Our Weekend in LA

Last weekend we went to LA with BJ because he had a work event and the company had gotten him a hotel room for a night. My favorite thing about staying in a hotel is that I, as the mom, can relax. When I'm sitting down or laying down I don't have visual reminders staring me in the face of what still "needs" to be done. (I'm working on figuring out what that "needs" actually means... aka really, truly being more present.) Also, I love having a change of scenery every once in a while. There's an automatic excitement when we go somewhere new, and it feels nice and refreshing to be excited about something.

Relaxing with Oliver on the bed

We left in the afternoon around one, and drove to LA through a crazy rain storm. We left poor Jovi at home in the backyard with only a chair under the patio cover to keep her dry. Her own little island amongst the rain. We got to the hotel and checked in, and hung out while BJ and his dad put on their tuxedos for the work event. I had never seen BJ in a tux before. He looked spectacular! I wish I could have been on his arm that night, but I wasn't invited!

I loved watching these boys get ready together. It was really a cute sight.

I took the kids to The Grove. I had wanted to take them to Griffith Park because it is somewhere we'd never been, but it had been pouring all day, it was going to be dark soon, and I didn't want to risk getting myself in a stressful or precarious situation with the three babies and no husband. I know The Grove fairly well, and knew we could do a little shopping and get dinner. It was only about 6 miles from the hotel. Ellie picked out a popcorn stand from the American Girl Doll Store. Lorenzo chose a set of miniature dinosaurs from Pottery Barn Kids. Then we ate at The Cheesecake Factory, watched the water show for a few minutes, and headed home. It went really pretty well at first, but got stressful and overwhelming at standing up! and Lorenzo wanted help eating and was crying about something, and things were unraveling fast.

We came back to the hotel and I let them play with their toys for a little while while I got Oliver down, then we did the routine for them, and around 9:30 I finally got to eat my dinner while watching You've Got Mail on my phone. I fell asleep around 10, and BJ got back to the hotel around 11.

The next day we got up and got ready, checked out of the hotel, and got breakfast at some blast from the past diner we stumbled upon, and then spent a few hours at the LA Zoo. It was such a great weekend together as a family doing some special things. Funny how 24 hours can wear you out!