Our trip

Sunday morning we touched down at grey, depressing Heathrow and I felt pretty sad that the last 10 days spent in Washington and California had come to such a quick end. We were so busy while we were there that the holiday literally flew by. The flight over wasn't great, from now on we will definitely do direct only, however Calum was as good as you can expect a toddler to be after 14.5 hours on a plane stuck on Mom and Dad's laps.

We spent our first few days at my Dad's in Arlington and then headed down to Redmond on Friday for a mini-reunion at good old El Torreador with the girls who hadn't been together since Tara's wedding 2 years ago. The next day was my birthday, celebrated with everyone (including babies) at Ashley's for a BBQ. That night I had a family dinner in Issaquah at this really great new restaurant called the Flat Iron Grill which was amazing. It was a special treat to have my cousin Jake come over from WSU where he's attending summer school to celebrate-next time I see him is likely to be back in Pullman next year when he graduates, can't wait to show Mark where I went to college! On Sunday we spent the day with my Mom, doing some shopping and heading down to Spuds on Lake Washington where Calum enjoyed Mark's strawberry milkshake. That night Mark took Calum swimming in the pool at my Mom's and on Monday we went to the Mariner's game with my Dad and my Aunt Sue. Unfortunately Mark had to have an emergency tooth extraction so photos from that day all show him with quite the "long" face!

Family dinner
Calum, Westyn and Makena

Our attempt at a baby group shot (minus Keri and Kena!)
El T's
In Pioneer Square on the way to the Ms game

We headed down to LA on Tuesday where we spent the first two nights in the OC. Tara and Justin took us to "the Wedge" in Balboa to watch the big waves and crazy body boarders who rode them, then to the OC Fair which was a true American experience for Mark who couldn't get over all of the food, rides and good old American white trash. We saw a rodeo, took Calum and Jackson to the petting zoo where they had a blast, and made Justin and Mark (and even Tara!) go on some scary rides. The BBQ carne asada Justin cooked up that night was a treat. The following day we went to Laguna Beach and had fish tacos, then to a "secret" beach Justin knew of that had 1000 steps (or maybe more like 300) going down to get to it-not ideal when carrying a 27 lb baby! The beach was worth it though, so pretty and picturesque-I could have stayed forever but we had to get back up to LA and needed to avoid the insane traffic there that had already eaten up hours of our trip.

Calum and Jackson at the fair
Calum and Mark at the petting zoo
Family pic at "the Wedge" in Balboa
Dett, Tara and I at Laguna Beach
Besties-Jackson and Calum

We checked into our amazing hotel just off the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and spent the first evening just the 3 of us, the first time we had spent any time just the 3 of us since we got to the US! The next day Dett was an amazing tour guide, taking us through "LA in a Day"-we drove through the valley, Beverly Hills, past Mann's Chinese Theatre and the stars on Hollywood Blvd, down Sunset and past the Viper Room and then on a side tour to the Century Plaza for some shopping and Pinkberry, an LA must. We then headed to the Farmer's Market and the Grove which was probably the highlight of the day for me. That night we all had drinks around the fancy pool at the hotel (Calum and Jackson included-as Tara says, they totally partied!) and then had a great dinner in Santa Monica (thanks Mark G!).

Tara, Dett and I at the pool bar at Shangri La in Santa Monica
Enjoying a drink at the LA Farmer's Market
Farmer's Market

Come Saturday morning I have to say I really wasn't ready to leave. We had such a good time with everyone and I think Mark was really starting to get into LA, I completely messed up by scheduling such an early flight and not giving us more time in LA to have a look around. None the less, on the drive to LAX Mark did say that he's sure we will be back lots over the next couple of years so there is still hope!