California Adventure

In June JJ and I embarked on a childless adventure to the great state of California. My childhood dream of staying at the Disneyland hotel was finally realized. We were upgraded to the "Dreams Tower" which is the renovated tower. It was so nice to stay at the resort. The light next to the bed had a music box that played "A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes" and the bed pillow said it too. So cheesy and just what I was hoping for.
I can never get enough of this place. I know, I am a dork. The whole time we kept talking about all the things that Zach will love to do there. We can't wait to go back with him.

JJ's favorite ride is Buzz Lightyear. You have to shoot at targets and I am terrible at it.

We spent a day in Disneyland and then the next day we rented a car and headed to Hollywood to enjoy Universal Studios. That night we headed up the coast to Santa Barbara.

We drove up highway 1 along the water and made a stop at Hearst Castle to explore. We love exploring old houses and this was definitely worth the stop.

This is the view from Hearst Castle.

We then headed to Monterrey. We stayed at Sanctuary beach resort. We were upgraded again, we don't know why, to a suite with a full ocean view. So relaxing and romantic. My birthday was the next morning so I got to wake up and hop in our golf cart to the spa for a birthday massage.

My sweet ride.

And then we explored the 17 mile drive by Pebble Beach.

That night we met up with good friends Helen, Shannon and Jason, and Shannon's sister Kristen in San Francisco. We celebrated at dinner and then found the gem of our trip: American Cupcake. It just opened and it was heaven. JJ can't stop talking about this place.

Shannon, Me, & Kristen.

They were really good.

Really, really good.

We then spent 2 days enjoying San Francisco. This was JJ's first visit there and we will definitely go back. We loved it. We rode bikes across the bridge to Sausalito, ate great food, and did some shopping. The best part is that we just got to spend 6 days having a blast with just each other. It was 5 years that month that we started dating and I am still so crazy in love with my JJ.

My cute little chauvinist

2 days ago, before the weather turned yucky again, Zach woke up from his nap and was excited to go play outside. So I went into the kitchen to get snack already to take with us and he went to his train table. But when I came over with a baggy full of apples and said "Zach ready to go to the park and eat apples?" he looked up at me with furrowed brow, pointed to the kitchen and said, "MAKE DINNER MOM!" and then went back to happily playing with Thomas and Gordon. I guess I need have JJ make dinner sometimes too.

Lazy Saturday for the Boys

While Mommy slaves away on the laptop, this is what is happening on the other couch. It's a tough life for these guys. They are both pretty worn out. JJ got home 2 nights ago after a 12 day trip to Montana and Idaho. And Zach had a 24 bug that had him throwing up 2 nights ago. I wonder if they would notice if I snuck away for a pedicure?

Family Pictures

Three months after the fact, here are the pictures that we had taken early December. Zach had so much fun and our photography was great with him. All the pictures were taken in front of our house, around the shops in our neighborhood and the lake in Daybreak. How lucky are we to live in such a cool place? Here are a few of my favorites: