Girls week California style

I arrived in California and immediately saw the most beautiful trees. They are the purple Jacaranda trees. How did I not know about these before? 

It was Todd's birthday so we made the trek to downtown Los Angeles to take him to dinner. 

Whipped cream burgers? 

Happy Birthday Todd. Now share that yummy birthday cake with us. 

The California adventure began the next morning when Rachel, Ana, Lily and I headed down to San Diego to pick up Leslie, Ella and Edie. Mitch tagged along for a couple of hours until his flight back to Boise. 

We hung out at the harbor in San Diego for the evening. A little bit of shopping and eating filled up our evening. We stayed on the harbor and had a great night. Adjoining rooms let the cousins sleep in one and us adults in the other. 

We watched this man stacking up rocks. He took a long time to get the top ones to balance. 

The next morning we headed up the coast to Terranea. Along the way we shopped and ate good food. It was beautiful at Terranea resort. First thing we did in the morning was a little hike to a sea cave. 

 The views were amazing. The girls were silly and loved posing for pictures. 

 It was a picture taking kind of day. We had great photo ops everywhere we went. 

 These girls were all so much fun. The scenery was incredible. 

 They all had new sunglasses and they had the "I am so cool" look down. 

 The grounds at Terranea were so beautiful. 

 California was in the middle of the June gloom season. We still put in a lot of pool time. The hot tub got put to good use. 

Gelato and sushi. Oh boy!

 The people at Terranea were so great. They brought us all our own robes including little ones. Fabulous robes that were lined with soft velor like fabric. 

Getting seven girls ready in two rooms was complicated but an adventure. 

 Two days later we drove back up to Rachel's in El Segundo. We got to see this plane landing. There was a crowd at In n Out burgers to take pictures of it. Apparently it is the largest plane in the world. It was big. They all knew it was landing and came just to see it. FYI we go to this In n Out often. It is a mile from Rachel's and right next to the runway. 

 On Sunday we went to Rachel's ward and heard her speak about her Institute class. She has been teaching it all year. That afternoon we went on a boat ride along the coast of California. The sun came out and it was really fun. No whales made an appearance but we had fun. We did see a lot of sea lions. 

 We headed out on our three hour tour. Jeff said if Gilligan was on board we should get off the boat. 

 The views were pretty spectacular along the coast. Are these grand daughters really getting as tall as me???

 Lily takes private gymnastic lessons. It was fun to see what she can do. Her teacher has a lot of energy. 

 Rachel washed her car and I had to take pictures in the car wash of all the crazy things you saw along the way right in the wash area. It was a mini adventure. 

 Ana works at the Manhattan Beach Aquarium. That is so cool. She gave us a little tour. It is a great little aquarium out on the pier. 

Ana is also a very artistic girl. She put makeup on everyone and made them all into Zombies. They all went into Zombie trances. Have to say they were a little creepy. 

How lucky I am to get to spend a week with all of these girls having nonstop fun. We went shopping, ate good food including ice cream and sushi. We had hotel room fun times, swam, hot tubbed, walked, laughed and just enjoyed being together. A perfect week.