mental pictures

A conversation I recently had with my girlfriends: 

me: "don't you just wish sometimes that you could take pictures with your eyes"

One agreed. the others laughed.

Mental pictures. maybe its the photographer in me but sometimes it feels like my eyes are their own lenses. I see something. they focus on it. my eyes shut. click. mental picture. i take them all the time. its necessary.

sometimes i dont have a camera... click...mental picture.

sometimes technology doesnt give the scene the justice it deserves...click...mental picture.

sometimes we are driving in a car and dont have time to stop...click...mental picture.

sometimes im too lazy to take out my camera...click...mental picture.

or sometimes. sometimes. a scene is to precious or fragile to be interrupted with a camera...click...mental picture.

Here is my most recent mental picture:

Bryce is out of town. Its just me and Bens. Its bedtime. Benson usually goes to bed perfect. Maybe he was missing his dad or just needed some love because he cried when i put him down. and he continued to cry. So i finally went in there and picked him up and carried him over to the rocker. where i rocked him. My little but not so little boy. He's gotten so big since the last time i rocked him. we sat there for a little while. I thought he might be asleep. When i look down to check he slowly lifts his head up, looks me in the eyes, and touches my chin with his little chubby fingers. a minute later he is fast asleep with his fingers still on my chin...i then close my now tear filled eyes...click...mental picture.

Girlfriends.

I tried to come up with a title that could describe this most amazing weekend. I couldn't. So it will simply be girlfriends. my girls. my comfortable friends. my high school peeps. my sisters from another mother. Here's to an awesome first annual girls reunion!

There are usually six in this group but sadly Tiffany was stuck in Utah at the time. We missed you horribly Tiffo. Hopefully see you at the next reunion. This is the first time in a LONG time that we have been able to get together without any kids or without any of us being pregnant. Can't say what next year will be like. Probably all six of us will be pregnant. But we had an absolute wonderful time. reminisced about old memories and made a handful of new ones.

So here's a breakdown of our weekend in California:

Day 1: Downtown LA. The Fashion District. Hollywood.

Can I just say how much i loved downtown LA. My girls loved the cheap shoes and clothes. I loved the buildings and architecture. This next picture is our first pic of the whole trip and by far my favorite.

There is something soo exciting about a rack of 5 dollar sunglasses. I'm pretty sure we stopped at every one to try on a new pair.

This happen to be my first trip to Hollywood. It was awesome! Anyone who knows me, knows I HATE to shop. clothes shopping that is. But there is something fun about shopping with girlfriends. something fun about seeing my bestfriend with a pile of clothes in her hand and saying "these are all for you." Something fun about seeing my girlfriends sitting in a line outside my dressing room. Something fun about seeing everyone get excited over a pair of jeans. Yes. That day. Shopping was fun.

Foot, hand, and wand prints from the Harry Potter trio.

That night we went out to dinner, which was amazing! I am still craving those homemade tortillas and honey butter. Then we drove down to Balboa island, ate ice cream, and then parked the car and talked as we looked out over the dock and boats. I think this might be one of our favorite things to do: eat and talk.

Day2: The OC Swapmeet. Jane's. The Beach. The movies.

On Saturday we woke up and went to the swapmeet. After a few purchases and lots of food samples we decided to hit up the beach. First we went to Jane's for some lunch. Our favorite place when you're craving a good corndog and lemonade!

And then we chilled on the beach. We talked. We read. We took naps.

I love this next picture. Because this is us. all the time. laughing. most of the time at Jade.

Day3: Goodbye to Chels. Day at the Park. More eating and talking.

On Sunday we had to drive Chelsea to the airport which is always hard to say goodbye to a friend. Then we went and got sandwiches at our favorite donut shop in Newport and took them to a park for a picnic. This park was beautiful! It had grass. It had trees. It had a lake. It had cute little sailboats in the lake. beautiful.

There was more reading. more sleeping. more picture taking. more talking. more laughing.

Day4: Disneyland. California Adventure.

Our last day was spent at Disneyland! What a perfect day! It felt like we were little kids running through the park and going on every ride. We had to laugh when we saw mothers fighting with their children or struggling with strollers. Because we all knew the next time we would be at disneyland, that would be us!

This next pic makes me smile. There are three rides at Disneyland where I LAUGH my head off the whole time! They are Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and The Matterhorn. For some reason we decided to double up in the cars which were alot smaller than I remember (I mean, look at the kid behind us, he has the whole car to himself) Lets just say that me and Katie got very close on this ride:) I don't know if it was that or the jerkiness of the ride but I COULD NOT stop laughing. There were points along the ride where tears were streaming down my face and my stomach muscles were throbbing. I love it!

At one point during the day I picked up a souvenir for Benson. Long story short the cashier gave me this button that says Just Married. So everywhere we went workers gave me their congratulations! It was awesome! Me and Jessica are going to make a very happy couple in California.

I love this next picture! A bunch of grown up married women having the time of our lives on a rocket ride!

There is a little comedy behind this next photo. There are alot of people at Disneyland and you can hear alot of funny things. On one of our trips from California Adventure to Disneyland Jade overheard a little boy say to his parents "I want a picture in the A hole." After we heard that, we all wanted our picture in the A hole.

So there is this new show at California Adventure called World of Color. It is AWESOME! If you have not seen it yet. Do! Its a water fountain, light, and music show. More specifically its like the Bellagio fountains on Disney steroids. Awesome!

They have projections of all the favorite Disney movies showing through the fountains.

This may look like your worst nightmare. Disneyland on fire. But it was brilliant. We could feel the heat way in the back.

Thanks for a great weekend girls! Cant wait for Seattle next year!