LORIA!!!!! I Got to See My Best Friend, Loria!!

(Oh...and I got to see her husband, too!  haha)

I got to see, Loria.  Let me type that again. I GOT TO SEE LORIA!

Loria and I have been friends since High School.  Leaving the US the first time was hard....and I knew returning would be bittersweet.  But, getting to see my best friend (who is pregnant with her first baby...and it's a girl) was definitely the sweet in bittersweet.

We knew it would be hard to take one more flight.  After all, we had already traveled 3 hours to the Solomon Islands, 2 hours to Fiji, and 10 hours to LA...not to mention all the layovers in between.  It would have been extremely difficult to board another 7 hour flight from the west coast to the east coast.  When we decided to fly to Loria's, it hadn't hit me how perfect this idea was going to be.  IT WAS PERFECT.

We arrived around 10pm on Sunday night.  I got to see Loria's pregnant self and oo and ah over her being pregnant with her first.  YAY!  We grabbed our bags, went back to her new house, hung out with her husband Brad, Andrew and dog. :)  Then, we went to bed.  In the morning, we slept until 9am...and woke up without any sort of jet lag.  Unbelievable and complete answer to prayer.  The jet lag stayed away.  It hit us one other time during our stay on the west coast, but we all just took power naps and were fine.

On Monday, we spent the entire morning lounging around the house, watching TV!  It had been a long time since we had TV. :) Ben got to watch Transformers cartoons.

Loria got off early from work that day.  Happy day!  So, we went shopping.  Loria and Brad were extremely generous the ENTIRE trip.  She took me shopping.  It was so nice to be with someone that I could ask the silly questions about fashion to.  Like, "I need to wear this?" or "People really wear that?"  I was really surprised by the neon colors.  I don't remember Australia having that when we were there.

The next day, we went into the city.  And, our first stop?  Lush....for a bath bomb!

Here is a picture of Ben and Caleb outside of Lush while Loria and I shopped. :)

Awww...so sad.....

After walking around the city, we went to Chinatown and enjoyed some dim sum.

I couldn't pick which picture to post.  I think I look better in the top picture but Loria looks better in the bottom picture.  I am sure there is an "app" for that....but I don't have a phone or program that can do that. :)  Wait, I take that back, I do, but it is coming back in the shipment from PNG.....I have Adobe Photoshop Elements. :)  

I have so many good memories of hanging out with Loria in her city from college and when Caleb and I were first married and when Ben was 1. We did the math and we think that I have visited her 6 or 7 times (counting this trip).

The only thing Ben really wanted to do was see the sea lions at Lover's Lane.  Who would have known that they all left for the summer???  Luckily, there were about 5 there. :)  Ben was able to see them....if you look closely, you can see them, too...but it was pretty disappointing.  Ben enjoyed seeing them because he didn't know any better.

Loria took a couple family shots for us.  Notice how Mel is reaching for that ice cream....

I am pretty sure she got the ice cream in the picture below and is tasting it:

She fell asleep on the way back to Loria's.

We were in California for the 4th of July.  I was really excited about doing something patriotic....especially since we had been overseas for so long.  However, the idea of being around lots of people in the city while being cold.....and surrounded by fog....did not sound ideal.  Brad, Loria's husband, came up with the perfect idea to visit his mom's in Fresno!

We joined his family for hot dogs, hamburgers, cold salads, tons of desserts, swimming, fireworks and more.  At one point during the night, Ben looked at me and said, "I'm glad we're Americans!"  That is what I was going for.....mission accomplished!  The child was proud to be an American on Independence Day!

We spent the next day relaxing around the house.  Brad's mom owns a lot of property and Fresno is HOT.  We were able to pull out our summer clothes (we didn't pack many San Francisco COLD weather clothes). Caleb spent the day shooting guns with Brad and Andrew.  Ben got to play with all the toy guns and learn about gun safety.  Mel got to sit in an exersaucer and I got to talk, talk and talk some more with Loria about her little baby girl!

I didn't want the trip on the west coast to end.  It felt like a vacation.  It was a much needed time of relaxing.  I knew that once we got to the east coast, reality would set in that we were back....and that we needed to find a job....and we needed to travel a lot....and we didn't have a place to live....

But, for those 4 days, I was in a little world of our own....nothing could dampen the mood...nothing!

Thank you, Loria and Brad for your hospitality and your gift of support and friendship.  We appreciate you both and are so happy to back because of people like you. :)