California Dreamin

So I took over 200 pictures of my trip to Palo Alto, California. I wanted to document it all, seeing as it was a much needed break and I wanted to share the whole experience with Jed when I got home. He was so nice to let me use his frequent flier miles so I could get away for a bit. I was soooo excited to go somewhere, especially to spend time with my best friend Katie from childhood. We have known each other since I was 9!!! And she has a cute daughter who is the same age as Chloe, so I decided for sure Chloe needed to come too. They were instant friends. Here is Chloe at the airport on our way. She was so excited, every day she kept asking me when we were going to California for our special trip together. I was so so excited to have some quality time with her. She is so much fun.
Katie picked us up from the airport and stopped at the Milk Pail, a little farmers market place where we got to pick all sorts of fun fruits and veggies. I loved it!!! Then she took me to Trader Joes. I have always wanted to go there, and sadly we don't/won't every have one in Utah! I picked a lot of yum things to eat there too!
It was pouring rain, so the girls got to go jump in puddles. Chloe had never done that before!!! I just love her cute polka dot boots and rain jacket.
Katie welcomed us with homemade belgian waffles, the real deal with pearled sugar. She gave me the recipe. And told me you really only want to eat one, because the small recipe calls for a stick of butter! :) They were amazing. With strawberries and whip cream or alone. Chloe and Emmy had fun warming up and dunking there strawberries. Here is all that was left of the waffles. I had to snap a pic to remember it. And then of course I finished it off!!! :)

Katie with her cute baby boy! He was so sweet, such a good baby!
Hanging out on a rainy day
Sunday at Stanford University. I had never been there before, it is a beautiful campus, it was fun to walk around and wish I was smart enough to go to school there! :)
The church at Stanford
The Art Museum at Stanford
This was David. Chloe didn't know what to think about him. :)
We went to so many yummy restaurants. One night we went to an artisan pizza place called Howies. It was soooo good. Then on Sunday Katie made the yummiest dinner. She is a great cook! She made roasted vegetables, prosciutto wrapped tilapia, and this salad that was to die for, with spinach, apples, oranges, pomegranate, glazed walnuts, feta, and a yummy dressing from Trader Joes.

The girls had so much fun together, they never fought and were full of giggles. They got ahold of the camera and took TONS of pictures, and this was up on the bunk bed. As you can see they had the giggles.


On Monday we got to go to the California Academy of Science. It was a fun fun day. We packed a lot in. Katie really showed us a great time!!! This museum was soooo cool. It had a rainforest in this giant glass sphere, then it had a room that snowed, a huge aquarium (Chloe's favorite part) a white crocodile, sting rays and sharks, a planetarium, too much to do in one day! We had a blast.
Chloe loved this pink fish!

This person was scuba diving and talking to everyone about the fish. Chloe loved it!
This was an adorable little candy bake shop in San Francisco called Miette. It was so pretty I had to take a picture. They had one of the food networks top 10 desserts in America, a gingerbread cupcake. It was yum. Food was a big theme on this trip, seriously! I savored every bite!!! They also had these salted caramels that were so good, macarons, and these cookies called Sables(?). I don't know how to spell that but I adored them.


Americas most crooked street. We had sooo much fun on the steep streets in San Francisco. They were CRAZY!!! You seriously felt like your car was going to tip over.
This is Chloe and I near Ghirardelli square. This was the same day as the museum!!! The kids were great. The only mishap was Sophie cut her bangs while she was sitting in the back of the car. Pretty funny! I wish I had a picture.
They had so much fun running around the sand. It was beautiful! People were swimming in the bay. Training for triathlons I assume, they would get out and run too. Pretty cool.



This is one of the cutest pictures! These girls had fun together. We bought some souveneirs. I bought Jed some chocolate of course, and then Chloe a new backpack and Ella some crayons, and then we headed back to Katie's house and watched the Bachelor. That was fun of course! :)
This was the Sugar Shack. The girls talked about this all week. It was fun because all the candy was the same price, so they could just get whatever they wanted and put it in a bag. I got Zac Lego candy, you can really build things with it. He loved that!
How cute is this place?? I think my dream job would be to own one of these cute candy stores! ha ha!
The rest of the magical day was spent getting yummy salad at a place called Sprouts. I think it was one of the best best salads I have ever had. Then we got frozen yogurt at PinkBerry. So good. Now I just need to work off all of this yummy food! Diet starts today! But totally worth every bite!!! What a fun amazing trip. I love my dear friend!!! And I think Chloe made a dear friend too. Right when the plane home was in the sky, Chloe got teary eyed and said she missed her friend Emmy. We will just have to go back soon!