A fun leap day

Craig had to do some work up in Ojai.  So we all went with him.  We had a lot of fun playing at the park, eating soup at the local health food store, and then pizza at the Farmer and the Cook.  It was so much fun!

Olvera Street

We also went to Olvera Street for my sister's visit.  SO MUCH FUN!!

Spring is coming!

My beautiful little sister Cindy visited this weekend and we went on a walk at Lacy Park today.  It was a warm, sunny day.  We found this lovely tree.  Look at my GORGEOUS nephew!

How did I get so lucky?!

Almost simultaneously with the dreadlock thing, I discovered that my angel friend Edie had sent me a package.  I'm not sure how a mother of four, the youngest being 3 months old, is able to make me a quilt, but that's what she did!  My wonderful Edie made me a quilt for Valentine's day!  Please click on this picture so you can appreciate each beautiful fabric.  Isn't it just GORGEOUS?!  I don't know how I was so blessed to get a friend like my Edie, all I know is that she's one of the most wonderful people I know.  The package also contained candy and some delicious smelling pomegranite bath salts and fizzies.   Thank you, Edie!  I love you with all of my heart.

The Giant Freak Dreadlock

After all our dreamy anniversary fun, we were hit with a big reality check on Sunday morning-- (oh yeah!! . . . we have three kids!! . . . and we need to take care of them!!)  We had almost forgotten.  Bella came to us saying her hair had gotten really tangled while we were gone.  She showed it to me, and it did look like almost all her hair had been tangled into one big knot.  But I thought that maybe after some good conditioning, it would all come out.  Craig went in to help her untangle.  The whole time, Craig kept saying what a bad tangle it was.  (I think this is when he essentially wet-felted her hair.)  I kept thinking "Don't worry, I'll get it out."  

When she came out,  

I COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I SAW! 

Her hair was one big, fat, giant, dreadlock.  It was seriously the size of a small cantaloupe!  It was so shocking, I felt angry and sad.  I actually started to cry because I knew it was not salvageable.  In desperation, I actually put some peanut butter in her hair remembering how well it works with gum.  But what was I thinking?  The only way out was to cut.  :(  We literally missed church because it was so bad. (Can you imagine showing up at church with your kid sporting a dreadlock like this?)  I spent the next two hours untangling and cutting out this crazy knot.  Where in the heck did it come from?  I had thoroughly combed her hair through on Tuesday night.  It was still tangle-free when we left on Thursday morning!  Well, whatever the reason, Bella now has two lengths of hair until I can take her to get a nice haircut.  We were already planning to, but just a trim.  I'll keep you posted.  But isn't that such a FREAK happening?  And isn't Bella so cute no matter what?

Inn of the Seventh Ray

We finished all our celebrating by having dinner at the most beautiful restaurant in the LA area--the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon.  It really has a little creek running alongside it.  We sat outside with a heater keeping us warm.  On the other side of us we had a beautiful waterfall with a buddah on top.  We had a delicious dinner and fondue for dessert.  The great thing about this place is that there is no lovelier setting AND its healthy!  Their menu is 95% organic and they have a raw food menu, a vegetarian menu and also offer meat dishes.  We had a wonderful time.  It is my favorite restaurant along with the Farmer and the Cook! 

Celebrating at the Temple!

I hope my 3 readers aren't sick of all our anniversary stuff!!  We spent one more day celebrating. We had always planned to go to the temple and do sealings.  On the way, we stopped for lunch at a place called "Le Pain Quotidien" which a friend had mentioned to me in passing.  We decided to try it and we were so happy to find it was a bakery that makes organic bread and mostly organic food!!  We got agave sweetened mint lemonade.  We got salad and quiche.  We bought a seeded bread to go that I could not stop eating until it was gone!  I was so happy to find that there is one in Pasadena that I can go to!!

We then went to the temple.  What a sweet experience we had!  For the past ten years, we have gone almost every year to the temple to do sealings for our anniversary.  Every time we have gone, we've gone to one of the rooms that are on the floor above the Celestial room.  This time, we somehow got to do sealings in the very room that we were married in!  We were married in room 2, which is off the the Celestial room.  So we got to sit on the bench we sat on when we were married and kneel at the very same altar!  (We even got to give each other a kiss!)  We also got to sit in the Celestial room when we were done, which was such a treat.  We sat and savored the peacefulness for about a half an hour.  We didn't want to leave, except that we had a dinner reservation to make! 

The rest of our day in Ojai

We hated to leave the B&B, but we had a GREAT time wandering the town.  There are so many nice shops to look in.  Art galleries, book stores, antique stores, boutiques, new age shops.  (By the way, we bought nothing but some maple candy at Rainbow bridge health food store!  Yum!) We found ourselves in a kids clothing store and a toy store so I think we were missing the kids a little! (But boy, was it fun to have a break from them!)  We were so full from breakfast that we skipped lunch.  Then we went back to the Farmer and the Cook for an early dinner.  It turned out that on Fridays they have music and make things a little nicer by putting table cloths, candles, flowers and having waiters instead of counter service! We had the most delicious ceasar salad and pizza.  Of course, we had more chocolate cake!!!  It turned out that the music was performed by three guys one of which I had recently met (the guitar player) at the Cubensis anniversary show! He asked me to sing with them so I sat in on a couple songs!!  After that, we needed to go back home to our family.  What a wonderful two days we had-- it felt like more than two days.  I wish Craig and I would take more time for our marriage-- this was so good for us.

