The long and the short of it

So, I'm back home after a long, exhausting and awesome vacation. If you didn't know, Chris and I left together for San Diego last week and on Monday Chris came home but I stayed for a few extra days to visit some more people. Here are some of the highlights of our trip since the last update:

We visited my little cousin Georgie. Chris helped him down the slip 'n slide and his mom Lauren showed me some new jewelry tricks I'm excited to try out.

We got to spend some time with Laura and Ernesto last week. Here, we're having dinner Friday night near Ernesto's place in San Diego. The following night we went to the Padres game with a couple more of Ernesto's friends.

Sunday night we headed back up to L.A. We had a nice lunch with my Dad and Deb and later Chris and I had an anniversary dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and went for a walk on the beach.

On Monday, Chris went home and when Becky (my good friend and college roommate) got off work, she and I goofed off around Hollywood and paid our respects to MJ ... well, his star, at least.

Deb and I hung out Tuesday morning and paid a visit to Starbucks for some free pastries. In the afternoon, I visited my great aunt Ruth who is just the best. We went through some awesome old pictures (going back to my great-great grandmother!) and I was sad when it was time to leave. Later that night, my Dad and I went to see the Dodger game! We had a really great time.

On Wednesday, I headed up to the valley to have breakfast with my friend Lindsey from high school, and then continued on to Ventura County to visit Andrea, who had moved there exactly one week earlier. Dre surprised me with a pretty and yummy birthday cake!

We also had gelato! (And, yes, I am terrified of getting on the scale after this trip). While there, we had a chat with a former Nevada State Treasurer who graduated from UNR in 1951.

We also went into an antique store where I coveted these jars of vintage buttons, but decided if I couldn't buy them all, I wasn't going to buy any.

I got to spend the whole day Thursday with Jen, Jim and Juliette! Doesn't she just get more precious every day? I miss her already!

Friday, Jen, Juliette and I spent a lot of our day at a charity event for Cystic Fibrosis. In the evening, Becky was there, too!

And, of course, Dad and Deb were there as well.

Jen was honored for her work with CF. Always generous, caring and willing to help anyone, Jen is very deserving of the award and I'm very proud of her!

Now I'm home, unpacking, organizing, and feeling very loved and very spoiled and very blessed after such a wonderful couple of weeks. Now the countdown to my sister and Miguel's visit in less than three weeks!!!