New Years BFF Reunion 2013

 We finally got into LA at about 2am (4am our time). Nicole surprised me by coming to LA, which we thought she wasn't going to be able to do.  Needless to say, we were all tired and Eliza was still running a fever. After tending to her, we quickly went to sleep. Eliza woke up feeling much better, but you could still tell in her eyes that she wasn't 100%. The only person that wasn't there when we woke up the next morning was David, but we got him at about noon. That evening, we went to a park to play volleyball and Nicole ended up dislocating her toe, so I played resident mom and relocated it to the proper position.

 The next morning, Eliza woke up feeling better, but still had a pretty nasty cough. You can also see that she has a little bruise on her face from falling because she is getting pretty brave. She is giving me heart attacks, but I know it is part of her learning.

Bowling with a baby on my back

 On Sunday, all 9 of us went to Korea Town to this really nice bowling alley.I tried to bowl with Eliza on my back, which she thought was great, but Michael said she was shuffling around too much when I let the ball go. So, since Nicole had a bum foot and wasn't bowling anyway, she got some extra cuddle time with Eliza.

After bowling, we went to eat Korean Barbeque, which was crazy delicious. I have never eaten so much meat in one sitting before! Since filling ourselves with protein wasn't enough, we headed to Beverly Hills to fill up on sweets at the famous Sprinkles cupcakes. Since I am mostly done breastfeeding, I decided to treat myself to the most chocolatey cupcake they had!

 

 Some people got ice cream, but I wasn't ready for that much dairy! The left picture above is us standing in Beverly Hills in front of Sprinkles. The one on the right is us showing off that Eliza was wearing a cupcake outfit and should be their mascot!

Walking around the Tar Pits with Dad

 On Monday, we had to take Nicole to the airport so that she could spend NYE with her hubby. While we got it, it didn't make it any more fun to drop her off. We spent most of the day deciding what we were going to do and decided on the Tar Pits and LACMA. We didn't actually pay to go in the museum, but we did enjoy its outdoor exhibits.

Because we can't hog Eliza all the time, Mindy wore Eliza for a large part of the walk. After the Tar Pits, we went to an outdoor mall called the Grove. We mostly just walked around because we were all cheap, but had a great time.

Having 1-1 time with Uncle Mike at the Grove

 Since it was starting to get chilly, we headed back to the house to have a game night where a few of Mindy and Clarence's friends came over to play. Note to all readers, when playing Apples to Apples, sit next to Clarence (he is hillarious!).

 Tuesday morning started off wonderfully because we went and got Randy's Donuts. I haven't had donuts since way before little bug was born, so I thoroughly enjoyed my cinnamon twist and chocolate donut. Needless to say, there weren't leftovers.

 Instead of going out, we decided to have a chill day. Sarah, Mindy and I went out and ran errands while Eliza hung out with the 4 guys. We got back and she was in one piece and happy. That evening, the girls watched a movie and the guys smoked cigars and had a drink.

Sadly, Wednesday we had to leave to go back home. It was so nice to be around some of our closest friends and to see the love that they have for Eliza. Since all of our flights were roughly at the same time, we went to the airport and hung out. Sarah was in our terminal so we got to see her a bit longer.

Eliza was mostly a happy girl on our flights back, and slept when she started getting fussy. The flights were fine enough, but stepping off of the plane into 10 degrees made us want to go back to the beautiful 70s that we had been in. What a great visit :)