Breakfast at Harmony Inn!

Can you believe they brought us our breakfast in bed???  Wow!  We've NEVER been treated this way! (we've only been to one other B&B and it was a nightmare--really!)  They made us an omelette filled with cheese and sauteed vegetables--onions, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots.  It was heavenly! The potatoes were pan-fried with onions and bell peppers.  I can't get over the cuteness of the heart-shaped cinnamon muffins and the heart-shaped bowls of fruit salad!  They could not have bestowed such a wonderful breakfast on more grateful recipients.  We ate in our bed until we couldn't fit any more.  Thank heavens we took a beautiful uphill walk after that!!  We cannot say enough of how much we loved this place and how much we recommend it!  We were so slow moving they let us check out at noon instead of 11!  We hated to have to leave.

Valentine Gifts

We went back to our room and exchanged Valentine gifts.  I know I've posted a million pictures, (I can't help it!!)  but here's some more.  Craig and I always go CRAZY for Valentine stuff!  We just can't help it.  I seriously bought about $25 worth of various organic chocolate for him.  He bought me "Marie Antoinette" and many other super-cute things.  We LOVE hearts!!  We then watched "Becoming Jane" which, by the way, was really good!!  I LOVED it even though we all know the ending is sad because she never married.  We really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Valentines Day & 10th Anniversary Dinner

We then went back to the Farmer and the Cook for dinner.  We really wanted to try their Indian special for the day which was rice, veggie curry stew and a samosa--all organic! Everything was delicious!!  We finished with a slice of chocolate cake.  After all, you don't celebrate Valentine's day & your 10th every day!

Harmony Inn

We then went to check in to our Bed and Breakfast, Harmony Inn.  We had no idea what to expect-- we found this place online but the pictures looked good-- so we felt pretty good about it. WE WERE RIGHT.  This place was FANTASTIC!!  The proprietor was an angel straight from heaven who completely spoiled us. She gave us a tour of every room in the place and even gave us our choice of any room.  We stuck with our original choice--we liked the peacefulness of the sage green and pale blue colors.  Our room was beautiful!  There were fresh pink roses, heart cookies on the nightstand and chocolates, there was a private patio with a fountain, and a big deep tub with jets! After we wandered the back garden and got settled in our room, our hostess made us a little tray of cheese, fruit, crackers, hummus and sparkling cranberry juice.  She even built us a fire in the fireplace!  Wow!!

The Farmer and the Cook in Ojai

So we drove from Topanga Canyon up to Ojai.  It was a gorgeous drive along the ocean and it was a beautiful day.  At first we thought it was going to rain which would have been very appropriate as it rained cats and dogs on our wedding day. Ojai is sort of a hippy/healthy town about 90 miles north of us.  There are lots of B&B's, retreat centers, spas and yoga studios.  We went straight to a little restaurant called "The Farmer and the Cook" in Ojai.  We had looked it up and were dying to see what it was--  It was a charming little organic farm/health food store/restaurant.  Everything they serve there is organic and vegetarian.  We ended up eating there for lunch and dinner for both the days we stayed!!  We started by getting a bowl of tortilla soup to share and a Valentine cookie!

Valentines Day and our 10th Anniversary!

What a crazy week!!  After celebrating Lala's birthday, we had one day to rest and get ready and pack to go out of town to celebrate Valentine's day AND our 10th anniversary. Yes, we got married on Valentine's day in 1998.  Grandma came over to take care of the girls.  Thank heavens for her.  We started our celebrating by going to Topanga Canyon to have breakfast at a little french cafe called "Mimosa."  We had the most delicious quiche, fresh squeezed orange juice, and later hot chocolate and an oatmeal cookie!  Yum.  We sat on a cozy little couch with a little table in front of us.  We took this picture of ourselves and I took a shot of the cute counter.  We ended up wandering in some of the cute Topanga shops before we took off for Ojai.

Lala's 5th Birthday!! (part 3) Dinner at the Spot & presents

So we continued celebrating Lala's birthday by going out to dinner at our favorite vegetarian restaurant, "The Spot" in Hermosa Beach.  She chose it because she loves their tofu sauce spaghetti and she loves to color their Noah's ark menu.  The girls loved coloring and eating.  This place has DELICIOUS food.  We sang "Happy Birthday" and Lala blew out her candles on a slice of peanut butter pie.  Afterwards, we went back to Grandma's and watched the video of the day of Lala's birth.  It was a surprise we had planned and she loved it.  It was fun to honor and remember her birth and all that happened that day.  (It was also wonderful to see Grandma Olga in the video!)  Watching the video made us remember how special her birth was to us.  We got home so late that we didn't open her present until the next day.  She had chosen a wooden cash register from "The Acorn Store,"  Later, Grandma came over and gave her a fairy paper doll set.  So fun!!