California Surprise

The night of my party my mom surprised me with a trip to "Laguna Beach" we were flying out at 7am the next morning. Our flight was great and went really smoothe. When we arrived it was partly sunny but with the palm trees we knew we had arrived....







We were very fortunate to stay with my mom's cousin Bill and Dianne in their beautiful home on Laguna Beach. We had our own private stairway to a private beach area of Laguna. Every night Diane would tell us its time to get in our jammies and "snuggie" which meant curl up in a warm blankie and hang out and chat. Our meals were phenomenal every night thanks to amazing cooks.

Sunday morning "my birthday" started out great with a wake up call from my adorable kids and hubby singing me the "Cornelsen birthday song" than to a delicious breakfast. Mom and I headed on the road to "LA Jolla" since neither of us have been there before we weren't sure first off how to spell it yet alone get there. Before we knew it we had arrived to such a beautiful and wonderful place the San Diego Temple. Even though it was raining it was breath taking.

Later that evening Bill and Diane took me out for my birthday to this amazing Mexican Restaurant we had delicious food and a great time.

It was a great way to celebrate my birthday!

Monday morning we were off to Huntington Beach and thankfully we had great weather and not to mention the shopping was amazing...


This is the main shopping place HSS couldn't be better

We have been told about this popular place to eat for a long time so mom and I decided to try it out since it is well known. We agree with everyone it was great food.

Beautiful beach



Hugging our palm trees

Later that evening we walked down to the private beach of Laguna and enjoyed watching the sunset which was gorgeous.

Tuesday morning mom and I decided we would drive to Burbank and "try" to get onto Ellen knowing that we didn't have tickets and not sure if we would. When we arrived at 7am we were about 8 people from the front and made our phone call hoping they would need extra people. A few minutes later 3 girls in front of us and 3 girls behind both said "we have 4 tickets and only 3 so why don't you go with us and your mom with them." We couldn't believe it we might actually get a shot to go to Ellen. At 8am the girl gave us numbers and told us to all come back at 12. We decided since we had a few hours we would do the WB tour, which was totally worth it. We went on the set of Two and a half Men, Mentalist, and my favorite Friends. Out tour guide was hilarious and also worked for Ellen...




FRIENDS Set

Than it was time to see if we get to see her show. After calling out the numbers we walked across the street to her studio and sat on a long bench until they called everyone to start walking in. Once they have enough people they will send the rest to the "Riff Raff" room. To my surprise my number was called last "264" Wow! I really made it whooooo....

ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW! March 10th

My mom is in the green striped shirt

I was in the 3rd row which were amazing seats.

The show is taped the prior day and I can't even begin to describe how much fun we had dancing, seeing US Hockey Girls team, Dominique Monaghan. We also won a $50.00 G.C. for Walgreen's, 5 pieces of Cover girl makeup that Ellen models for, and a book by Jonathon Safran Foer. It was an amazing experience and we hope to go back her Christmas show.

We finished our day with doing "city walk" we saw the Kodak Theatre, and my favorite star "Sandra Bullock". It was freezing so we didn't last too long we were exhausted but had a fabulous day!


Farewell Laguna Beach until we meet again. Thank you Mom for an amazing and incredible trip with many memories. I LOVE YOU!!!