An Overdue Catch Up

Life has been crazy friends.  Crazy in a bad to good kind of way.  For a while it stressed me out, honestly.  But, after pushing through and handing the worry/stress over to God, I've come to a clearing.  A refreshing, much more full of peace, clearing.  And its oh so good.  

I spent much of January to March studying for an exam (project management professional - pmp).  I let it sort of consume me (my friends would probably remove the "sort of").  I really wanted/thought I needed to pass because I wasn't sure when it would ever be a good time to take again if I failed.  I missed out on a lot of social activities and opportunities to have fun, but... I passed! And now it feels like there's a huge weight off my shoulders.  What I wish I would have realized up front is that the weight didn't have to be on my shoulders in the first place.  But, we live and we learn, right? 

Let's see, what else has happened? I think we're on to the good now.  A few days after the exam, we left for vacation. It was beyond wonderful.  Just what we needed and so refreshing in so many ways.  

We headed to LA, Palm Springs, Dana Point and back up to LA. It was a mini road trip around Southern California. We were so grateful to find affordable plane tickets, and I'm now very grateful for the years I spent traveling at my last job because the hotel points allowed us to stay at some pretty fun places.  It was the perfect excursion before our family of 2 makes it 3. 

 We ate.. a lot :).  Rather than obtain points for checking in, we chose the breakfast voucher and at two of the hotels/resorts, it was so worth it.  Below is B patiently awaiting breakfast at the SLS hotel in LA.  Do you see the arms of the chair? so random...

And my crispy belgian waffle with lots of berries and cream at Norma's at The Parker. One of my favorite restaurants, hands down. ever. 

The decor at the SLS hotel was bazaar and off the wall.  In his search for a restroom, B came across this all white dining room.  The next door over was an all black dining room.

Lunch at Bottega Louie in downtown LA.  The macarons and beignets. Heaven.

Ah, and I can't forget to mention the coffee.  This isn't a picture of coffee, I know. But it is the awesome tiling in the Silver Lake Intelligentsia coffee shop that we frequented far too often.

My true goals for vacation were relaxation, connecting with God and Brian.  The hammocks really helped in accomplishing all these :).

And the spa (I didn't get any services, but we had access to the pools and the relaxation rooms in it.

I'll be back soon (hopefully!) to update you on the baby shower!