Summertime

So I have posted a lot lately ... yes two posts is quite a bit for me in one summer :) But I realized I need some pictures up here of my summer adventures. Here are a few things I have been up to lately -- meaning this summer!

I went to Kaymi's birthday pary and apparently I missed being in school ... and the bike helmet I never had was just too inviting. So Kaymi and Stephen were so kind to let me borrow their things for this picture :) The birthday party was a ton of fun. Michelle made Kaymi the cutest Transformer cake!

She got a new bike which she was ecstatic about and then we spent a little bit of the night watching her and Stephen ride their bikes outside. It was a blast to see them be so excited about everything and to watch Kaymi go "as fast as she can". I'm pretty sure being an Aunt is the best thing in this world!

At the beginning of summer, me, Rachel, Celia and Michael took a road trip to Cal-i-for-ni-a. It was so much fun to be there and to finally have a beach retreat. We went to Santa Monica and walked around and went shopping. Here we tried on some amazingly beautiful and stylish hats we considered buying, but figured we didn't want to stand out too much, so we put them back haha.

We watched some fun performances of people dancing and performing in the streets, we ate at pink flamingo and got our fix of walking in an out of stores all day. We spent a day at the beach, where Rachel and I were slightly disappointed because, well let's just say we wanted a warm beach experience and the wind and cool air were not exactly what we had in mind. But we huddled together under our towels for extra added warmth :) Then we ventured out to Hollywood, stopping at the Walk of Fame. Here we are as the Harry Potter clan. Don't worry ... I made sure to also get a picture with Will Smith and Samuel Jackson, so we can all rest assured! After playing in Hollywood we went out to eat at this diner, which will remain nameless because I can't remember it right now! but it was 11 p.m. Hey, when ya gotta eat, ya gotta eat! It was fun to see all the people that walk around dressed up as random characters from movies. Celia said that Spider Man was this old man she had seen performing at the same spot for years. He made a great living making people happy and dressing up as a favorite super hero of his own. He liked entertaining people and it was great because no one knew who he was. Perhaps if PR doesn't work out for me, I have a future doing that.

Okay, so one of the standards of Summer 2009 was playing the Blind Man game. One of Celia's friends, Michael, taught it to us. It's a Japanese card game, and there were many great nights spent playing this game. It's pretty intense, a lot of anticipation and worry -- only the strong surive. Buuut, the consequence of losing is that everyone in the group gets to draw something on their face. Here, Celia, Michael and I were the unfortunate losers of this series of games. I don't think there have been many sessions that I have not lost, but hey, I figure I'm in good company :) This is what we were so fortunate to have drawn on our faces. This was also the very first time this game was played so it's kiiiiind of a big deal :)