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A month is a loooong time to be away from the blog at this age- Vansen is twice as old today as he was the last blog entry!
We've had an eventful month, highlighted by the road trip to San Diego for Anh + Patty's wedding. We made a week of it, driving down on the prior Sunday and spending the whole week on vacation. We've never had a SoCal vacation like this- lazy summer trip without a real itinerary- and it was awesome.
Some highlights of that trip and some other random stuff I remember from the month:
- The drive to OC was 8 hours long, which wasn't actually too bad. It was a pretty low-stress drive with plenty of nursing stops. Huelan had the mini-DVD player set up for the first time, so she was pretty stoked.
- Crystal Cove is a perfect little family beach. It's just young families and the beach is big enough to explore but not so big that you have to worry about getting lost on endless stretches. Huelan's a big fan of the tidepools, where we held hermit crabs! Then there's Ruby's Shake Shack at the top of the hill- a perfect way to end a sunny day.
- The Natural History Museum of LA. We never go to LA. I've been told that LA has restaurants, beaches, parks, and museums, but we've never seen them. Though Huelan's kind of phasing out of her dinosaur obsession (and into fairies/princesses), she was still stoked to get up close and personal with some fossils. Maybe her favorite thing about the the fully assembled fossils was pointing out the dino butt. The NHM also has this butterfly tent that was super cool- dozens of interestingly colored butterflies up close and personal. LA- who knew?
- San Diego. The fam stayed at a house in PB with a deck and a view of Mission Bay, and the wedding was in La Jolla, at a perfect little spot on the beach called the Wedding Bowl, which claims to be the most booked wedding spot in America. Look at the pictures and you'll see why. Obviously great to get all the family together for a big celebration. Huelan reprised her role as flower girl along with Viet's daughter Leah, who is also a major cutie.
- One of my funniest memories is from the rehearsal dinner. Anh's doing some intros and comes to Huelan. She's been running around with Leah all night, both on fire. They met everyone in the restaurant. So Anh unexpectedly lifts Huelan up in the air and introduces her. She realizes in a flash that she's in the spotlight and instantly turns on her megawatt smile, just positively beams at everyone. That's Huelan in a nutshell.
- The wedding itself was just beautiful. One of those times when the perfect occasion meets the perfect crowd meets the perfect setting. Strangers watching from the path overlooking the Wedding Bowl, hugging and applauding. The wedding guests in tears. Gorgeous bride and groom.
- Debonairest Best Man ever.
- The reception was party time. Huelan led Leah, Francesco and Jay Sondhi around the dance floor sliding all night. First Dance, Lion Dance, Break Dance. Great party.
- We were kind of intimidated by the drive back- San Diego straight though to Oakland. We left at 11AM and pulled into our driveway at 10:30PM, clocking 11.5 hours on the road. Sounds grueling, but it was actually pretty casual. We needed to do make nursing stops every 2-5 hours, and stopped for both a casual lunch and dinner. It was long, but for the most part easy. Could have been muuuuch worse.
- The following week getting back to life was a challenge, but at least we had a three day weekend to look to (Cal Game, Triple Birthday Pool Party in San Jose, Vassar BBQ), and a four day work week after that. We're getting our bearings back now! Let's see how long that lasts.....
Pics here
And here
Sounds wonderful! Your family is high ranking on cutest ever. xoxo
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