This would make such a great blog post

As we do things or go places I often think, "oh, that would be a great blog post" and then I do nothing about it. Someday I'll go back and do that (yeah, right:) but in the meantime we just returned from a quick 10 year anniversary trip and it definitely deserves a post. Since our built in babysitters are about 10,000 miles away we turned to good friends to watch our kids and dogs. We didn't want to overwhelm anyone with three extra kids for too long so we choose Los Angeles as our destination.

On Wednesday we took the kids to Elaine's house and we were off! ... only to discover we had forgotten to give her their car seats. Back to her house we went to give the car seats to her and then we rushed to the airport. Things got interesting when the fire alarm went off and the whole building had to evacuate. Thankfully, it was a false alarm and security was surprisingly speedy as it re-screened an entire building of passengers in half an hour. 

Rich waiting with the crowd for the fire alarm to stop

Now it's no secret that I'm not a fan of flying. I was determined that this time would be different. I took a class (a little helpful), an online course (very helpful) and read a book (not helpful at all) to learn all I could about flying so I'd be less nervous. 

Was I nervous? Sure, but not as much as I had anticipated. I was also excited to fly--after all, it's pretty amazing and I love the roar of the engines. This experience was a first for me--I've never flown in a leeetle turboprop. I sat right behind the propeller and next to the landing gear. It turned out to be fun watching all the action.

Finally we arrived at LAX and spent more time in the lame-o Hertz rental car line than we had just spent driving to the airport, flying hundreds of miles, and shuttling to the Hertz building. 45 people in line and FOUR, yes FOUR agents helping. Very slowly. 

Rich surprised me with a red convertible Camaro. It was super fun to drive and we learned some important lessons. 1. Secure all loose papers when getting on the freeway 2. Wear sunscreen when the top is down and 3. Beware of gravel thrown from big trucks ahead of you. 

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel we went to a new trendy restaurant in Santa Monica called Upper West. It was delicious. 

Don't worry I took the knife out before I ate my hamburger.

Rich suppressing his love for the homemade potato chips.

After dinner it was time for Iris by Cirque du Soleil.

I've been to a couple different Cirque du Soleil performances but this was by far my favorite (and Rich's). To start off it was held at the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards. Rich spared no expense and got us the best tickets in the house. This is very unusual since we're usually nose-bleed section types. I could only wonder whose famous buns had previously sat in our seats. Julia Roberts'? Jack Nicholson's? The fun began when we got to our seats a smidgen late. One of the characters was sitting in my chair and got up only to tease us in front of everyone. 

Not the best photo of us at the show.

We broke the rules and took a photo in the theater. I know, we're so bad.

The rest of the show was awesome. Trapeze artists did tricks above our heads, contortionists twisted their bodies into knots, and spending the big bucks was definitely worth being so close to the action. At the end of the show they threw confetti and streamers all over our section. So. Much. Fun.

The next day was the big DL.




















Ok, there's two kinds of happy at the Happiest Place on Earth. 1. With  kids and 2. Without kids. And trust me the second kind is a whole lot easier to deal with.

It was just delightful not having to deal with strollers, potty stops, and tantrums. And with only two of us, we were often asked to go ahead of others in line. Not that we needed to. The longest line we stood in was 15 minutes long. No kidding, we moseyed there at noon and by 8 pm had hit every single major (and minor:) attraction at both parks. And the weather was amazing. This was by far the most effortless and serene trip to Disneyland I've ever taken. And...it did get us looking forward to our next family trip there, kids and all.

We spent $50 on souvenirs and got these "free" anniversary pins!  It actually was pretty fun--lots of people congratulated us throughout the day.

The next day we had planned to go to the beach but it was fogged out so we headed to Beverly Hills to take a self guided tour of the stars' homes. I always thought that would be interesting but if you ever think of trying it, don't waste your money (in our case $7.99 for a map). Several stars homes were in gated communities so you couldn't see anything at all. And most others were surrounded by hillsides or giant walls of shrubbery or vines. And apparently Friday is celebrity landscape day because there had to be at least 50 landscape trucks parked around the neighborhood.

Finally, back to the airport we went and home to our kids (at Stephanie's house) and critters.

All in all it was a fun, quick trip. We're so grateful for friends who helped us out. These last ten years have been the absolute best of my life. I'm so grateful for a wonderful, helpful, happy husband who I get to spend it with.

This is your brain. . .on motherhood.

Lately, my brain is like a snow globe with to-do's swirling around and around. Most days I feel like I'm floundering--like I have so much to do that I don't know what do to. And then I try to tackle my to-do list (yes, I have one) only to get distracted and waste time on trivial things. I've been researching ideas online and asking my uber organized friend how to do things better and I thought it would be appropriate to ask all 3 of my readers:) how they stay organized and remember everything. I'm not looking for perfection--but maybe like 85% efficiency. Anyone. . .anyone. . .Bueller?