Surprise!!! ~ Andrea's Birthday in L.A.

Surprise!! Happy Birthday Andrea! Andrea's very sweet Husband David surprised her for her birthday, by having her best friend from Jr. High/High School drive up from San Diego, and her friends Kristen & I fly out from Arizona to celebrate her birthday. Kristen goes to my church but we had never met, so it all was like a big blind date. I however am SO lame, I missed my flight but was able to catch another one pretty quickly afterwards, but missed surprising her. Anyhow, it all worked out. Kristen was wondering where on earth I was...because I wasn't sitting next to her on the plane!


I love Matthew! He used to be in the same church class as Madison, they were buddies and even went to open gym together. I miss him, and he even remembered my name! Awwwww.



Out to dinner on Friday night...thanks David, I LOVE tacos, my favorite.


Happy birthday Andrea!


Driving to the Westin in downtown L.A. late at night...you never know what you're going to see.


Checking in at the hotel, I asked the clerk to take our picture, because....'I HAVE A BLOG.'


View at night from the room...we were on the 18th floor.

We were able to get 4 free breakfast buffets...YUM...on the 35th floor. You could even see the Hollywood sign far away.

Oh my, I will never forget how fast those elevators were!

First stop...Hollywood!

I wonder what stars we'll see??

Here we are outside the Kodak Theatre. There are so many shops around there, it's fun just to look around. When we walked out of there, a tour bus pulled up, and who was inside??

The crew of TMZ. Why on earth they were all packed into a tour bus, I have no idea. But that is Harvey, the host. So out of all the famous people we could have seen...we see him. That is a laugh out loud moment. I don't even know what his last name is. ???

Mom, I took a picture of the Bee Gees for you!

You can't see it, but the Hollywood sign is in the background.

I know, I like to pose a lot. Thanks girls for putting up with me, and my blog-ness.

Next stop....Beverly Hills.

The only thing we did here was walk down the street, which was very clean and beautiful with tons of flowers every where, and watch a girl who had a serious case of road rage.

We had lunch at the IVY...where if you are famous, it's the place to go to be seen. Hilarious. If anyone takes a pictures whether you're famous or not, everyone turns to look.

This is one of those, you had to be there moments, but here it goes. We sit down to order, and we all decided water is good enough. The waiter who's name was Robyn, asked: 'Perrier, Bottled, or Tap?' Are you kidding me, who asks that?!!!? Tap is just fine...if you could have seen the rolling of his eyes, it was classic. Then there was the ordering off the menu. You can't order anything under $20.00. The waiter Robyn pointed that out to us. And if you go there, whatever you do, don't ask to split the bill, because they don't do that either. However it doesn't say that on the menu. When I excused myself to use the bathroom, I followed him out and said, 'hey it's my friend's birthday...' & he said, 'Well when you order something, I'll stick a candle in it.' (LOL) Um, are you serious? Apparantly we weren't famous enough for some reason, does this guy not know I have a blog?! The IVY is an experience.

Surprisingly my lunch was tasty. The food was excellent and the avacados were delicious!

So after this waiter Robyn business, we all decided not to order desert. He then had to come along and give Andrea whipped cream in....the smallest cup they must have had. And by the way, the dont' put any form of sugar in their whipped cream. Looking back on this very interesting lunch, you have to laugh!

Outside the Ivy...see the guy on the left with the white hair, it could have been Kenny Rogers...?? But we think not.

After lunch we headed to the 'Fashion District' - I had never been here before. It was interesting.

Our hotel from the outside.

Andrea's Birthday dinner, after walking around downtown trying to find a good spot, we settled on CPK. This desert was 10 times better than the Ivy. (ha! ha!)

Late night in the hotel room...

Starbucks each morning was a must...

Off to Santa Monica. My goal was to get a jumping picture by the water. I would do anything for awesome jumping pictures.

IF you didn't know, I absolutely LOVE the beach.

This was right before Chandra had to leave. Us girls on the pier.

Being from Seattle originally, I just love and miss the water. It's so refreshing.

We walked down the Promenade...HELLO! This was so awesome! Lunch at Chipotle.

I did get my jumping pictures, out of three pictures, this turned out so good! Thanks girls for letting me do this, it turned out great. It was a fun time, next time I will not be up watching a Royal Wedding with no sleep!

Mia's 69th Blood Transfusion

Mia had her 69th blood transfusion today. It was a special day because dad got to take her bright and early this morning. She thinks it's GREAT when dad gets to go.


They order extra bacon, it's just a thing they have...well, Mia and her bacon - it's a long story.


This is a great picture. We never usually go up to the 7th floor but we did this time to look at the view. Every time I see the donated blood go into Mia, I am reminded that, that is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross, and it's life sustaining. It's life sustaining for Mia to be able to live a life in this world with her family and friends, and it's life in heaven after this world, for those who put their faith and trust in Jesus because of the blood he shed for us. What a great example. Take a minute...to stare at the blood. Let it remind you of all the bad things you think, say and do...(sins) and let it sink in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for you & your sins.

Mia is a HOPE kid.

Seriously, thank goodness for lap tops and Starbucks when you are in the hospital all day.

Meet Cayden

Mia met a new little friend, her name is Cayden. She reminds me SO much of Mia when Mia was that little. Seems like ages ago Mia had her little paci and was riding around in wagons. Now she just walks into the hospital and knows exactly where to go.

New friends.

Oh this picture is precious. Look at Cayden holding onto Mia's arm. Sigh...adorable.

We love Miss Heather, she was Mia's nurse for the day.

Cayden looked at Mia's IV and said, 'owie.' Yeah, she gets an owie, just like you do sweet Cayden, (but she has a port). May God be with these sweet girls and lay His healing Hands on them as only He can.

Pat's Run 2011

Here we go...

See this guy on the right? My goal was to keep up with him. I named him Roger. After the first mile I stopped to tie my shoe really quick (less than 10 seconds) and he got ahead of me. After mile 3 I caught up to him and passed him. He was my pace maker.

Ohhhh....crossing this bridge is the worst. It's up hill, and you're close but still so far away.

Finally...almost there. Another hill...ugh.

Running into the stadium is SO cool. It's my favorite part because then I'm done.

We carpooled with Liz & Matt, Matt's friend from work. Yep, they all don't have red faces like I do. I think they waited for me for almost 10 minutes.

Matt & I love doing this run, it's for such a good cause. This was the 3rd year we've run the PT and we hope to do many more together.