MacK's Christmas

MacKenzie continues to enjoy her time in Newburgh with Grammy.

She seems to have taken over the couch and torments Monty from her perch. 

Hilarious.
She still requests/ demands frequent ball games.
She still hates that Christmas sweater.
Monty is much more chill about the sweater and now torture.
SHE IS THE CUTEST PUPPY ON THE PLANET!
MacKenzje (not pictured. Finally.) helped Grace open her presents. Doesn't she look cute in that beanie we got her? Also, doesn't that tray of baked goods look amazing? Ugh. 

Don't mind me. I'm just surveying the area from above.
Dogs should be on the floor? Monty, protest that for me.
Oh, did someone leave?! Is the magic door open in the winter? Best day ever!

Thanks for Grammy for the many updates of MacK's antics. We love that dog. I know it was hard to tell. ;)

Beverly Hills

Imagine our surprise (and Jackson's elation) when we saw that our hotel in Newport Beach had a little putting green in its courtyard.


He played out there for a fair amount of time. I hit three balls and took a break.


After a little warmup he was on a roll and sunk quite a few shots.


Woot.


You'll notice my putter wasn't in use. Something about my balls not going in made this activity far less fun for me. ;)

After Phil Mickelson, I mean Jackson, finished putting we got on the road to Los Angeles. We wanted to finish the Runyon Canton hike we'd attempted a few years ago without success (we were not in good physical shape back then).


Finish the hike we did, buddy! We took Mulholland Drive to the top so that we could legally park (also an issue last year) and get some good views of the city.


Jackson took advantage of being male and peed outside. Ugh. So unfair.


The Hollywood sign!!!


Downtown L.A. from Runyon Canyon was such a cool sight.


We started at the top, walked all the way down and then all the way back up.


We aren't sure we'd repeat this course of action. Perhaps parking at the bottom has its advantages. ;)

We did see Kathy Griffin on our hike. People's reactions to seeing someone "famous" made us chuckle. She was only about 20 feet in front of us so we got to hear reactions each time we passed people. Too funny.


That evening we headed out to Rodeo Drive to window shop and grab dinner. Our service ended up being awful at dinner so our meal was free. Merry Christmas indeed! :)


The tree on Rodeo was beautiful. Jackson was really impressed by the area.


I'd shopped there before (and bought socks-LOL) so it wasn't new to me. The weather was so nice again that it was another "are we inside or outside?" evening. I love those evenings.


Cartier all dressed up for Christmas.


We decided to go to an evening church service to ring in the holiday. We found Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church online and it did not disappoint. The sanctuary was lovely b


Yes, it was on Rodeo Drive, too! The service was great and the pastor's message was refreshing and challenging. We loved the outdoor candlelight caroling at the end. Lovely. Lovely.

That was our Christmas Eve. Busy and fun. My favorite!

Holiday puppies

We got a little chuckle at the holiday puppy photos we got today.


Ms. Heidi spreading some Christmas cheer in Florida this year. (We get to go see this little lady on February 1st. Can't wait! I didn't realize we'd miss her so much.) Aunt Kathy called her "Santa's little helper" which made us smile.


MacKenzie got in on the "fun" with a Christmas sweater of her own. Don't her little eyes just scream "Help me! Help me!" at you? Yeah, me too. Monty seems a little more at peace with the whole situation.


Kathy giving is the full view of MacK's new gear.


You're welcome, MacK, for requesting the removal of the sweater until tomorrow morning. I'm glad Grace could issue some pets to our girl to help makeup for the sweater episode. ;)

The OC

We spent the morning exploring the San Marcos area and doing some laundry. Yes, laundry. I cannot deal with having dirty flying clothes touching everything else in my bag so we found a laundromat and sipped coffee in the sun while our clothes got clean. Jackson is such a champ for dealing with my cleanliness issues. I love him for it.

We packed up mid-morning (loving the time difference!) and headed up the PCH to our new home for the evening in Orange County.
We loved the PCH. We stopped at a fancy grocery store for a picnic lunch before getting to Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach to go hiking.
The views were insane. As was the hike. I was dying at .86 miles in.
Jackson had to go ahead to see if the uphill climb ever ended before I agreed to keep going. He swore it did. I told him to "smell me" because I was sweating in an ugly way. You guys, he did. He smelled me. How could I not keep going for such a man? I sucked it up and kept going.
This view made me glad that I did. Wow. Just wow. We completed the strenuous 5 mile hike and made our way to the beach.
I loved this shoreline.
This was the hill we'd just climbed.

