A Trip With My Honey

In case any of you were wondering how all the sudden I had time to completely change the face/functionality of my blog...well, here's why:

Trev and I took a trip to California for 5 days by ourselves!  No little bambinos...so one of the things I did was FINALLY update my blog! :)

Last month, Trev and I had our 9th anniversary and we wanted to take a trip somewhere to celebrate...so when we found out that Trev had a work meeting in Orange County, California we started planning. :)  His meeting was Tues - Thurs, so I flew out Wed to meet him and we stayed over the weekend and came home the following Mon.  So 6 days, no kids, just us...amazing!

(my mom, mom-in-law, and friend took shifts watching the kids at our house - so nice!) 

Here's what we did:

Day 1: Flew to Anaheim by myself.  It felt weird being alone since that is a rather seldom occurance in my life right now.  I read on the plane.  Wrote in my journal.  Listen to my iPod.  Arrived.  Picked up my car.  Drove to hotel to meet my Mr.  Picked him up (pouring rain by the way) and went to Ruth's Chris for dinner.  It was delish and now I get all the hype about that place.  Saw the Duke Basketball team at dinner.  They are freakishly tall.

Day 2:  Trev finished his meeting.  I stayed in bed until 10 am (this is when all the blogging updates happened :)).  Soaked in the peace and quiet.  Blogged some more.  Read.  Trev came back.  We went running and to the gym.  Showered, then headed to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch BYU and "the Jimmer" take on Florida.  We ate yummy food.  Watched BYU lose. :(  But got to talk to some guys about the Church and BYU standards (they wanted to know about Brandon Davies' suspension).  Great conversation and fun to meet new people with different stories to tell.

The highlight of the night for me was watching my Honey taking the high-road when the Cougars lost.  Instead of acting disappointed, he just said, "Well, it was a good run."  He's come a long way... :)  After the loss, we headed to our hotel we would stay at the rest of the weekend.  The Marriott Renaissance Club in Aliso Viejo.  One of my fav parts of the trip was this place.  It was gorgeous.  Comfy. Half-hotel, half-high-end health club and spa.  It was great.  Had a pools, spa, hot tub, exercise areas, raquetball courts, and even a full gym for bball.  Pick up games for Trev.  Awe-some and fun!

One bad thing.  Bum weather.  Rain.  Cold.  But this place made it just fine.  We had tons to do even on the cold days.  One great thing.  Trev told them it was our anniversary trip so they sent us Martinellis and Chocolate-Covered Strawberries one night AND they gave us vouchers to eat breakfast in their super yum restaurant EVERY DAY we were there!  It was awe-some!  Plus it was only about 20 minutes from Laguna Beach and in a very up-scale area.  Loved it!

Day 3:  More rain. Raquetball with my honey.  Saw the movie "Just Go With It."  Love Jen Aniston...she is my fav actress.  Rain stopped.  Beach time.  Cold.  Walked on the boardwalk.  Ate at Ruby's Cafe for dinner.  So cold I actually ordered hot chocolate to warm up.  Yum clam chowder.  Ate too much and regretted it.  Kind of a chill day but nice.

Day 4:  Ran 12 miles along the Pacific Coast Highway.  Beautiful, but pretty tough.  Wouldn't do it again, but glad to say I did it.  Whale-watching in Newport Beach (Balboa Island).  Rode in our car over the water on a car ferry.  Adorable little island.  Vintage Cali. 

One of the funnest things we did.  Saw 3 whales, about 50 dolphins, and 10 sea lions.  Amazing to see these amazing sea creations.  Incredible experience.

Finished out the day with a 3-course Fondue Meal.  Wow.  Delish.  Scared a 90 year old man with the flash on my camera while trying to capture some memories.  Felt bad.

Love this man.

Day 5:  Sunday.  Attended church.  Neat to see the closeness of the members in the ward.  You could feel their love for one another.  A true ward family.  Different experience to be in Sacrament meeting without kids.  It was peaceful, but made me miss the kids.  Found myself staring at kids around me.  Hope they weren't freaked out.  Came back, got changed and headed out to go on a light hike.  Got lost finding the trailhead.  Found the trailhead.  Found ourselves on an intense hike.

Looks nice enough right?  Led to mud, decent incline, then this:

At the top, found where we were supposed to start.  Top of the World Park.  Found the "mild" hike we were looking for.  Wound up hiking about 6 miles.  Legs sore the next day.  The view...totally worth it.

Last Day:  Pack up and head home.  Slept a little on the flight.  Spent the rest of the time reflecting on how rejuvenated I felt and how excited I was to see the kids.  Thought of the time with my honey.  Sweet memories.  Made me excited for the time when it will just be us again.  Don't want it soon, but looking forward to the future with my Mr.  Love him dearly.

Back Home:  We told (bribed) the kids that if they were good listeners to their sitters that we would take them to do something fun the night we got home.  They received excellent marks and so we took them to see the movie, "Rango."  Strange flick.  It was the little girls' first trip to the movies.  They lasted just about as long as the huge tub of popcorn did, and then they were off exploring.  I took them out with about 30 minutes left and just enjoyed watching them run around the lobby.  It was actually fun to see them in action. 

So glad to be back with my kids, and to have our family all back together.  Loved the time away, but it's true what they say, "absence makes the heart grow fonder."  I feel very blessed.