HOW much for pasta, chicken fingers, and a sandwich?

finally, the hub was coming home. yay! next to his trip to africa last year, this was one of the longest separations we'd ever had. i know it sounds wussy as hell, but i miss him if he's gone for more than a night or two.

his flight was scheduled to arrive at midnight on saturday, and since we'd taken him to the airport, we obviously had to pick him up too. and during a quick conversation while driving to the liberty bell, he suggested that we scoop up the teen's BFF, head down to the beach, and check into a nearby hotel. and after checking around, pulling up rates, and vetoing the oh-so-trendy shade, we settled on the belamar in manhattan beach. sweet!

after running a crapload of errands (not least of which was dropping off my fabulous gypsy05 dresses at the cleaners to have them hemmed), we picked up BFF and drove our happy asses down towards our hotel. since the belamar had a pool, we decided to forego the beach and hang out there.

we made a pitstop at plaza el segundo, a new-ish shopping plaza on the way to the belamar. i wanted to make a stop at the mac store with a coupon i'd gotten online for a free lipstick, and the girls wanted to check out the rest of the shops. sadly for me, the lipsticks were all gone, so we settled for doing some window shopping instead. these were some pretty nice, upscale (read: pricey as all hell) shops, although i did manage to score on this dress from j. crew - on clearance for $25! whee!

as we strolled along, we became increasingly aware of lots of folks shoveling spoonfuls of cold, creamy pinkberry into their mouths. BFF hadn't yet been, but the teen and i were practically jumping out of our skin at the thought of grabbing cups of the yummy, tart goodness.

we walked into m.fredric kids, where we were all drawn to the wide selection of adorable merchandise for the bean. BFF's brother is expecting a baby girl with his girlfriend in september, so she was just as bowled over by the cuteness overload in there. alas, we walked out empty-handed as the average price for stuff in there was $50. yikes.

and then, on the other side of bcbg, there it was:

yup, that's the line we stood in. it was kind of crazy for a friday afternoon, but hey - we were in no rush to get anywhere or do anything, so we had all the time in the world to wait for our treat. and when we finally got it, it was oh so worth it. the teen shared hers with BFF, who ended up liking it a lot. heh.

we got back in the car and headed down to the hotel, and waited for quite a while until the poor valet-slash-bellhop dude finally managed to make his way to us. we put our bags on the cart, which he wheeled into the lobby. and as i checked in, the receptionist said that they'd deliver the bags to us as soon as they could. the teen and i eyed each other, the valet, and our bags and decided to lug our own baggage up the stairs and down the hall to our room.

the hotel is cute. it's obviously an old hotel that was taken over and redecorated in an effort to become one of those impossibly cool, modern boutique hotels.

and our room was nice. small, but comfortable and cute.

the teen found some reading material in the bedside drawer.

and i was amused to find instructions on the package of cotton swabs.

screwing around while getting settled in.

we finally decided to get up and head out to the pool, making sure to bring the floating seat for the bean. the teen graciously offered to blow it up and get it all ready, after testing the water with her toe and declaring it to be nice and warm. i found the framed photo of the chihuahua above the fireplace a bit odd, but hey, whatever. and it was a gorgeous afternoon.

the bean really liked being in the pool, and it was cute to watch her kick her chubby little legs and bend forward to swoosh her hands in the water. our next house will have to have a pool, fo' sho'.

about 2.5 seconds after we got there, the gate opened and in came a couple who were obviously on their honeymoon (they were all.over.each.other and totally giggly and stuff), and obviously annoyed to see that they weren't alone. they kept shooting us dirty ass looks and whispering to each other, even though we weren't being noisy and obnoxious (for once). hell, the teen even waited till they finally left to let out a whoop and cannonball into the deep end.

this is my new favorite picture of my girls. i'm going to enlarge it and frame it, i love it so much.

and we stayed in the water for so long, the bean's feet were all shriveled and wrinkly. haha!

when we got back to our room, BFF and then the teen got in the shower, and i pulled the bean's sopping wet diaper off. BFF and i were amazed at the amount of water that thing could hold. and then the bean frolicked on the floor as she waited for her turn in the bath.

after debating the possibilities for dinner, i decided to go upstairs to the hotel restaurant and check out the menu. but i took one look at the loud group of women who were there for a bachelorette party and decided to peruse the room service selections instead. too bad, because it looked like a pretty cool restaurant. i giggled at the televisions that were showing episodes of "the brady bunch" and OG "charlie's angels."

i took the kids' menu and regular dinner menu back to the room, where the girls decided to split 3 kids' entrees. i went for the skirt steak wrap - which was slices of thinly cut grilled meat, roasted corn, fresh spinach, and mashed potatoes all wrapped neatly in a chipotle tortilla. we added drinks and a plate of mini cupcakes from becker's bakery, and then the bean and i got into the bath so that we'd be all squeaky clean for dinner.

of course, it arrived while we were finishing up in the tub, and the teen was more than happy to sign the slip (although she tells me that the server gave her the side eye and an attitude). she ran in to ask me about gratuity - which i sputtered at, considering the delivery fee, plus 20% automatic service charge. our simple meal turned into an $80 dinner. yikes.

i decided to try and get artistic with the purty flower that came on the tray. ha! i'm so not good at it.

after the long day, we all conked out early. guess who fell asleep first?