california vacation, part 1: and we're there!

our flight was at 9 am on a saturday morning. we had friends over the night before and were up until about 2 am, which you know...considering we had to be out of the house at 7 was a bit late. we woke up pretty dazed and confused, but the fact that we actually woke up in time to make it to the airport was a WIN. one lofty goal down, another one to go, which was make sure we didn't forget a kid, or our IDs. (side not: whenever i get stressed about going anywhere or forgetting to pack something, i just think this: i can buy anything i've forgotten. all i really need is to make sure i have the kids and an ID. it works.)

the flight was direct from cincinnati to lax, and thankfully pretty insignificant. artin and niek had their nintendo ds thingies, and avisa just basically flirted with everyone (mostly with her dad) on the plane until we landed.

we drove up to santa maria right after eating some yummy persian food, but not before passing by a--TESLA DEALERSHIP!! so freakin' cool.


some pics from the drive up (a couple of them courtesy of artin):





amazing, isn't it? too bad there was traffic for the first half of it, causing our expected 2.5-hour drive to turn into a 6-hour snail race. did i ever say i miss the city life, even the traffic? because i lied. traffic sucks my ass.

but if there's any place in the world that can relax me, even after a hellish traffic-ridden carride, it's my mom's house. i don't know if it's the fruit trees, the berry bushes, the herb garden, the relaxing pond--or hell, the chickens! but my mom's backyard is seriously a slice of heaven on earth. i dare you to disagree!







of course relaxation at mamamia's house is incomplete if you don't get to drink juice out of a wine glass (my mom's face? i think she was complaining about drinking juice out of a wine glass. if she had her way, niek would be sipping on wine) ...


...and of course you have to eat cheese. lots and lots of cheese (picture courtesy of niek).


some more pics courtesy of my rockstar son:




oh, and how about this little gem that's still on my mom's fridge?


and to think, another palindrome birthday is coming up. crazy!

anyway. that was the first two days of our 2-week vacation: relaxing and running around just having fun. oh, and of course getting things ready for our big camping trip, which i will get to momentarily*...







*give or take a few days