L.A. Girls Trip!

This past weekend I was able to go to L.A. for a little weekend get-away with my friends Audra and Lori. It was pretty much awesome! I can't think of anything that would have made the trip any better.

Ok, maybe one thing. Getting to L.A. ended up being SUPER frustrating for me. It's a long story, but all you need to know is I was totally that crazy girl running through the airport, maybe saying a few things I shouldn't have said, and a few tears may have fallen. BUT I made it.... several hours later than expected. This is us at midnight (2:00 a.m. my time). We were a bit tired.

The next morning we got up and hiked Runyon Canyon. It was gorgeous. The pictures just can't capture it. It's this canyon basically right in the city, so you can see everything. That's the Hollywood sign behind us.

Then we headed over to Manhattan beach. It was very close to our hotel. We absolutely loved this beach and all the cute shops. We loved eating lunch on the beach. We especially loved the icecream shop... which we may have stopped at several times.

I thought for sure the water would be too cold, but after we got in we ended up spending a good amount of time swimming.

Here we are body surfing. We laughed really hard at ourselves.

Audra workin it!

Lori workin it!

The little aquarium at the beach.

We ate well on this trip. We ate at a really good restaurant at Manhattan beach this night.

And of course we enjoyed the hot tub several times. Audra was the crazy one, jumping in the pool and doing backflips in the pool.

This is our scary face picture in the hot tub.

They thought it was really funny that you couldn't see my swim suit. Don't worry I had it on!

The next day we went to the Fashion District downtown. Lori overcame some fears;) We may have been the only white people there. We did some bartering, ate some awesome food at a food truck, and got some sweet deals.

We just really loved all the manikins. Let's just say all the manikins had some junk in the trunk.

We especially loved these ones! Maybe it's cheaper to buy male manikins and then put wigs on??? Take a look at those hands.

This is a real gem too. Just slightly creepy!

Then we headed over to Venice Beach. It was another gorgeous day!

That night we went to the Erwin Hotel so we could enjoy the roof top bar for dinner We went right at sunset. It over looks Venice Beach. It was fabulous. We kept saying we just did not fit in. There were so many hip people around.

As we were sitting there, fireworks just started going off. No one knows why, but it was sweet.

The next day Audra and Lori left early, and I scheduled my flight to leave later so I could spend time with Jessie. Since she lives in L.A. she knows all the cool things to do. She took me to a really awesome restaurant for lunch. Then we browsed the shops, ate icecream, and strolled the Venice Canals. It was so nice.

Oh and last but not least this strange picture. This is just to represent all the very unique things in L.A. So strange.

It really was the perfect trip. I am so lucky to have such good friends. As I am sitting here it's about 16 degrees. Back to reality, but I am so glad I have these memories forever!

And thanks to Jena for helping watch my kids, and picking me up! And of course thanks to Drew for watching the kids all weekend and always letting me enjoy these kinds of things:)

Christmas Vacation

We have had a very fun Christmas break. We have spent almost two weeks in Denver. I wouldn't say it has been relaxing, but it has been a blast. Every single day was busy. I wasn't able to take pictures of everything, so some of the highlights not posted are:
*White elephant exchange with Drew's cousins and uncle and aunt in Thornton
*shopping with my sister
*going to see movies
*game night with the Oxnams and Burts
*game night with the Fosters 
*Dinner with Jeff and Angie
*milkshakes with the Lawson's

Before we left Colorado we had our own Christmas in Saint Louis. It was very fun. When Melanie saw her doll house she said, "Am I going to live in there now?" 

The girls had so much fun with all of their cousins and grandparents. Abby and Lacey were obsessed with the magnets at my parents house.

Kyla (my sister's daughter) and Melanie did not want to leave each other.

They loved exploring all the little places they could find.

Opening presents and Drew's parents house. Abby loves feeding her baby a bottle:)

Christmas at my parents house.

They were so excited to get their own strollers!

We celebrated our 7th anniversary downtown. We of course went to the cheesecake factory, exchanged our letters to each other, spent the night at a hotel off 16th street, and went to the same little crepe place for breakfast that we did last year. It was perfect.

We made the kids stop playing so we could take a family picture Christmas morning. As you can see they weren't real thrilled about the idea:)

We got to workout together. Here I am sporting my new heart rate monitor.

It's blurry, but cute.

We enjoyed going to the park.

I got to meet up with Jandi, Andrea, and Lori at the Cheesecake Factory. Then we did a little shopping of course. We are missing a few of the crew, but it was so much fun.

We also got to hang out with Jena and Logan, Jess and Bryce, and Mara. I just love breaks when we get to see each other.

We spent New Years at the Woolf house. We know how to bring in the new year.

We got to have a playdate just with Emily and her kids.

Lacey didn't make the cut.

I love this picture. Emily's son Bronson took it:)

And now I have to go pack the car so we can start the two day treck back to Saint Louis. It's been a great trip!