Yep. This is a real beach. I couldn't deal with its beauty.
The water wasn't warm.
That didn't stop my water baby from getting in.
He loves the ocean no matter the temperature.
I prefer to get my toes wet and then run but my feet were swollen from the hike and I thought the cold water would help. It did.
A kid was out standup paddleboarding without a wetsuit. Clearly he had lost his mind.
I love the look of all the houses on the hills.
We hiked up from the beach to catch the sunset.
Isn't my sunset date handsome?
It was a gorgeous evening.
Seriously. It was still 70 degrees at this point so I was certain I'd found paradise.
I made Jackson take a "senior photo" because I loved this tree.

We were famished at this point so we headed to our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We wanted to go to the fancy shopping area we'd passed the day before for dinner so we couldn't go straight from the hike. Darn. ;) Traffic was a bit insane but we made it to the hotel, showered and got back out into the madness. The Newport Center did not disappoint. It was amazing. We got right into Cheesecake Factory (don't hate. It is my favorite place.) and had a booth. Unheard of! Dinner was awesome and then we went out to shop.
Jackson even met Santa. ;)
The tree at Newport Center was the most beautiful I've seen. This photo doesn't do it justice. I stood there and admired it for a good 10 minutes. We shopped at Neiman Marcus before remembering that we can't afford that place and left empty handed. Whoops. ;) The weather was so mice and the sky so clear that I kept having to remind myself that we were outdoors! This place makes City Place in West Palm Beach look cheap. Yep. I said it.

We came back to the hotel (God bless Google maps for helping us find our way back!) and crashed out for the night. I don't think I've slept harder ever. That hike was no joke. I loved our day, though. Jackson said it best when he said, "it is too bad that it took getting to December 23rd to have our best day of the year!"

Cali day

We got up early (not early enough) and headed to the airport. Jackson was not pleased with the timeline we created for ourselves and became a grouch. Never deterred, I stood in line at Starbucks while he boarded our flight. I was kind and got him breakfast and ordered a drink large enough for us to share before boarding. I never waited in line to board. It was amazing. I had overhead space to store my bag and then plopped down next to Jack. He was not pleased with me. Whoops. Good thing I got him a muffin! ;) The flight was long and loud. There were kids EVERYWHERE. Thank goodness I had my Bose "noise cancelling" headphones. Jackson doesn't have a pair and won't let me spend the money to get them so he suffered through over 4 hours of screaming kids kicking his seat. Yep. He was a ton of fun by the time we landed. ;)

We got to LAX and grabbed the shuttle to our rental car place. Don't ever rent from Dollar at LAX. Whoa. It took us about 75 minutes to get our car. Ouch. Finally, we were on the road! We hit the 405 and I got the iPod blaring songs with a California theme and all of our troubles were behind us. We wanted to take the Pacific Coast Highway down to San Marcos where we were staying for the night so we got off the 405 in Seal Beach and got to the seaside drive. It was lovely. We decided to stop in Huntington Beach for lunch.

We ate at a local "gem" called the Sugar Shack. The food was just OK but really getting to eat outside on December 22nd made it amazing. Jackson kept up with the Colts game from our table so he was a happy camper.
After lunch we headed down to the pier and watched people playing beach volleyball. I wanted to play so badly!
Then we watched surfers. I love watching surfers! I didn't spot a single shark. Darn.

After spending time walking around the beach we headed down to San Marcos to get cleaned up for dinner. We had dinner at my high school friend Joe Walker's house. It was awesome. I seriously hadn't seen him in like 12 years. His wife made a delicious dinner and made vegetables so good that I ate Brussels sprouts. Yep. First time ever.


Jackson insisted that I try out Joe's motorcycle so I sat on it in the garage. I'm not brave enough to ride. Ever.
We went to the park with their two daughters (Rosalie and Ivy) and two dogs. We played on the swings, ran around and just had fun. It was so nice to see Joe as a family man. He makes my heart proud. We LOVED his daughters, too. They were so much fun.

Since we'd been up for what seemed like years we went to bed kind of early that evening in an effort to get on California time. Jackson was sleeping so well that he rolled over and elbowed me at full force in the mouth. I kid you not. I woke up to severe pain thinking my teeth were going to fall out. Thankfully they did not. I do have a sweet fat lip, though. My husband beats me in his sleep!!!