Mid-July we started out on a bunch of small trips all over California!
It was {a month of traveling Panfi’s}!
First stop was a trip north to hang with friends and celebrate my sister’s “unbirthday” as we called it. She was not up for having a birthday celebration this year but some of her friends convinced her that she should…so we did! It was crazy, fun, full of kids and HOTTER THAN A HOO DOG (as we like to say in our family)! My impression is that she loved every minute of it (despite my lack of coping skills in the heat) and that made me so happy! We made lots of yummy food and her favorite Ice Cream Pudding Dessert and just chilled out for a few days! Lovely!
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Then we were off to Southern California to visit our BFF’s (not sure why I like using the term BFF’s, but I do). We only got a few days together but it was worth it. During our trip Mishawn had this AMAZING idea to hire two babysitters to watch our 8 kids (you heard me-there are now 8 kids among us) so that we could go out together as grown-ups. The six of us have not gone out alone since we were pre-kids and all living in Washington, so it was time!
We ate dinner at a tasty restaurant called The Bottle Room in uptown Whittier. This is a great place to order lots of food and share (especially if you can make it for the Happy Hour menu) and that is exactly what we did. Then as if we had not stuffed ourselves enough with their delicious small bite varieties of comfort food we decided to indulge ourselves for dessert at Crepes & Grapes Cafe just up the street! They had a wonderful variety of dessert crepes that we all thoroughly enjoyed! The babysitters survived the endeavor and I’m pretty sure fun was had by all!
The next day we managed to get in a beach trip at a really cool spot in Laguna Beach called Heisler Park (just south of Crystal Cove State Beach). Even though it had a steep hill down to the water the amazing view from the top made it worth every step! There was a great bathroom, showers near the water to get sand off and a nice lawn & picnic area that overlooked the ocean. Check it out sometime if you can!
I ADORE everything about the beach with one exception: BIRDS. Oh how I hate birds! Seagulls have got to be one of the worst…and here is another perfect example of why. We were all playing near the water when I looked back and saw a seagull walk over to our stuff and grab a whole unopened snack size Dorito bag in his beak and take off. I tried to scare it off (hoping it would drop the bag) but to no avail. I created a bit of a commotion in the process as the bird just flew off onto the water and floated there for at least 2 minutes attempting to peck the bag open. When she discovered what was going on poor Aleah got so upset about it that she just kept crying and crying and looking out into the ocean for the chip bag. The dumb bird eventually gave up and decided to go harass someone else. Thankfully Jeff was able to rescue the bag (unopened or harmed) from the water and in Aleah’s sweet two year old mind all was right with the world again. Once her daddy rescued that bag the tears eventually stopped flowing but she may have joined me in the “Bird Haters Club” that day.
The kids played so well together (as they usually do) and then just like that, it seemed, we were off to our next adventure!
