September 2012

September was a very fun month for us.  The kids had gotten back into the swing of things with school and we had some fun getaways.
Sawyer’s Birthday
We kicked off the month with Sawyers Birthday on September 1st.  The day before his birthday I brought cupcakes to his classroom and the kids all sang happy birthday.  He’s always been a little shy about being in the spotlight but he did great.  He’s adjusting to kindergarten very well. 


On Sawyer’s birthday we all went Miniature Golfing at Boomers and met the rest of the family at Spaghetti Factory in Rancho. 


Sawyer was very excited to get his very own Nintendo DS for his birthday.  He was not expecting it and was over the moon!


It was a very fun day and it was so much fun to have the both sides of the family there with us to celebrate!
Labor Day in L.A.
We had a free hotel night that was about to expire so we planned a quick overnighter in L.A. and thought we’d find some fun places to visit.  It turned out to be a really fun trip.  We’d love to do it again soon!
Since Labor Day was Monday and Chris and the kids had the day off, we decided to drive out Sunday and visit the L.A. Temple grounds.  We loved the new visitors center.  The kids were fascinated with all the fun high tech stuff they have now.  Here we are in front of the Christus statue.  I’m not sure what Sawyer was sulking about.  Either that or he was praying really hard. 

We had fun walking around the temple and showing the kids where we were married.  It was a gorgeous day and a perfect way to spend an afternoon in September. 

While in L.A. we went to the Apple Pan.  We’d never been there before but we’d heard about it and I’d always wanted to try it.  It has been there since 1947 and literally not a thing has changed.  The register is old as can be, they don’t take cards, they have handwritten checks and the sodas are served in paper cups in a silver liner.  It is such a fun place to eat and you feel like you’ve traveled back in time.  

The restaurant is in an old house that has a square shaped  bar that surrounds the kitchen.  There are probably 15 seats total in the restaurant.  When you walk in you just stand near the walls and wait for someone to get up and you take their seat.  It was a bit difficult finding 6 seats together but it worked out after we waited 10 minutes or so. 

The kids enjoyed watching the cooks while we ate.  I enjoyed  my juicy burger. 


We splurged and bought a slice of apple pie and a slice of banana cream pie.  They were both very yummy.  I guess its called the Apple pan for a reason, the apple was DE-licious!

We stayed at a Courtyard Marriott in Century City just south of Beverly Hills.  We were upgraded to a suite (not to many business travelers on Labor Day) and had plenty of room to spread out.  I was pleasantly surprised when I looked out our window to find a beautiful view of the Temple. 

The next morning I got up bright and early for a run.  I absolutely love running while on vacation.  It think it is so much fun to run in new places, I get tired of the same scenery where we live.  What better place for a morning run than Rodeo drive. I took off from our hotel and ran about 4 miles. I loved running in Beverly Hills passing all the fancy shops before the rest of the world was even out of bed.  After getting back to the Hotel and getting the kids up and ready we headed over to Beverly Hills to explore.

First things first was to hit up Sprinkles cupcakes.  We also tried Crumbs which is another cupcake shop down the street. We got a couple from each place and my vote was with Sprinkles. Libby liked her rainbow sprinkled cupcake from Crumbs. 



We drove through some of the residential areas of Beverly Hills and admired some of the beautiful mansions.  We also attempted to go to Santa Monica Pier but it looked like a sea of people due to the holiday so we decided to forgo that plan. On our way back toward home we stopped at a store the kids had seen a pamphlet for in our hotel.  It was called Whimsic Alley and the kids were in heaven. It is a huge  store filled with Harry Potter merchandise.  It really made me realize how obsessed people are with this book series. 



Carter loved trying the Butter Beer he’d read so much about in the books. 

We had a really fun time visiting LA and seeing a few of the fun sites.  The kids loved getting out of the house and staying in a hotel for the night.  The kids must have been inspired by their recent visit to the LA temple because they created this a few days after we got back.


