ca trip besides wedding, shower and interview!

so as i mentioned in my earlier post, i spent about 12 days in ca making the rounds and enjoying all sorts of festivities. i spent a couple of days in malibu with my aunt and uncle and also my little cousin caitlin who was on spring break. for some reason, i have no pictures from that portion of the trip... oh well... it was a lot of fun! and then i went to the wedding. and then i went to SM and stayed with catherine.

we had lots of fun doing all kinds of random things. each day we would pick up miss lucy and on this day, we also picked up her friend. then we went and got milk and cookies for a snack. they are so cute!

one day, we went to the photobooth! the three of us had so much fun making silly faces for the camera!

at night, we had big girl adventures as well. cath took me to a cooking demonstration where we ate (a lot) of very tasty food. and on one night we went to pinxtos for tapas and then pourtal for wine tasting. above is erin, me, and catherine prior to heading out to pinxtos where we met up with preston. dinner was yummmmmmmy!

me and erin after dinner.

so after the fun in SM, we headed to OC for roni's baby shower. after the shower and mexican feast, sarah mac and i headed for glendale. where i spent a couple nights with the dave, sarah and munchkin.

how cute is munchkin?! she likes to sit with sarah at the computer. and she loves to snuggle on the couch and watch tv. i can definitely say that munchkin has brought a new life to sarah and dave and is such a great addition to their family! although my time in glendale was short, we managed to hang out with dave's brother and his friend for lunch, do some shopping, get a massage, eat a dinner that dave cooked!, play with munchkin, and AND AND go to class with sarah. She was teaching a class on monday morning and i love going to her classes. she's such a great professor! after class, we scarfed a small bfast burrito as a snack and headed back to LA. sarah needed to be at UCLA that afternoon for some meetings and so on her way, she dropped me back at catherine's where i got to spend one last night before heading home.

on my last night in LA, we went out to sushi dinner with preston and erin in brentwood. it was delicious! but we decided we needed dessert. and since erin had just bought cookie dough, we thought let's stop by a store, get some butter, and then bake some cookies! at the store, catherine made a new friend...

and on the way back to e &p's apt, p & i made a new friend. this is apparently, the apt community cat that hangs out in the lobby. originally the cat was sitting with preston and i wanted a picture of that... then the cat jumped down and i grabbed it and thus this picture resulted.

while we waited for the cookies to bake, we enjoyed some wine and playing the game "would you rather". a lot of fun and laughs ensued and it was a lovely way to spend my last night in LA.

celebrating baby fleury!

a super secret baby shower was planned by courtney, sarah, and benoit for mrs veronica fleury... however, the shower didn't quite stay a surprise for very long but that was ok because we all had so much fun!

roni and benoit open some fun baby presents

the pretty quilt i gave baby... i wish i could say i made it, but alas someone very talented on etsy made it.

baby fleury will have a beautiful party dress for when she arrives!

the shower was held at the st regis for high tea and it was lovely! and so scripps. and so perfect. these were just the desserts - but they will delicious! and there was so much to eat and so many choices and it was all so tasty... i definitely left a little overstuffed...

the scrippsie at high tea. congratulations again to roni and benoit!!

scrippsies!! yes, i did force everyone to take some pictures and group shots. as you all know, you can never have too many pictures.

well, it wasn't quite taken in paris, but the pacific ocean isn't a bad backdrop!

me with the momma to be!! i know we ALL can't WAIT to meet baby girl fleury!

awwwwwwww, i think this must be one of the sweetest pictures ever. love this one.

after tea, we headed back to courtney's to hang out and play light sabres.

alex looooooooves benoit. super duper cute.

at one point, alex decided to calm down, rub my elbow and snuggle...for 10 seconds... i tried to get a picture b/c it was beyond cute. however, as soon as the camera came out, he became mr squiggly. oh well!

this picture cracks me up. i love court's smiley face while lola smiles and looks slightly possessed and alex does karate-esque kicks on mom's lap.

and then catherine had to leave and we missed her, but we gained another scrippsie with sarah mac's arrival. sarah had been at a work conference all day and was able to join us for a lovely mexican dinner. i again made all of us pose in front of courtney's house b/c i think it looks like it belongs on scripps' campus and thought it'd be a cute picture.

all of us at mexican dinner. sidonia was so nice and babysat our fun loving alex so the big people could have some margaritas and conversation.

it was the loveliest of lovely afternoons. I am so glad i was able to join the festivities and help prepare to welcome baby fleury to the world! it was all too quick of a day, but nothing beats an afternoon of wonderful friends and loads of food!

brent & melissa get married, part II

before the ceremony, sam, me and erin.

after the ceremony, we all headed indoors (it was chilly!) and to the bar.

check out this stache!

heading in to dinner: me, kurt, erin, preston, dave, and anne.

at the dinner, all the claremont folks were sat at two tables. the tables were beautifully done! at one point, the bread basket was placed to close to a candle and may or may not have been smoking and caught on fire!! omg, thankfully it was easily put out and i don't think anyone else noticed... phew, crisis averted!!

preston gives the couple a kiss.

cheersssss!!!!! this was the first or second or perhaps third shot...
hanging at the bar with shanan.

no idea what goes on here, but it cracks me up!

me and the bride.

and i borrowed this from matt's pics. my camera is not this good!

b$ & melissa tie the knot.

disclaimer: ohhhhh, i'm a bad blogger... but i'll promise to do better. i have no excuse other than pure laziness...

As most of you know, I was out in CA...again... in March. It was a busy trip with a wedding (Brent Rossum (CMC) & Melissa), an interview (Scripps - more on that later), and a surprise baby shower (Roni & Benoit!).

I'll start with the wedding... and the photos I *ahem* borrowed from Melissa's FB page. I'll do a posting with my own photos later...

the ceremony was held at the hard rock in san diego... it was a small venue, but it was a beautiful day with gorgeous views. it was really pretty!

melissa looked gorgeous - her dress was beautiful and i loved her flowers and bridesmaids dresses. i thought it was so classy and pretty.

the nice boys... you may recognize brent's brother on the left, preston behind on the right, and dave avacado also on the right.

ummm, what?! this was such a random photo among their pictures! but, it did crack me up...

i thought this was super hard rock-esque!

speaking of hard rock-esque...um, this is me! i didn't even recognize myself there! i'm dancing with sam (matt's wife), erin, and ashley (dave's wife).

yep, double take here too. that's me! who knew... didn't recognize myself here either, but i'm with sam and erin clearly dancing away.

and the garter toss...

i wish this pic were bigger b/c ladies, i'm standing there in the background and i've got to tell you - i LOVE my legs in this picture.

wait?! there's meeeee again! i think it's the dark hair throwing me off...

wait, this is great for so many reasons... i like the dancing, but please gals, look at my legs in the background! loving my legs in this dress. must re-wear this dress...

at the end of the reception, we did a sparkler send off. it was super pretty.