It had been over a year and a half since our move from CA, and that long being away from CA. (Besides my weekender last September!). We were thrilled to go back home to visit our home sweet Cali home, see all of our friends and family! We booked the cutest beach cottage in Laguna Beach and planned a 3 week stay. We had a direct roundtrip flight from Cleveland to LAX, and rented an SUV for the whole time we were out there. Our 5 hour flight there, and 4 1/2 hour flight back was the longest the boys had ever sat consecutive hours on a plane, and they were awesome! We had a portable DVD player, and the boys enjoyed watching their favorites, as well as playing with stickers, coloring and painting, reading books, even playing with their dinosaurs. Once again, they received the highest praise on the plane by those sitting near, and we are so relieved they are such great travelers! I won't even mention that we almost didn't make our flight in the wee morning hours, and I won't mention that we missed the cut-off to check-in our luggage and lucked out by being able to get through security with it all and then fortunately checked it at the gate! I also won't mention what a crazy lesson we learned, and after that stressful agonizing experience, from there on we give ourselves an extra 2 hour window! Must say, we had a very different and peaceful experience on our travel back to Cleveland!
Upon arrival, we felt what I remember feeling the weekend I came out to LA. The warm California air and pleasant rays of the sun hitting you instantly, and somehow transcending into sheer positive energy and mentality. We forgot just how clean, pretty, obsessively manicured, and perfectly renovated everything was everywhere you go. You do not have that on the East Coast, with the weather destroying the nature, the infrastructure of buildings, sidewalks, and roads. I could definitely do without those darn pot holes! In the 3 weeks that we were there, we were at the beach EVERY. SINGLE. DAY, managed to go to 3 theme parks, and caught up with 20+ friends (from all chapters of our lives)! I do not even comprehend how we managed to squeeze in so much of our previous CA life in just 3 weeks! It was insane!!! Brad worked, I resumed my stay-at-home mommy duties, we had many play dates, squeezed our family in there as much as we could, yet carved out our own Grover family of 4 time, many times. It was an overwhelming, emotional, surreal, and AMAZING experience. Brad and I even snuck out for 2 different date nights, and partied with our friends sans kids, thanks to my wonderful family. We shopped, we took many strolls down memory lanes, we tanned, and we stuffed our faces with delicious Mexican food and all those breakfast burritos! We did not miss NY the entire time we were in CA. It was almost an existentialist experience vacationing where we lived for so many years. Our cottage was everything we wanted, and more. Laguna Beach did not disappoint. If there is anywhere I would live again in Southern California, it would be hands-down Laguna Beach. It has the charm of a small town, the culture and arts of a city, the beauty and postcard perfect beach coves of an exotic island, and the convenience of a California lifestyle!
First stop on our drive to Orange County, was lunch at one of favorite Mexican places in Corona del Mar! We then checked into our adorable cottage, went grocery shopping, picked up our Diapers.com box I ordered for the boys with all their essentials. We were warmly welcomed by Laguna with its amazing sunset!
The beautiful garden and backyard of our cottage.
The next morning we walked to breakfast, had ourselves delicious breakfast burritos, played at the main beach playground and then later had my family over for a BBQ!
The rest of the week we played some more at Thalia beach (just a couple blocks from where we stayed). The boys could not get enough of the beach!!!
Tide pools
Thalia beach…. prime surf spot. The boys loved watching the surfers!
Family day out on our duffy boat. Yes, we still have our duffy! The boys enjoyed the cruise, and we stopped off at the Balboa fun zone for some more playground fun and shopping.
Bottoms Up, Boys!
Playdate with our best buds, Cade and Berkley! My wonderful friend Michelle and I had our own little reunion after 2 years! She has been such an incredible friend, and our kiddos are so close in age that it was fun to be able to get them together to play, and for us mommies to catch up! We had a blast playing at Balboa Island, going on a walk and getting cookies with the kids.
Mommy and son day at Corona del Mar main beach, story time at the local library, and lunch, while daddy worked!
We spent Wednesdays hanging with Babi, Deda, and Chloe! The first week we met at the dinosaur park and had dinner, and the second week we had a pool and playground play date with them!
Over our first full weekend, my college friend Sabrina, flew down from Sacramento, and spent it with us!! It was awesome to have her stay with us, catch up, have LOTS of girl time, and hang with the boys. Taj and Jax love their Auntie Brina!
We frolicked in Laguna, walked around town, took the boys to the Montage resort for tea while watching the rain storm. The weather was perfect almost the whole time we were in Cali, except for our first weekend, in which it only rained a couple times in the day. We definitely did not mind, as it gave us an excuse to do something different and have ourselves an adventure in the rain!
Sabrina and I had our girls night Friday night right when she got in, then a margarita lunch Saturday while Jax napped and Brad stayed with Taji. We had dinner with the boys after Montage on Saturday, and after Sabrina helped me give them a bath and put them to bed, we had some more wine and caught up some more. The next morning, we went to yoga at Fashion Island, and had a fabulous "linner" at a new beautiful restaurant Fig & Olive, just before Sabrina had to leave for the airport. I had such a great time catching up with my old friend, gosh, cannot believe how long we have known each other and how much we have been through! Sabrina was with me the first night I ever met Brad! Time flies!
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