My Weekend With Mr. H!

Now that Mr. H and I have two very busy little girls, alone time is something that we most often dream about.  But this last weekend was a dream come true for us when my parents said that they would have the girls overnight so that we could re-charge.  It was just what we needed and we had such a great time!

We had plans to drop the girls off with my parents at 1pm on Saturday.  The weather was kinda overcast and dare I say cooler compared to the normal July days.  So I was super excited that wearing jeans and a military jacket wasn't a completely ridiculous idea.  :)

 A couple weeks ago I blogged about how I had balayage done to my hair.  I loved it, but I wanted it to look a little bit more dramatic.  ;)  So I brought home the supplies I needed from work and Friday night before I did this...

 It's a lot lighter on the ends now, and I was excited to try something new.  (I wouldn't recommend doing this on your own though friends.  This was actually my second attempt at home.  And remember I'm a stylist so I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.  ;)  My hair was pretty dark so my first time the ends were a bit too orange for my liking.  So this time I actually toned the mid section with two colors first, and then I re bleached my ends until they looked light enough, and until I was too scared to let bleach continue to sit on my ends.)

Summery don't ya think?

So after we dropped the girls off at my parents house we had lunch at The Islands.

Then we headed out to Fullerton to check out a brewery that my cousin told us about.

I text Chad on our way and asked him to meet us there.

 The brewery Bottle Logic, has only been around for a year, and it was seriously the neatest place.  
Really cool decor, and even better, really really awesome beer.  
We had fun getting to visit with my cousin and I told them that I wondered if our old neighbor had heard of this place because he and Mr. H used to always love swapping craft beers.  And not 5 minutes later, he came walking up to the brewery with his girlfriend!  It was too funny.  We miss living across the street from him and it was fun to sit down and catch up!

After a while we said our goodbyes and our next stop was the Angel game.

 Mr. H is a huge Mariners fan, and my Uncle Dave gave us his tickets for the night!  So nice of him and Mr. H was thrilled to be at this game to see King Felix pitch.  It was a good time, but I won't lie, I was more excited for our next day to begin because we were headed to the beach all by ourselves!!!

Do you know how easy it is to just go to the beach and only worry about yourself?  I do now!  
It's like a MILLION times easier than taking your kids.  (That's fun too, but a different kind of fun.) 

We slept in until 7:30, leisurely drank two cups of coffee, actually got to watch the news instead of My Little Ponies!  Then we threw our suits on and took off.

 I went with a friend last week to a new spot in Laguna and couldn't wait to take Mr. H.  
This cove is just so neat and the water is so clear and so beautiful!

 It was a gorgeous day.
And we just soaked it all in.
We love Laguna.
We love the beach.
And we love that we are lucky enough to be able to hop in our car and drive there within an hour.

We laid in the sun.
Read our books.
Ate some snacks.
Explored the tide pools on both sides of the beach.
Saw bright orange ghirabaldi fish (the state fish we learned), and lots of crabs, and birds, and seals.
And just when I was thinking that we had gotten to see a lot of wildlife that day, we were out in the water up to our necks for a dip to cool off when...

 a SHARK swims RIGHT BY US!!!!!
That's right a shark!
A real one!

Alright, fine, it was a 3 foot leopard shark which is full grown and apparently harmless, BUT STILL!!!!!
A SHARK!!!!!

I think I got up on top of the water and ran to the beach so fast!!
And so did everyone else around me!
It caused quite the stir on the beach though.

We asked the lifegaurd about it and he sort of laughed at how harmless they are.
But I couldn't help but feeling like Vince Vaughn in the movie Couple's Retreat when he gets stuck in the water surrounded by sharks.  We had a good laugh about it.

 And truth be told it was a beautiful shark. 
It's leopard spots were very visible and it was pretty to look at.
Pretty after the fact that my legs were no longer within grazing distance of it's jaws that is.  ;)

 After our near death experience shark encounter, we dried off and left the beach around 4pm to go have an early dinner before heading home.
I love all of the shops in Laguna, and we popped into one of our favorites Art For The Soul.
I've lusted after these handmade lazy susans for so long now and I took pictures of my favorite ones this time...

