LA

The week after Gracie came home, Brad had a planned trip to Los Angeles for training at the VA there. We had thrown around the idea of me going with him for a while. I had never been away from the kids for that long, so I really didn't know if I could do it. We thought about leaving Mary Ella with family and taking Rhett since he can fly for free, but really Brad and I needed a getaway. We tried several times to plan a babymoon before Rhett got here, but it never worked out. So, I decided to just do it! And since I was already going to be in Fayetteville with the kids for spring break, it worked out perfectly for me to leave them there for the week and fly out to meet Brad in LA.

We met up on a flight from Houston and arrived in LA on the Sunday before his meetings began. We rented a car for the week, and Sunday we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Malibu, the ocean on our left and the mountains on our right. It was beautiful! We came across Pepperdine, and decided to drive up and look at the campus. We drove to the very top of the mountain, and got out to take some pictures. Can you imagine having this view as a college student living in Malibu, California???

A-mazing!

That night we ate at a seafood dive across from the beach in Malibu, recommended by the guard at Pepperdine. Then we made our way back to Santa Monica and walked down the Santa Monica Pier and had some dessert overlooking the ocean.

Our hotel was on Santa Monica boulevard, so we were in close proximity to everything. It was even close enough to the VA for me to have lunch with Brad everyday on his break. On Monday we did really the only tourist-y thing of the whole trip. We drove down Hollywood Boulevard and went to see Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We ate at a pizza place in the shopping center attached to the Kodak Theater.

It was fun to see the stars' hands and feet in the cement in front of the Grauman.

Apparently these two did their handprints on the same day. Each star signed his or her name and wrote a little message. I liked Marilyn's: "Gentleman Prefer Blondes." ;)

ME is really into Mary Poppins right now ;)

And this is Michael Jackson's. His must be the most popular because it seems like it is almost worn out. I wonder if they move the pieces of concrete in and out? Because next to his now is one his kids put their hands in earlier this year.

Brad wanted to compare his foot to John Wayne's boot size.

"Hollywood" sign

Hollywood sign in the background

On our way back to the car we spotted Mickey's star ;)

And ran into Snoop Dogg! Just kidding...this was outside of Madame Tussaud's

On our way back to the hotel we drove through Beverly Hills and down Rodeo Drive, of course. I decided I had to come back later in the week so I could see what those houses in the Hollywood Hills looked like in the daylight. I pretty much left my camera at the hotel for the rest of the week, so the only other pics I took were on my iphone. When I decided to make the trip I said I wanted to do two things I don't get to do enough with kids: sleep and read. And that's what I did when Brad was working. We had lunch everyday and tried to get out in the evenings, but I didn't venture out by myself. I would have taken my books down to the beach, but it really wasn't warm enough. Tuesday night we met our friends, Chad and Sommer, in the Pacific Palisades for supper and got to meet sweet little Cohen. He is just a few weeks younger than Rhett, so I had to get some baby love from him. It was fun to meet up with friends in the big city! I have known Sommer since before college, and then she was like my big sis in the Kappa house. We reminisced about old times and shared baby stories while Chad and Brad talked about the Razorbacks.

Thursday night we had dinner in downtown LA and went to a Lakers' game. It was actually a pretty big game against Oklahoma City. I cared more about stargazing than I did about the basketball, but I seriously needed a pair of binoculars! We knew Jack would be sitting courtside, and we thought we spotted him early on until we saw him in the background of a shot of the dancing Laker Girls on the jumbo tron. We had been looking on the opposite side of the court! But he actually sits right at the end of the visiting teams' bench. When we finally saw him we were like, "Of course that's Jack Nicholson!" Even from the nosebleed section, he still has a distinct look and vivid mannerisms. Brad and I actually had a game going from the time we touched down at LAX of who could spot the most celebrities. The only thing we came up with were a few nice doppelgangers, but it was fun anyway! I did spot a very blonde girl at the Lakers' game and I wondered if she might be Christina Aguilera. And a girl with very hot pink pants stood out to me. At some point in the game the pink pants girl went and sat with the white haired girl, so I knew they must be famous.

And I was right, Christina Millian and Christina Aguilera! The next day I googled "who was at the lakers game" and found this picture. I also found pictures of David Beckham there with his son, Romeo, but I can't say I was able to spot them from my seat. Seriously, needed some binocs and I would have been all over it! ;)

Friday night was our last night out, and we decided to walk around the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. We ended up walking down to the beach again and found a sushi place, Sugarfish, that Chad and Sommer had recommended. Brad had his first taste of true sushi, but I'm a chicken and stuck to the cooked stuff. Then we decided to drive up the PCH one more time. This time we turned off on Sunset Boulevard and drove all through the Hollywood Hills. We drove through Belair, UCLA, LA Country Club, and Beverly Hills. We ended up back on Rodeo Drive and found Sprinkles, a famous cupcake shop.

We enjoyed a red velvet and vanilla cupcake in the shop and took 2 more back to the room for later. ;)

This is Sprinkle's cupcake ATM!

We had a fun trip, and I'm glad I got to go back out to the west coast. I hadn't been since I was a girl visiting my cousins that lived there. But I can't say that I will be going away for a week again any time soon! I missed them sooo much! And to call it a "guilt trip" would be completely literal. First, Rita got sick, so I felt so bad that she was looking after my kiddos when she didn't feel like it. And by the end of the week, both kids were sick too! I wanted to be home with them so badly! We flew home Saturday, and we scooted our booties down to Hope Sunday and were back in Jackson by Monday afternoon to see Dr. Smith. ME had a sinus infection and Rhett had a double ear infection. Yuck! Anyway, we all survived, and Mommy finally got a break! Thank you so much Gigi and Papa and Oma and Juju and NaNa, and everybody else that pitched in to help take care of my kids! I knew they were in good hands and having a ball!