Monica in LA!

I'm totally stealing this blog so if you'd like to see the original you can HERE! For Monica's birthday her hubby and family sent her to see me!! June 12th seemed SO far away at the time, but it finally came!!!

She flew in late Saturday night and we took her straight to Manhattan Creamery! It's always a MUST after a long flight! We walked down Manhattan Pier afterwards to show her the ocean, but it was too cold to go play in the sand. It's still beautiful to walk down at night but you know how cold June can get!

The next day we had beach plans, but the weather did NOT cooperate! It was so frustrating because we were all so excited about our beach day. We had packed all our beach gear in the car and thought that by the time we finished lunch the sun would be out to burn the June Gloom layer of cold grey clouds, but no it only got colder the closer we got to the beach.

It's hard to explain June Gloom especially when January had its warm days and even our May Gray wasn't that bad this year. We try warning people, but I think we forget that it really happens until June arrives every year. I did have a Cakeball order that day and Monica helped me with it! Thank goodness because it was probably my most challenging order yet! We made Apple Cakeball Bouquets for Teacher Appreciation orders. Wanna see?

Click HERE to see them all.

We finished at 10am right when Ty walked in the door from teaching Children's Church. It was perfect timing! We got dressed and headed off to the beach for brunch! We walked out to the beach for a photo shoot (to prove there IS a beach) and then we had a great Brunch at Martha's. It is THE place to Brunch on Sundays so Monica got to meet our friends Sarah & Richard who were also eating there with a friend!

We shopped along Hermosa Pier and after we decided it was MUCH too cold to lay out we took a much needed nap and then had dinner at PF Changs before seeing Iron Man 2 on the IMAX! We hung out at Starbucks before the movie started and warmed ourselves up with warm teas and coffees! Thanks Starbucks! We needed that after our freezing cold day!

Monday was BEVERLY HILLS day! Monica had never been to Rodeo Drive so we had a blast walking through all the shops!

We had lunch at 9021-pho. It was Mon's first time to experience Vietnamese Pho! It is my & Ty's favorite dish!! The bowl was bigger than her head, but it was good. I wish we had ordered the non-meat one though because they added some weird meat ball things (beef balls in Vietnamese =) and they just looked weird. Veggie would've been less intimidating for a first timer! I think she liked it though!

Dessert was at Crumbs (which in my opinion is BETTER than Sprinkles!) for a huge and yummy cupcake. It was vanilla and chocolate filled with vanilla and chocolate and topped with cookies and brownies! We split one! Then we were off to our shopping excursion. She bought her hubby a Father's Day present at the Polo store and we felt SO COOL to be making a purchase on Rodeo Drive!!

We walked and walked and shopped and shopped and even found a place that was giving 10 minute free foot massages. YES PLEASE. I think we were supposed to buy something afterwards, but we didn't. =)

After Rodeo Drive we headed to the Santa Monica Promenade where we had some coffee (Danielle had a Nutella Latte- super healthy!), people watched (it was very entertaining!), watched the sunset behind some mountains, and ate at Buddha's Belly...Thai Food. Are you noticing a trend here? Yes we ate LOTS of asian food, it was delicious! Monica's baby is going to need an Asian name because that's all he/she is going to eat!

Tuesday was "Operation Beach Day". We were determined. One way or another we were going to the beach. We decided to try out Laguna Beach. I hadn't been there either so it was an adventure for us both. We drove down there that morning, had a nice lunch, found some AWESOME candy/caramel apples for dessert (seriously, they were sinful!) and went to the beautiful beach. It was gloomy. We were hesitant to even go, but we thought we might as well. We got our chairs all situated and sat there in our dresses/jackets for a while then decided to take them off. Sure enough, the fabulous SUN came out! It was PERFECT weather. As soon as it got to be a little hot, a cool breeze would blow. Ahh it was heaven. We could have stayed there forever. We both got some sun (YAYAYAYYYYYY!) and caught a nap or 2 also. We did a little shopping on our way out. Laguna Beach was a really cool little town. I can't wait to go back! That night we went to In N Out Burgers, and yes totally went Animal Style! I probably should've let Monica get regular fries because they were too animally for her but it was a yummy meal!

The AMAZING (totally healthy) caramal + some apples! I'm craving another one right now!!

  

Her last day...Wednesday. She was to head home around 3:30 that afternoon, but we wanted to squeeze in some HOLLYWOOD action before that.

We drove there and started on our journey through the street of Hollywood.

We saw tons of stars and the Grauman's Chinese Theater where all the handprints/footprints of the stars were. We hit up Zara for some last minute shopping - I LOVE that store!  After our shopping it was time to find some lunch (we were starving) and head home to get her stuff and head to the airport.

We found an awesome sushi place and we chowed down (no worries, we only got COOKED stuff...it was still awesome!!!) Then came crunch time. We were still in Hollywood and her stuff was still at the house and she only had 2 hours before she HAD to be at the airport. YIPE! I got her there in time though! It was easier to say goodbye because she had to RUN to catch her flight. Otherwise that would've been really tough! I had such a blast with you Mon! It was great to get some girl-time in with you! I feel like I got a birthday present too! I LOVE YOU!! (Thanks to everyone that sent her to me! You guys are AWESOME!)