I want one for our kitchen table soooooooo bad.

The one above reminded me of our girls and things we are trying to teach them.

And the next one I loved the saying around the outside and the colors, and I loved that the pictures reminded us of our new backyard.

 These pieces are so unique and truly works of art.  
Some day.

We had dinner at one of our favorites.  Big Fish.  Sitting on the patio overlooking the ocean with the breeze blowing in.

It was the perfect day.

We got to my parents around 7pm, and came home by 8.

And at 1am Claire yelled down the hall that she had just thrown up.

Womp womp womp.

Our getaway weekend was officially over.

Claire was tired today but never threw up again.

I spent my Monday cleaning and laundering and lysol'ing everything.

I'm hoping no one wakes up sick tonight.

Instead I'll cling to memories of the salty ocean air.

Hope your weekend was good too.

I was super excited to receive my first package from Stitch Fix today!!!!  Look for that post with the details later this week.  :)

Palm Springs Getaway

Memorial weekend I planned a little getaway with some of the ladies in my family since Mr. Hass was going to be in Cabo on a fishing trip.

This fishing tournament is something that my Grandpa started 30 years ago.  My Grandpa and Dad and Uncles and cousins have always gone on this trip, and the women used to always spend a fun weekend in a hotel swimming and eating and shopping.  I remember lots of these trips as a kid.  We'd stay at The Embassey Suites across from the Brea Mall.  I used to think that was the coolest thing.  We'd run around the hotel.  Swim until the pool closed, and we'd walk right across the street and shop until we dropped.

Mr. Hass went on this fishing trip about 6 years ago.  And then Hannah was born and he hadn't been back since.  Well this was the year he got to go again.  He was thrilled.  Since the last trip he has gotten to know my family and my cousins even better, and he was really looking forward to it.  So I found a hotel in Palm Springs that looked like the pool was kid friendly for my girls, and we booked the trip.

Mr. H left on a Thursday morning bright and early.

And I woke up at 3am and realized that I couldn't move my neck.

I was in so much pain.

My muscles were just in the worst kink I have ever had.

I was even crying it hurt so bad.  I couldn't look up or down, and could hardly look left or right.

Luckily I was able to get in for a massage that morning and although it really hurt during, I think it really helped, and throughout the weekend it slowly started to loosen up and feel better.

Thursday afternoon the girls and I picked up Kaylen at the airport and she stayed with us that night.

Friday morning while both girls were in school, Kaylen and I ran around to Target and BevMo and Trader Joe's collecting essentials for our getaway.

 I got the girls a few new toys to bring along with us.

 Our drive there didn't take long at all and it wasn't seconds after getting to our room that the girls were begging to go to the pool.

 So we threw our suits on and headed down there.

 These girls had so much fun swimming until they couldn't swim anymore.

 And I had fun watching them enjoy themselves so much.

 We dried off long enough to go find a Subway for dinner Friday night.
My Grandma, Mom, Aunt Glenda, and cousin Deanna arrived right after we finished our dinner.
They were starving so they ate at the hotel restauraunt and 
I headed back into the pool with the girls until nearly 10pm!

I was a little worried about the girls sleeping ok in the hotel, but they wore themselves out so well in the pool that they went right to sleep.
The next day we had a cabana by the pool from 8am-10pm.
Fancy.
We had bar service and a great shaded lounge area with misters and all.

We had lunch in the cabana and then after a few tantrums were coming my way I decided to try to take the girls up to the room and attempt to have them take a nap.  They weren't having it, so we ordered room service which they thought was the absolute best!!!

They had mac n cheese and pizza and fruit bowls and just loved it.  We found the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie on tv so I got them to lay down and watch it and eventually they fell asleep.