Newport Beach
We went down to Newport for the evening one Saturday in September.  It was fun visiting Balboa island and then riding the ferry to the peninsula.  The kids loved running in the sand and watching the sunset.  There’s something about the beach at that time of the evening.  It’s quiet and peaceful, the sky is golden and the sand is cool.  One of my favorite places to be. 





King of the Rock
One of the perks of working for Red Bull is the fun events that we get to attend.  Chris and I were able to go up to San Francisco for Red Bull’s King of the Rock.  We could have flown up there but we love the drive up the central coast and we wanted to make a weekend out of it so we left Thursday afternoon and drove up to San Luis Obispo for the night.  It was the first time in 10 years we had been alone with no kids for more than one night. What a wonderful weekend it was, we realized how important it is to spend that much needed time together. 
On Thursday night we stayed in San Luis Obispo and went to the Farmers Market and our favorite Firestone Grill for famous tri tip sandwiches.



We’ve always wanted to try the famous cakes at the Madonna Inn so we stopped there on our way back to our hotel and enjoyed the interesting décor there!  If you’ve never been to the Madonna inn, it truly is fascinating.  There are no words. 
The next morning we got up and ran 4 miles.  Like I said, I love to run in new places, it just adds to the adventure.  My knee started bothering me as we ran but I brushed it off and just pushed through.  We drove up to San Francisco that day and arrived later that afternoon.  After checking into our hotel in Fisherman’s Warf we took the Trolley into Union Square where we enjoyed a movie, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed our night out on the town.  San Francisco is one of my favorite places to visit!



One of my bucket list items for a while has been running across the Golden State Bridge.  The next morning we had planned to run from our hotel across the bridge and back which was 11 miles.  We’d been training for the Santa Barbara 1/2 Marathon and we were right on pace to do that run.  When I woke up that morning my knee was really bothering me.  I thought maybe it would go away and I ended up running anyway.  Very stupid decision.  The run was beautiful and the bridge was just amazing.  Seeing it from a distance doesn’t do it justice.  I was intrigued  by the size and grandiosity of it. The weather was perfect and it was even a little warm while we ran, kinda rare for San Francisco in October.  By the time we reached the hotel I was just about hobbling.  We rested up and headed out later to do some sight seeing. 




We walked around Fisherman’s Warf and got some souvenirs for the kids.  We made sure to visit Ghirardelli square and have a fudge sundae. 


We headed back to our hotel to get ready for the main event- King of the Rock.  King of the Rock is a one on one basketball tournament on Alcatraz island.  The players actually play basketball in the Rec Yard where the prisoners played.  It is a pretty big deal to do something like this on the Island.  Over the course of the year there are tournaments in 25 different countries and all over the US where the players qualify to come compete to become the King of the Rock.  We had heard it was going to be cold so we wore a couple of layers of clothing.  As we boarded the boat we were given hats and blankets.  Even that wasn’t enough to keep us warm.  It was FREEZING!  The wind was strong and the air was bone chilling.  We had such a fun time and it felt amazing to be there. 





What an amazing weekend it was in San Francisco, Thank you so much Mom and Dad for watching the kids! We loved being alone but we kept talking about how much the kids would love it.  We decided that next year when they do it again we would take the kids with us and make it a family trip.
Flag Football
Carter had been wanting to play football for some time now so we decided to sign him up for Flag Football through our city.  He was one of the younger players on his team and his team was not very good.  I think they lost all but one game.  He had fun and learned a lot.  For some reason I didn’t take any pictures except this one.  Funny story is that one night Carter was protesting going to his game.  He was complaining that he hated losing and that he didn’t want to go.  Chris jokingly said, “ok, if you get a touchdown I’ll give you $100”.  Chris loves to make bets with the kids, must be a guy thing.  Anyhow the chances of this happening were pretty unlikely since his team rarely scored and he was one of the younger kids on the team.  Well sure enough he scored a touchdown that night and Chris had to pay up!  Sadly the team still lost the game but Carter was happy!