in the past week................

we drove for 24 hours or so (felt more like 50 as we were on Highway One for most of it....)

we stalked the Beckham's vacation rental - on a very very perfect (public) Malibu beach with hundreds of sand dollars at our feet :) i should add i only saw ONE white Sienna all week and it was there ;) (Aaron added that it must belong to the help :)




we had sublimely fluffy pancakes in Santa Barbara


we explored Big Sur with our new all access beach pass :)




we stayed in Monterey

we visited Santa Cruz



we discovered the delights of Daiso in San Fran - the japanese dollar store:) i bought a sad panda teeshirt and soooo much more... it's the best store EVER!!!

we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge


we played in redwood glens


we stayed in a cabin with the most amazing views ever (and i had to leave the windows open all night so i could smell/hear the ocean)


we saw whales from the deck

we spent hours at this driftwood beach (that's our cabin to the left of the tree)


Sam grew up - he's now 11 years old and 5 feet 6 inches tall




we stayed in the smallest town in America.... turns out i dislike really small towns that don't even have a CVS... the burbs suit me fine, i missed Target and McDonalds more than life itself :)

i discovered that BK have a veggie burger - and it's not inedibly horrible :) it's amazing what tastes good after 3 days in a small town with NO FAST FOOD whatsoever!

we sang along to a lot of great road trip music and were repeatedly shushed by our studious Harry Potter reading child :|

i actually made a picture perfect batch of fluffy round pancakes for the first time ever (from one of those 'just add water' packs... who knew it was that simple??!)

we pretty much lived off pancakes and Costco's all american chocolate cake

i spent 3 days straight in bed feeling dreadfully poorly and on the verge of death

i watched the most boring show ever about Paris Hilton. once again... who the hell is she???!!

i had a lump of agonizing infected tissue removed from my tummy this afternoon and felt about 1000 times better instantly and am out of bed at last!! (but i won't share a picture.... i look like a butchered shark... it's bad)

i was delighted to hear that Dr Drew is getting a daytime talk show this fall (though i am still mourning the loss of Oprah..... i keep thinking it's all a bad dream....)

off to bed to watch TV - oh yes, we were TVless for days on end. note to self: never stay at TVless vacation rental EVER AGAIN!!!! i am sure this is what made me so sick ;)