Pack it up!

Well, we are up late (as usual the night before a trip) getting our stuff together. Jeanine and I have talked at least 8 times today about the details of our trip. I think we have everything, and if we don't, that's just too bad. Dan and I both have to work in the morning but luckily we can work from home, then we have a few last minute errands to run before J&J pick us up at 4:00.

Our First Anniversary

It was a year ago today that we were on the beach in Montecito having our gorgeous beach wedding, time flies! Our gift to each other is our trip to the UK.

Blimey! It's Almost Time for Our Trip

Our trip to the UK is quickly approaching. Below is our itinerary (with all the details in our little purple travel thing that we take everywhere), so you know where we'll be on which days. We are very much looking forward to our trip, and are so excited to go back to London, and for our first trip to Scotland. Here are the details:

Friday, September 12

Depart LAX for LHR (London - Hethrow) at 8:55PM Virgin Atlantic Flight 24 (VS024). Jeanine and Jesse will be picking us up and we'll all head over to the airport.

Saturday, September 13

Arrive LHR at 3:35PM London time (we'll be 5 hours ahead of EST, 6 ahead of CST and, 8 ahead of PST). We'll take the train in to London, hop on the tube, then off to Parson's Green to Chris and Melissa's place. We'll visit for a bit, then figure out what our plan is.

Sunday, September 14

Sightseeing in London

Monday, September 15

Our train leaves for Edinburgh at 8:00AM and arrives around 1:00PM. We will check in to the Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club when we arrive in Edinburgh. We may see Mary King's Closes or do a Scotch tasting before dinner. At 7:30, we'll be attending Ciara and Andrew's rehearsal dinner at Browns Bar & Brasserie.

Tuesday, September 16

The girls will be at the spa in the morning and the guys will be golfing at King's Acre Golf Course.

We'll spend the rest of the day in Edinburgh, sightseeing.

Wednesday, September 17

The wedding is at 2:30PM and we'll be staying in the castle tonight! You can see where we'll be by visiting http://www.dalhousiecastle.co.uk/

Thursday, September 18

We'll have brunch with everyone before we leave for London at 2:00PM. We'll arrive back in London at 6:00PM.

Friday, September 19
More sightseeing in London, with a trip to Burrough Market, for sure.

Saturday, September 20

Depart LHR at 3:10PM and arrive LAX at 6:45PM Virgin Atlantic Flight 23 (VS023)

We'll keep you posted with our daily pictures and e-mails, like we did last time. When we get back, we'll put a lot more pictures and details on the blog.

A Day in Los Feliz

We spent the day with Jeanine's sister Julene and her fiance Danny at Danny's place in Los Feliz. I took some pictures of the two of them for their engagement, then we had a big kickball game and a BBQ with a bunch of their friends. We hadn't played kickball since about sixth grade, but it's like riding a bike, and was a lot of fun! After the BBQ Dan and Jesse won a bocce ball tournament. Jesse and Jeanine, Dan and I can't wait for our trip to the UK. We talked about our plans and tried to figure out everything we want to see and do while we're there. It's coming up quick!

Here's Danny & Juls, they are such a fun couple. They're getting married in January.
We were right across the street from Griffith Park, in another beautiful park.
It was super hot, Juls and Jeanine (and a bunch of other people) jumped in the fountain to cool off.
Our ball got stuck up in a tree, halting the game. Dan saved the day by throwing another ball up to get our ball down.
Here are a bunch of kickball regulars, as you can probably tell.

A Visit From Uncle Dick & Aunt Lois

We were so happy to hear that Aunt Lois and Uncle Dick were going to have time to spend with us while they were in Southern California. They have been on a month-long camping trip all over the country. We spent the day with them, hearing about their adventures and recapping our honeymoon trip and what we've been up to since. We went to San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino to do some gambling (Dan and I lost AGAIN) but both of the out of towners were winners. We finished our day with In-N-Out burgers, since neither of them had ever been, and it's kind of a "must do" when you're here. It was really nice to catch up with them. They have quite the set up for their travels, laptop, GPS, etc., and are headed back east this morning, with a few stops planned along the way in the Southwest.

Viva Las Vegas

We spent this weekend in Vegas with our friends Andrew and Ciara, our friends who are getting married in Scotland next month. We had such a great time with them, they are so much fun. We gambled and danced on Friday night. A fun cover band called Rockslide was playing, Ciara and I had lots of fun with them, I was invited on stage to sing Sweet Home Alabama. Now everyone in Vegas probably knows not to hand me a microphone if they don't want me stealing the show....which I did. Pictures and possibly video will follow soon. Saturday, we spent most of the day by the pool relaxing and people watching. We went out gambling again on Saturday night, and came home Sunday. Andrew was the only winner this weekend, and I was the only ROCKSTAR. We love Las Vegas, another great thing about living in Southern California, just a few hours and we're there!

My few minutes of fame (during the band's break - the lead singer hooked us up with instruments and posed for some pictures with us).
Ciara and Elvis below.

Rose Bowl Flea Market

I love the Rose Bowl flea market. It's the second Sunday of every month in the parking lot of the actual Rose Bowl in Pasadena. We went with our friends Jesse and Jeanine, our travel companions for our UK trip next month. It was a beautiful day in Pasadena! We had lunch at Burger Continental on Lake and talked about our purchases and our upcoming trip.

If only we had a place for the water fountain below (no Dad, not really...I'm not THAT bad). I actually drank out of one of these at a fair in Alabama once. I was trying to remember where I had seen one, then it hit me! The Cullman County Fair!

Here's Dan and Jeanine below. Jeanine was eyeing an old collection box from a cathedral in Mexico (two to the left of the green one). She talked the seller's wife down quite a bit, and picked up a beautiful piece. Now we'll have to drop in some money every time we enter their new home : )