SURPRISE!

Ben can pull off a surprise like no one else. I had absolutely no idea that he had been scheming with Monica and my dad to fly the family out to LA for a Labor Day / birthday celebration. I was suppose to babysit a kid, watch a bird, water plants, go camping, go to a hot air balloon show, teach Sunday school, pick peaches, and have organic fresh produce delivered this weekend. Every time Ben turned around I had another plan he had to cancel. And then he had to convince me that we were going out to breakfast, so no I could not make the omelets I had planned.

By the time we reached Monument, I figured maybe my sister Monica had another lay over in Denver, and we were meeting her for breakfast. Ben didn't say a word. It wasn't until we were driving into the economy lot that I connected the suitcase in the backseat, to a trip (yea, maybe Ben has it on his side, that I'm not the quickest when it comes to connecting the dots :). It was awesome.

We got bumped to first class. Which had the potential to be sweet. But with a wild 15 month old, surrounded by wealthy business men - trying to eat their fancy breakfast, using hot wash clothes to wash their hands (which reminded me of how awesome it is to travel through Asia), watch their favorite program on their personal TV and take naps with face masks - I must say, we felt slightly out of place (yes, we really should be getting use to this feeling by now). 

It was so much fun to see my sisters and Eric & Melissa. Rivers loved playing with all the kids and all the new toys. Ben's favorite thing had to have been the delicious tacos from the local taco stand (no taco compares). And mine was the cold beach.

Rivers, liked the beach more on day number two when we remembered his jacket. But mine had to be day number one. When Ben dragged me out to the ocean (a place I had no intention to be) and suddenly I realized, this is exactly where I want to be. :) We played and played in the waves, just like our days in Hawaii (except, for everything was colder :), while Rivers ate treats and curled up in a towel on Monica's lap.

That night Ben, Cameron and Eric watched the kids while us girls traveled to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. There we indulged in my favorite cupcakes - Sprinkles - walked around high end stores, shopped at lower end stores :) and saw Rihana buying her new sunglasses.

Our trip home wasn't quite as "first class" as our trip out. Do you remember me telling you how I am always late to the airport? And how Monica claimed I'm "bad luck" when it comes to missing flights? I'm not quite sure what it is, because this time around I had no intention to push the limits. But traffic in LA is horrible. We ended up missing our 11:30 flight just barely. So we were put on stand by for the 12:10 flight. Seats given away on that one. So we were put on standby for 1:30. No seats on that one. So we were put on the 3:10 flight. No seats on that one. So we were put on the 5:30 flight. Sold out on that one. Yep, poor Rivers was running around the airport, sleepless, for 8 and a half hours. We finally got on the airplane at 7pm. And drove into our driveway at 12:30 am. The poor little boy traveled in total 15 hours yesterday. And he didn't cry once. He had such a better attitude than myself. So after one long long long long long long day, we finally made it home got 6 hours of sleep and then Ben was off to work again this morning by 8 am. I wish so much we were looking forward to another long weekend this weekend so we could catch up on some much needed sleep. But the ocean was spectacular.

Probably more pictures to come. . . .