Mom Spring Break 2013 - Los Angeles (Part 2)

The next morning I met up with aunt Heidi (my mom's younger sister) and uncle Doug (her husband) and cousin Jillian, who were staying at the same hotel in Pasadena that we were.  My dad had said that he had a work conference call from 7-8am, and after that we'd go out for breakfast.  But then the call turned out to be from 8-9am.  We waited and waited and I was starving, and by 9:10 we decided my dad could starve and decided to go out and find something to eat.

Except apparently no one in Pasadena works and there was a 30 minute wait for breakfast.  What the what, Pasadena?  So we trekked back to the hotel and got breakfast there, which I promptly and non-guiltily charged to my room (and thus my dad).  (Hey, by this point it was lunch time in Indiana and I hadn't eaten anything!!) It was L.A. pricey, but when you're that hungry you don't care!

My dad eventually joined us and took this random picture.  Instead of taking pictures I spent most of my time talking - as you can see.  (Jillian, you look a little startled or something!)

After breakfast we decided to hit one of Kyle and Kevin's favorite stores: Galco's Soda Pop Stop.  It's a store of some local renown, known for having tons of unique and hard to find sodas.  As you can see, it's not exactly the fanciest place you've ever seen, but it was still pretty impressive.

I had fun taking pictures of some of my favorite bottles.  There were really too many to take.  I even found some Dog-n-Suds Root Beer, which is a local Midwest brand. My dad picked up some of Kevin's favorite Blenheim Ginger Ale.  Apparently "real" ginger ale has quite a kick - I tasted it later that night and GROSS.  I just about gagged.  I do not like spicy sodas.  Blech.

 

 

I know this is root beer, but we also found chocolate flavored soda.  Not sure how I feel about that.

I liked the art on this label. 

My aunt Heidi got a huge kick out of this one.  (Especially where it said "Animal testing was consensual".)

 

 

Jillian got this one and said it tasted pretty good.  We all know how I feel about Butterscotch, though.  (Although I'd rather have that than Kevin's ginger ale!)

Here's what I drank. I love blood oranges and kangaroos.  Not really about the kangaroos.  But the soda was really good!

That afternoon we went on a tour of the Gamble House.   (Of Proctor and Gamble fame and money.)  The craftsmanship and detail in the house were amazing.

Unfortunately, the inside was quite dark; then again, you weren't allowed to take pictures anyway, so I stole these pictures from the website.  (I know it's super-fun to look at someone else's vacation photos, but bear with me here.)

 

There were several themes and motifs repeated throughout the house that made it really interesting.  The architects even designed the furniture and lighting and (I think) the landscaping.

 

This home was actually just their "winter bungalo", where they would come to get away from Ohio winters.  Can you imagine?  I think if I could have a "small" bungalo like this I'd run away from Indiana winters, too!

 

 

 

 

 

When asked if Mr. and Mrs. Gamble really slept in separate beds the docent said "We don't go there."  Okaaay then.  Apparently having millions of dollars and winter bungalows in Pasadena doesn't necessarily make for a happy marriage.

 

This was yet another time where I thought "My kids would hate this".  Especially because you weren't allowed to touch anything.

I spent the rest of the afternoon going to one of the original In-N-Out Burgers (the fries are still gross) and chatting with my aunt Heidi by the pool in the perfect Southern California in March weather.

That evening there was a big family dinner for the wedding party.  It was held at the Canoe House restaurant, a fun Hawaiian themed place.  Everyone from both sides of the wedding party were there, which meant it was crowded and loud.  I had fun chatting with my aunt Lisa (my mom's youngest sister) and Kevin (my youngest brother).

There was a table set aside for all of the cousins, but since I am literally at least 20 years older than all of them, I was allowed to sit with the adults. :)

That night I had to share a room with both my brothers - just like old times.  Kyle and Kevin had to share a bed, because when you're 1) the oldest, 2) the only girl, and 3) an old married lady, you get a bed to yourself.  This is a good thing, because, while I don't know about now, when he was a kid Kevin was quite the night time cuddler. 

