Wish they all could be...

California girls! Wow! I would never have believed it if you told me two years ago that my daughter's first trip to the beach would be to the Pacific Ocean. (Or that I would have a daughter by now, but that's a different story.)

We took our first "family vacation" this past weekend. Eric had to go to Los Angeles for work and Emory and I decided to tag along. He had to work during the day on Thursday and Friday so Emory and I hung out near the hotel. We went to City Walk and Emory made friends with everyone she met. She decided to start waving to people on Thursday and hasn't stopped since. She waves to everyone she sees, except people with cameras, of course. We kept things pretty simple on the days that Eric had to work, although we did make it to the Hard Rock Cafe. It's the perfect place to take a baby because it is already so loud that nobody noticed her squeals, and there were plenty of things and people to keep her interested.

Friday afternoon we decided to drive through the Hollywood Hills on Mullholland Drive. That is one curvy road and those are by far the biggest houses I've ever seen! We saw Brittany Spears neighborhood, The Summit. There were a few paparazzi waiting just outside waiting on her to drive by, I don't know how they've managed not to get killed acting like that on such a dangerous road. BTW- We lived in The Summit in SC :)

We tried to cram everything into one day on Saturday. Thankfully, most everything we really wanted to see was fairly close together. We went to Hollywood Blvd. in the morning and saw Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak theatre as well as the Walk of Fame. That area is really only one block in the middle of a giant city. It was kind of strange to be driving down the road and all of a sudden be right in the middle of things that you've seen in pictures thousands of times before. We drove down the Sunset Strip on the way to lunch and saw The Vipor Room.
I've been seeing a lot of celebrity (i.e. paparazzi) pictures at The Farmer's Market/The Grove recently, so of course I had to check that out. The Grove is your typical outdoor mall but The Farmer's Market was pretty cool. We decided to eat lunch there when we saw a BBQ stand. Wouldn't you know, we moved all the way across the country and still go for BBQ every time we see it. (I still haven't tasted any better than Daddy's) After lunch, we were off to Beverly Hills. I had to at least see Rodeo Drive and Robertson Blvd. And I absolutely had to have one of these cupcakes as my 29th birthday cake. Eric and I couldn't decide which ones we wanted so we split a red velvet and peanut butter chocolate chip. YUMMY!!!!

We finally drove over to Santa Monica on Saturday afternoon. I decided to stay at the beach for my birthday, Eric gave me several options including Orange County, San Diego and Palm Springs. Isn't he the best! As soon as we checked into our suite (the one perk to all his work trips are the great hotel upgrades) we headed to the beach. I've never seen anything like the Santa Monica Pier! There is an amusement park on the pier, as well as restaurants, gift shops and a museum. We took Emory down to the ocean and she wasn't sure what to think. She didn't care much for the waves and the water was a little too cold for swimming. She perked up when she saw the swings, however. We headed over to the Third Street Promenade for a little shopping and planned to stay for dinner. Emory, however, had plans to go back to the hotel and go straight to bed, so we ended up ordering room service.

As a birthday gift to Momma, Emory slept until 8am Sunday morning. This is normal at home, not so normal travelling. Then she gave me a new yoga bag and a big kiss. I couldn't ask for a better morning! She continued the day by sleeping almost the entire way home and still going to bed at 7pm.

I think this was such a good birthday that I'll stick with 29. Next year, we'll have the sequel instead of turning 30. Here's the link to the rest of our pictures.

To sum things up, here's a list of the things I learned about traveling with a baby while on this trip.
1.Drive during nap time.
2.Take lots of Cheerios.
3.Put the crib in the closet.
4.Take both a crib sheet, pack and play sheet and safety pins if you plan to use the hotel's crib. You never know what you'll end up with.
5.When someone runs over your big stroller, use this bib and toy links as a snack tray and sippy cup holder on the umbrella stroller.
6.Be flexible and order room service.