A Magical Time

Once you become a mother, there are very few times when you can actually step outside your role and be a kid yourself. Kendra brought her beautiful shining smile to my neck of the woods last week for some one on one mommy time. Usually when we hang out we are surrounded by three little kidos, and while I adore both Laylas and Easton (who reminds me so much of Landon at that age I want to cry), it was so fun to have 1.5 days of non-kid fun.

On Friday we embraced our inner child and headed to Disneyland. Disneyland without kids? I say, yes please! I have not been to Disneyland without a child since I was 15 years old and got in trouble for flipping off my youth pastors camera (in my defense, I had no idea it was his, and yes I agree, a 15 yr old should not be flipping the middle finger, but it seemed cool at the time….fyi, I still have the picture J) Anyway, we acted like kids all day. We ate weird things like turkey legs and corn dogs (Disneyland corndogs are seriously amazing!) for meals, and rode thunder mountain three times, space mountain twice, and even splash mountain once when it was cold and dark…just realized how many times I typed the word ‘mountain’….huh, weird. I did not once have to think of naptime or inevitable fits, or the bathroom requirements of another person. We talked and ate, then ate and talked some more….by the way, food and tower of terror do not mix well. Appropriately, the day ended with fireworks.  In case you were wondering, Jason was such a trooper. He didn't complain once, despite being a little sad to be left out of all the fun.

I have this weird tradition to pose with the Indian on Main Street....

Small World still had Christmas decorations up. Yay! 

Getting in line for our first space mountain experience.

Thunder mountain x 3! 

This is a pic of our second ride on space mountain...we agreed to make funny faces, and while Kendra succeeded, I just managed to look a little crazy. 

This is what happens when you take pictures of pictures. What the heck am I doing?! Super surprised at the  very anticipated drop? Whatever. It looks like I'm getting ready to claw Kendra. 

This is the exact spot where Layla threw her epic fit on Christmas last year. Ahh, memories. :) 

The next day we woke up early and Kendra got to experience my version of a typical Saturday morning. We drove to Santa Monica and hit a few estate sales. Digging through boxes of old dusty books is definitely my version of a good time! Seriously, it is. The neighborhoods in Santa Monica were phenomenal. Every million or multi million dollar house looked like t.v.’s version of upper middle class surburbia. What the heck do these people do for a living?! The first house we explored was built in 1927, and I don’t think it had been updated since then…yeah, I checked it out online and despite the fact it will need to be practically gutted, its still worth 2.7 million dollars!

BOOKS! This was one corner of a room that was full of boxes of books...and the kitchen was full of boxes of books....and the garage was full of boxes of books. I would have been there all day if I didn't have Kendra there to keep me focused and on track. 

Found a framed pic of Marilyn Monroe reading. Love it! 

Anyway, check out Kendra and my dream houses (her's on top, mine below). They are conveniently located on the same street….and though I didn’t get a pic, Gretchen gets the huge house right next to mine. ;)

We snagged cupcakes at Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica, then headed to lunch in Malibu. A very windy day, but the food was delish and the scenery was gorgeous!

 Sadly, it was cold and windy so we didn’t see Matthew McConaughey running shirtless on the beach. Bummer. 

How cute are we? :)