Huntington Gardens Pics

I stole these two pictures from my dad's blog and am now claiming them as my own.

Mom Spring Break 2013 - Los Angeles (Part 1)

As I posted on Facebook about packing to leave for my trip I decided to call it "Mom's Spring Break".  Then I decided that I really liked the sound of that.  And then I decided that I really liked the idea of that and that this little type of trip should become an annual thing.  So watch out - assuming Lance and my budget allow it (HAHAHA!!! Lance having to allow it... oh dear, tears from laughing), this may become an annual post.  Fingers crossed.

Anywho, my Uncle Dale (my mom's older brother) was getting remarried and I decided I wanted to go to the wedding because I knew all of my mom's family would be there and I never get to see my mom's family because they're all spread out across the Western United States and don't have bi-annual family reunions like the Ropers do.  (I can see this is going to be a post of horrid run-on sentences...)  So, I checked to see if Lance could watch the kids while I was gone and then cashed in some credit card points to buy myself some tickets.

I left on Wednesday night around 6pm.  I was super excited - I hadn't been on a trip all by myself since... well, not since I had been married.  Wait - there were a few business trips when I worked before we had kids, but those didn't really count because I didn't appreciate them enough.  I was amazed at just how easy planning and packing and getting ready for this trip was when I didn't have to deal with taking my children!  Driving to the airport?  A breeze.  Parking and riding to the terminal?  Piece of cake.  Getting through airport security?  Laughably easy when it was just me.

No really - I've never seen as airport so empty.  It was just me going through security.

I have to admit, though, as I waited to board my flight that I started to really miss Lance.  I wish he could have gone with me.  I really am grateful that I have such an awesome husband who is also an awesome father.  I never once truly worried about him or the kids because he's such a great dad.  Sure, hair might not be combed and outfits might not match, but I knew the kids would have a great time with him!

I had to run to catch my connecting flight in Chicago, but other than that things were pretty easy.  I read and napped and enjoyed my time alone. 

I got to L.A. around midnight and didn't get to my hotel and into my room until close to 1am - which was 4am Indiana time.  Needless to say, I was pretty wasted. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the hotel - it was super late!  But I stole these nice ones from the website.)

My dad was generous enough to pay for my lodging and food while I was there.  And by generous I mean he let me sleep on the couch in his suite.

But you know what?  I was so tired I didn't even care.  And to be honest, it was a pretty comfy couch.  And free makes everything better. 

I slept as long as I could, but by 6:30am my jet lag decided I was up for good.  My dad and I had a decent breakfast, looked at the fish, ducks, and turtles in the pond, and decided what to do for the day.

 

For whatever reason, LA doesn't believe in opening anything of interest (museums, botanical gardens, anything with a tour) until noon.  Which meant we had several hours to kill.

So of course we went shopping.

We went to the Glendale Galleria, which is an impressively super-mega-huge mall, and is where that mall scene from Terminator 2 was shot. (You know, where he rides the motorcycle through the mall.  Anyways...)

I was enthralled with the gorgeous weather, the blossoms on the trees, the green green grass, and the flowers everywhere.  Seriously, you would have thought that I had lived in the arctic all my life and had never seen spring before, that is how long and cold our dang winter has been.

Oh - and I saw a sign that reminded me of one of my favorite people.

We met up with my younger brother, Kyle, and had lunch at a pretty good restaurant.  I had a fantastic shrimp salad, and my brother accidentally ordered a vegan meal, which, of course, we had to tease him about.  (It was actually pretty good.)

That afternoon we decided to go tour the Huntington Botanical Gardens.  Neither my dad or I realized just how LARGE these gardens are.  Seriously - they are HUGE.  (207 acres, people.)  We walked and walked and walked, probably a good 2-3 miles, and we still didn't see everything!!

Of course I took tons of pictures of plants, which is silly because no one ever really wants to see those.  But I did get one random one of my brother as he talked about and explained every single plant to us.  (He got a degree in lawn mowing landscape management.)  (His joke, not mine!)

