroom. We decided to spend our afternoon in Hollywood and had lunch at my favorite restaurant Toast. The red velvet cupcake was delightful.After lunch we went to Beverly Hills to see the Greystone Mansion. There are tons of pathways around the mansion that lead you to gardens, fountains, and benches to enjoy the views. A ton of weddings and parties are held at the mansion. There have also been a lot of movies filmed there like The Big Lebowski, X-Men, Spiderman, Holiday, Austin Powers Goldmember, and Ghostbusters. This is the back of the mansion.

I took a lot of pictures of the grounds, surprise.

Al complaining about me taking more pictures.

One of the many fountains.
The breathtaking view of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. The condo tower on the left is where Cher, Elton John, Lindsay Lohan, Brody Jenner, and Francesca who we had dinner with at Boa lives.
Us
I don't know if it's me getting older or if I just appreciate the flowers in California, but I can't believe how many different types of beautiful flowers I see everyday.
Me and my favorite courtyard.
After the mansion I spotted the world's largest garbage cans. I guess if you live in Beverly Hills you get a way bigger trash can than everyone else. They seriously take up half the street. Later that night we went to the Hollywood Bowl for the 4th of July show. I heard that they have amazing fireworks so without doing research on the performers I bought the tickets. When Al looked at the tickets he started laughing and said "Do you know who Vince Gill is?" He played me some music and I quickly realized that I made a mistake. I hate country music especially twangy country like his. The Hollywood Bowl is amazing. If you look closely at the middle of the far hill you can see the Hollywood sign. I thought that was pretty neat and didn't notice for the first 10 minutes I was there...lol As you can tell we had really close seats.
The other memo I didn't get is that people pack Thanksgiving dinner. People were busting out wine, glasses, cupcakes, thermoses filled with coffee, tea, and who knows what else. Some people further down from us were eating shrimp cocktail. Next time Al and I are bringing a 7 course meal.
The show turned out to be really good. The La Phil performed before Vince and they were fabulous. Vince wasn't my favorite, but Al and I just laughed.
The fireworks were awesome and as you can see they shoot them right over The Hollywood BowlThe longer they went on the smokier it got and the smoke didn't seem to go anywhere.
By the end it looked like the place was on fire(watch the video below). What's a little more smoke in LA?

On Sunday evening we went to Huntington Beach to watch the much talked about firework show. We got way lucky and got a parking spot right off Main St. in the middle of all the festivities. There were so many houses decorated and this was my favorite one.

I couldn't believe how many people were there.
Yay for my favorite beach in SoCal.
People were so festive they decorated their beach cruiser wheels with Crate Paper.

We got to watch the sunset.
It was a little chilly, but luckily both of us wore jackets and brought a blanket.
We had the best seats ever and they were free!!
Almost time for the show.
HAPPY 4th OF JULY

It was a great weekend, but mostly because I got to spend it with Al.