Thank goodness!!! I think it was the only time I was still the whole weekend.  And before I knew it, my cousin Dee, Kaylen, and I were all three snoozing in our bed too. 

That night everyone was tired after being in the sun all day, so we had a nice dinner at the Rocks Lounge at our hotel by the pool.

The girls had so much fun playing with my cousin Deanna!!! They were all over her in the pool. Hannah was putting those little sponge pills in water to see what they turn into in this pic above.

 The next day before leaving we had brunch at Sherman's Deli.  It was recommended and so glad we tried it because it was delicious!

 Dee wanted to try their rich chocolate cake and the girls looooooved it too.

After getting home we picked up Abbey from doggy camp,
started laundry, drove through Miguel's for dinner, and once the girls were in bed I sat down and opened up this baby...

 It sure was busy but I had fun and I think it was a weekend that my girls will remember for a long time.

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Meanwhile in Mexico...

 (That's my older cousin Don carrying the bags, and my cuz Chad, Don's brother, already in the pool with a beer.  

 Mr. Hass told me that pretty much everyone at the hotel was there to fish.  So every morning the boats would all be lined up waiting for the guys to get on.  
And every afternoon I think a lot of this went on...

 Mr. H fished with a different group each day.  One of the days he got to fish with my Dad.  Looks like he wasn't doing much "fishin" in this pic though.  ;)

That's my Uncle Dave on the left with this big huge dorado.

 My cousin Chad after catching his marlin!

And Mr. H with his marlin!

He had a great trip and I am sure is hoping to go every year from now on.  
Ha. 

Ten Years

 Ten years ago today I married my best friend.
Who knew that cute tall blonde I met on a cruise would wind up becoming my husband.
It's been a great ten years babe.

I can't wait to see what the next ten has in store for us.
Here's to many more memories.
Cheers.

Xo,
Genn

Father's Day & Some other Summer Stuff

This year we had a laid back low key Father's Day celebration at my house.  Mr. Hass worked until 3, and we originally planned on going to my parents for a bbq, but my Mom came down with a terrible sinus infection and double ear infection the night before and wound up in Urgent Care first thing in the morning.  So we changed our plans to just hanging out at my house.  I set out some appetizers, we picked up In-N-Out for dinner, and I made some brownies that we enjoyed with ice cream. 

 I get a kick out of this picture with my brother doing dishes and loading the dishwasher in the background.  My sister pointed out that Drew was doing dishes, and then we all made a big stink about it and shouted, clapped our hands and cheered him on.  Ha.  Too funny.

 Trying to get a pic with Geeps and the kids.  Cute except you see what Claire is doing.  So we told her to put her dress down and then I got this one...

 Better.

This morning Hannah and Claire (and their cousin Noah) started vacation bible school where Hannah has gone to preschool.

It was a big day for Claire, who has never even attended preschool yet.  AKA never been away from her mommy for that long yet.  I guess it's time.  She did great, and it was actually me who had a harder time walking away from her in her classroom today.  (Do you notice Claire's black eye??? She tried to climb up the slide that is in their little pool out back and fell on her face.  It split right open but not bad.  Thank goodness Mr. Hass was home to keep me calm.  I thought we might be heading to the ER for stitches just like last summer for Hannah.  Please not again.  Once was enough!!!!)

Noah was a bit hesitant for my sister to leave, but once he got up to his classroom and realized Hannah was in there with him, and they had trains sitting out to play with, he was just fine.

The girls name tags that they each decorated themselves.

We dropped the kids off at 9am and had until 12:30 to come back and pick them up.

Um, yahoooooooooo!

I got so much done!

I went straight to the gym and got in a good workout.

Then to the grocery store.

Then to my mani pedi appt.

I've got two weeks of this.
Well, minus Tues and Wed when I am at work.
But still,
nice.


I will leave you with a collage of some instagram pics from the week...

I'm hoping to just flop on the couch soon.
I'm beat.
See ya.