why leap years are the best years

i met my significant other in a leap year (and loved him instantly!)... we got married in the next leap year... we had a baby in the very next leap year... and another baby in the next leap year... decided that was probably enough babies and so i became a brand new US citizen myself in the next leap year (and voted for the first time! and it worked! my one little vote worked it's magic!)

i unapologetically prefer leap years to odd years and even even years :) they are twice as lucky and lovely as even years, which are twice as lucky as odd years, which, as a general rule of thumb, just aren't that shiny and memorable....... (though i admit 2011 was ok - for an odd year:)

so far this lucky leap year:

• we drove to Hollywood in like 30 minutes flat and found a perfect parking spot right at the tippiest top of Beachwood/Sunset Ranch
  
• forgot to bring two leashes for our two dogs and miraculously found a perfect red leash at the start of the hike (and much nicer than our leash!! we asked every person we passed if they'd lost it and they all said no...)
• had drop dead gorgeous, amazing, stunning, clear views of L.A. (on a misty morning no less)
• found a hat
• made it back to the car with NO WHINING whatsoever from the sprogs
• encountered ZERO traffic home :| (nuh uh.... i know - it's totally a leap year thing!!!)
• turned off the freeway at our exit and saw that the 99 cent store (only my favorite store EVER!) is coming soon!! and walking distance from home!!!)
• found the longlost iphone plug thingie - in a travel cup - i did not think to look there :|
• found the top of my travel coffee cup
• found an entire case of cream soda (does anyone like cream soda??!)
  
• found out how to make the car window visor thingie extend to cover the entire side window (the only thing i missed about the Odyssey was the big side window visor thingie:)
  
• found yummy creamy biscoff cookie butter at the store (ate a WHOLE LOT of it :)
• made and ordered (with a coupon no less) my 2011 blurb book. it's 160 pages - longest book ever - of blissful, beautiful, light-filled moments that i don't ever ever ever want to forget. it's my grab-in-a-fire memento of my babies and every single lost tooth, school art project, birthday party, favorite saggy teddy bear, new pet, handwritten note, heartfelt hug... it's full of the reasons i never go anywhere without my camera... so i can remember, even when i am 100 it was a beautiful life :)
  
• also: reordered my 2009 yearbook which i gave away to an admirer (my Mum :) and never reordered for myself - great thing about those online books, you can just order another copy if you can't help giving them away :) or... they get lost in a fire
• got an email from my favorite hotel by my favorite Sequoia National Park, that my hubbie booked all by himself confirming our birthday stay (be still my heart:)
  

anyway back to the hike: as a general rule of thumb, i hate cities (though i loved them when i was twentysomething). now with as many kids as i have hands, and a car that absolutely CANNOT get scratched because it's soooo shiny and pretty, and so many places to go and things to see, the parking (or lack there of) and obnoxious people and even more obnoxious restaurants (you know the ones that quote the price on the menu as just '10' instead of $9.95 - arrrghhhh! also '10' for pancakes? insanity) and lack of personal space... it all just leaves me cold. but.... Los Angeles truly is my favorite city - the city of angels. it's beautiful and warm and shady and the people are pretty nice and it's lined with palm trees and parking spaces and drive thrus and rarely smells like pee (except in Venice naturally;) and i love it <3







Griffith Park makes me happy... like the Ruby's at the end of the Huntington Beach pier, a trip to Griffith Park is always just plain good for the soul

Griffith Park in the rain in 2009