Here's a selfie of me.

 

Kyle actually helped install some of the Chinese gardens during an internship he had, which was pretty cool.  We sat and admired his work while eating some outrageously priced macaroons my dad had bought us.  (They were also outrageously delicious.)

 

The gardens really were great.  And the whole time I just kept thinking "My kids would hate this.  This is so awesome."  And they would have.  And it was.

Randomly, we found this:

Who knew you could grow hamburgers?

Burgers put us in the mood for Armenian food.  What?  That's not what you think of?  Well, Kyle and his indefinite girlfriend, Sarah Beth, knew a great Armenian restaurant called the Burger Continental.  I want to call it a hole in the wall, but that's not quite right.  What it really was was a restaurant placed in the alley between two brick buildings, with plastic boarding (like they put on shanty houses?) for the roof.  Plastic chairs and tables, low-key decor, slow service... excellent food.  And that's what really matters, right?

Well, I thought I'd get my whole trip blogged tonight, but this post has gone on long enough.  More to come tomorrow.

Run Away

Tess and Cole are punishing me for leaving them.  Tess freaks out when I leave the room and Cole has pooped his pants THREE times today.

There's six inches of snow in the ground, the kids are bouncing off the walls, I'm having to force Spencer to do his science fair project, and I still have jet lag.

I wanna run away to L.A. again.  The traffic and smog and crowds?  Infinitely preferable.

Who's with me?

p.s.  Just found out my brother Kyle is in the hospital for kidney stones.  So I guess life could be a bit worse!  Get better, Kyle!

A New Pope

Okay, don't get all religiously weirded out on me, okay?  I just have a few thoughts and was wondering if anyone else felt the same way.  Please, no religious righteous indignation just because you don't agree with me. So.  Behave.

So anyway, I've been fairly interested in this whole business of getting a new pope.  I think learning about the traditions and the history and such is pretty interesting. 

But what I find the most interesting is the fact that God seems to be left out of the whole process.

Every morning for the past couple of weeks, and especially yesterday morning, I have been watching the Today Show, with special attention on their coverage of the new pope.  They have reported over and over again about how the Cardinal college chooses the pope.  And they've exhausted the personal history of the new pope.  (Who seems like a very humble, good man.)  And they've interviewed a ton of people, all of whom have lots of opinions on what the church should do in the future.

Seriously, in all of their coverage this morning God was not mentioned once.  It was all about what the people running the church and the members of the church thought would be best for God's church.  It was politics and speculation.  It was odd.

(Now, don't get me wrong.  I suspect the College of Cardinals is full of good, righteous men, who probably prayed a lot about this decision and the other decisions made for the church.  But it's just so strange to me that praying and God's will wasn't mentioned once in all the coverage I watched/read.  Also, I realize that the coverage by the media could have greatly influenced my perception of this; they chose what I got to see.  (Hello, Comms Theory 101!  I still use my major!)  But if revelation from God were really a big part in this I suspect it would have been mentioned.)

I find this fascinating mainly because my religious views are so very different.

In the Mormon faith men do not elect our prophets.  We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - we let Him do the choosing!  There's no campaigning, no questioning of who would be best, no scrambling to gather the church leaders to decide what to do next, no burning things for white or black smoke.

How does this work?  Mormons believe in personal revelation - we can receive personal revelation directly from our Father in Heaven.  He cares about us, knows about our problems and fears, and wants to help us.  When we pray and live worthily, we can receive this revelation.  And we believe that our church leaders receive revelation for the entire church.  Thus, when a prophet dies (that's the only way they can retire!), things are taken care of with little fanfare.

Not that I just blindly accept the new prophet (or any new church policy/stance/etc.).  I always pray about it and learn for myself whether or not it is true.

I find this faith and doctrine comforting.  Perhaps this is because I was born into the church and it's all I've ever known.  But I suspect that even if I wasn't Mormon, part of me would still take issue with the idea of men (as in mankind, not the gender) running a religion.

