The Little Gym

As part of our 'spring break fun' up in Chicago- Melissa invited me, Layna, Sheri and Maddox to join her at Evan's 'Little Gym' class. Although Layna was just observing most of the time- she did try a few things out. Here is Maddox being brave on the balance beam!
Layna and me!

Evan being the monkey that he is..literally!!

Layna laying down by Olivia!

She was brave enough to clime the stairs but didnt want anything to do with the balance beam..I dont really blame her! Layna and I had a great time staying a few extra days in Chicago. Karl drove home Sunday and Layna and I flew home Tuesday. Layna did great on the plane (benadryl is my best friend) and I feel like getting 3 free flights before she was two is a pretty good deal!

Spring Break- Chicago

Layna and Sophie!
Cooper helping Layna play the drums!

Layna playing the piano

Girls lunch out! Melissa, Me, Sheri (Sheila was taking the pic)

We went out for 'Shamrock Martinits' at Bar Louie and we saw DAN and ROGER from 'The Biggest Loser'- They were so nice and filled us in on all the 'behind the scenes' action!

More CA

This statue was a real person and would move ever so slightly to scare the crap out of people! Very Funny!
Tara and I treated ourselves to Massages and Facials at the Beverly Hilton Spa. Lets just say..it was AMAZING!! They had steam showers, head phones with relaxing music, and lockers. CRAZY!

Santa Monica Beach

At 'Katana' a Japanese Grill. Very Nice! We saw Paul Pierce and Sam Casell from the Celtics here. But it was way to fancy of a place for me to really stalk them. Sad to say- no pics!

Our tour guide 'Rocky' who gave us a privte tour of the hollywood hills homes. We saw tons of celebrity homes..too many to name. It was awesome!

Overall we feel very blessed that Thrivent provided us with this wonderful vacation- something we would have never done on our own. And tons of thanks goes to my mom and dad for taking such great care of Layna while we were gone!

The 'After Party'

Tara and I dancing at the 'after party' we snuck into after making fake wrist bands. Pretty good deal seeing as if we would have *paid* it would have been oh..only $1,000 a ticket.
DJ AM was the entertainment. (Used to date Nicole Riche and was in a plane crash) Anyhow..he was an amazing DJ..literally spinning records the whole time.

Showing off our wrist bands made from Thrivent Programs. Is that bad??

Celebrity Poker Tourney in the VIP room. Chris *Jesus* Furgeson

And finally we had to get a picture on the actual 'red carpet'. The whole night was a BLAST!!

Beverly Hills!

So Karl and I had a WONDERFUL time in Beverly Hills, CA. I really didnt know what to expect but it ended up being a week full of fancy hotels, celebrity parties (well just one), tours, visits to the beach, fancy dinners and lots of wine. I couldnt believe how spoiled we were! Our first night there (Oscar Night) we discovered that our hotel- The Beverly Hilton- was hosting an 'after party'. Upon finding this out I knew I had to make my mother proud and stalk all of the celebrities that I could find. Well let's just say Brad Pitt and George Clooney never arrived BUT we did meet some other B/C list celebs! Here are our pictures with the following- RICKY SCHRODER, NIECE NASH (Clean House, Reno 911), Billy (True Beauty), and BIG MIKE (Chuck) We also saw some of the cast from 'The Office' and a few other sitcoms. Story...To Be Continued in the next post!