California Anniversary

Luke and I were able to celebrate our 7 year anniversary in California this year! My sister happened to be going through Denver and staying with us for a few weeks and in return she was nice enough to watch the kids for us while we were gone! I got a little emotional leaving the boys for 5 days- it's the longest trip Luke and I have ever taken alone- including our honeymoon and before we even had kids. So I was a little anxious about leaving but knew they were in great hands, and we had a fun time!

We left on a Friday morning, and flew to San Diego first, picked up our rental car, and then headed straight over the bridge to Coronado island.

We grabbed some drinks, walked along the water, and then headed towards the beach by the Hotel del Coronado. It was right as the sun was lowering and everything was just beautiful!

That night we met up with one of Luke's old college roommates, had dinner with him at a mexican place, and then went bowling. It was a fun night out!

My grandma lives north of San Diego in Fallbrook, and the condos in her community share a little guest house, so we went and stayed there our first night. The next morning they had us over for a lovely breakfast!

Then we headed back down to Mission beach which was a lot of fun, probably my favorite day!

We got to relax and enjoy the view and beautiful weather.

After awhile we took a break and got some awesome pizza, then we rented some bikes and rode 2 miles north to meet up with my grandparents again. They were so sweet and surprised us with a condo right on the boardwalk that we could stay at for the night. Isn't it the most perfect view of the beach, boardwalk and pier?! We loved it!

Once we got the key from my grandparents we had to say goodbye- I was glad we got to spend some time with them even though our time was short :)

Then we enjoyed riding our bikes back along the boardwalk- it really was fun!

We went back to the beach until it got chilly, walked around, rode a roller coaster, and then went back towards the beach to watch the sunset. When you go to beaches on the east coast all your life you rarely get to see the sun rise on the beach, but it's a lot easier and more beautiful to catch a sunset! It went fast but was fun to relax and watch.

We grabbed some burgers for dinner at Sliders and then enjoyed the beach and boardwalk view that evening from the condo.

It was fun waking up to the sounds of the beach too. Actually, there was a surfboard competition going on so after watching that for a bit from our patio, we walked down the street for breakfast.

Then we walked along the pier watching the surf boarders, and fish in the clear water- apparently we even saw a shark. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and so relaxing.

We could even see our condo from the pier- the middle building on the top floor! 

And as much as we wanted to stay (literally- Luke almost convinced me to stay here the rest of our trip) we had plans to do the second half of our trip in Los Angeles. So we took the scenic drive and visited Luke's cousin in Huntington Beach on our way north and then made it in to L.A. later that afternoon.

We stopped by the LA temple first, then drove around Beverley Hills and did some window shopping.

The we checked into our hotel, went to In-n-Out for dinner, and then decided we still had time to check out Hollywood Blvd for a bit.

It was kind of fun to see all the crazy street performers and people dressed up, it was kind of a fun atmosphere at night.

I still wanted to check out a few more things the next day, so we took the metro in and I was glad we came back once more.

I was bummed we didn't get to go to a show like Jimmy Kimmel Live (we would've but he wasn't taping for those 2 weeks)  but we walked around and my favorite was seeing all the hand prints at the Chinese Theater.

We saw a bunch but I got most excited for the Twilight square. Yup, I even held Taylor Lautner's hand, haha.

On our way out we saw people lining up to see Vin Diesel come out and get his Hollywood star, but we didn't stick around to see him.

 

By that point, we had pretty much done every thing we wanted to do in Hollywood, and since Monday was technically our anniversary, we decided we wanted to spend the rest of the day at the beach!

We made it to Santa Monica by noon, and first stopped to get lunch at a restaurant on the pier. Then we changed and got to relax at the beach for the rest of the day. It was actually pretty quiet, except for several very old, very tan men in very small swimming trunks, haha. Either way, it was a beautiful, hot day and a great way to spend our anniversary.

Later in the day we headed towards Venice beach (which was so pretty), and then changed and went to a seafood restaurant for our anniversary dinner.

After we got back to LA that night we tried to go see the Hollywood sign better but we pretty much lost the sunlight. This is the only picture I was able to capture of the sign all trip! Oh well, we did go up and get a good view of the city at night, though it was hard to capture it in a cell phone picture.

Tuesday was our last day of the trip. We went to a cute little diner for breakfast first.

We only had a few hours before we needed to be at the airport, which was just enough time for us to make a stop at the Grove.

Finally, I was able to see a celebrity on our last few hours! I was so excited to see that they were filming Extra when we got there, and there weren't many other people, so I stood and watched Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos while they got their hair fixed, and taped clips for the show. I thought it was a lot of fun watching them, even when they were in-between taping- it was fun!

I wished we had more time to stay, but we did find time to get some candy and toys for the boys and then it was already time to head to the airport! The boys did great with Julia and she handled them really well- I was proud of all of them! It was a fun and relaxing trip spending time with just Luke, but it was also great to come back home :) Happy 7 years to us!