What do you think?

Interested in learning more about my faith?  Check out here and here.

St. Patrick's Day

I've never been too big on St. Patrick's Day.  It's not that I don't like it - it's just that I can't make a big to-do over every little holiday, and so this is one that kinda gets passed by.

But this year we got to do a little something extra.  Our friends the Shurtz's invited us to a leprechaun treasure hunt at Happy Hollow park on Saturday.  Despite the fact that it's the middle of March and the start of Spring is literally days away, it was cold.  Dang cold.  So I didn't get too many great pictures of the kids playing or searching for the treasure.

The kids all got to take turns using the GPS.   Cole was a little sad it didn't have any games on it.

When oh when will spring come to this desolate landscape?!

Eventually the kids found a big pot of treasure, full of gold coins, Rolos, Goldfish crackers, necklaces, and stickers.  They were so excited!  But obviously not excited enough for me to take a picture.  Ha.

We were supposed to have a picnic outside, but since it was so cold we decided to picnic in our basement instead.  The kids had a grand time playing and the adults chatted the afternoon away.  It was awesome.

On Sunday I decided to forgo our traditional Green Eggs and Ham dinner, mainly because we're going to have ham in a few weeks for Easter.  Instead I decided to make a green dinner. 

It started with green alfredo sauce.  This sauce was extra awesome for several reasons: 1) it's the reduced fat version from OurBestBites.com, which is super yummy, 2) I had made a double batch a while ago and froze it, meaning less work for me, 3) I turned it green with spinach and just a small touch of food coloring.

"But Maren!" you exclaim, "wouldn't frozen alfredo sauce be all clumpy because of the cheese and milk and stuff?  And wouldn't your kids (and husband) notice the little bits of spinach?" (Yes, I have conversations with you in my head.)

Ah-ha!  That's where my oh-so-wonderful Blendtech comes in.  The sauce had thawed in the fridge overnight. I dumped that in and then added a little milk, the spinach, and the food coloring.  Two cycles on the "soups and sauces" setting and the sauce was not only perfectly blended, but also the perfect temperature to put on pasta! 

Oh man, is it wrong to be so excited by a blender?  No.  No it is not.  This blender rocks.

And as for the spinach?  No one knew.  Bwahaha!

Here was my plate for dinner.  Lots of green, right?  We also had pickles, mainly because they're green and my kids love 'em, but I decided to forgo that side.  Blech.  (I like pickles. Just not with lime Jell-o, green salad, and pasta alfredo.  Thanks.)

We also had broccoli in the pasta.  Because broccoli is yummy.

Tess liked the dinner.  Then again, Tess likes to dip her pickles in lime Jell-o, so there you go.

Instead of making a dessert that would stick around the house, tempting me for days on end, we made leprachaun houses instead.

Spencer and Josh were really excited about this, although they each got pretty frustrated trying to keep their houses up.

Here's my house.  Do you like the chocolate chip window garden?

Cole didn't are so much about the construction.  He just wanted to eat the frosting.  With a spoon. Gross.

Spencer's final house.

Joshie's final house.

So I guess we did get into the St. Paddy's day spirit a bit more than usual this year.  But the effort and expense was minimal at best, which is the best way to spend a holiday like this. (At least that's my philosophy!)

Today...

... we danced around the kitchen.

Some of us with with some pretty awesome "hats".

Today we also took advantage of the spring-like weather and took a walk around the block.  Tess INSISTED on walking her baby - and to her credit she walked that baby the entire way!

Cole rode his scooter outside for the first time since Santa brought it.
 

She sure was adamant about walking that baby.  To the point of ridiculousness.  Two is going to be such a fun, fun age...

Cole was in heaven until we came across a rather savage local beast.  Sure, to the untrained eye it just looked like a rather chubby and extremely domesticated house cat, but Cole knew better.  He hollered and cried every time the cat got within five feet of him.

It was a good day.