fantastic friday

whew, what a whirlweekend i had!

whirlwind + weekend = well, you get it.

i decided to work just a half day on friday. well, okay, since my regular workdays are only half days, i guess i put in a quarter day, if you want to be technical about it. heh. i needed a mani/pedi desperately, and with my MOH/cousin r in town for the wedding, we made plans to meet up mid-morning at my favorite nail salon, urbane beauty.

i also managed to squeeze in a quickie visit with my friend MommyBelle and her two rugrats, at the coffee bean right next to the nail shop. i wanted to give her one of those gazillion amish friendship bread starters, and it'd been a while since we'd seen each other, so it was nice to grab a few minutes to catch up in person vs. e-mail. as we stood in line to order drinks, i spied this on the counter:

i might have picked up a couple of bars. just maybe. but i managed to resist the temptation of their holiday coffee beans, barely. with flavors like these, i may very well end up returning sometime soon to pick some up, though.

outside, we sat down at a table, sipping drinks and chatting while the two kids "shared" the lollipop i'd bought at sea world, ages ago. although we'd seen each other since then, i kept forgetting to bring it, so today it made for a fun treat. and MB had a little present for me, too:

i was really digging the dark chocolate peppermint ice blended drink i'd ordered. it was so good, with crushed candy canes topping the whipped cream. it might just be my new favorite. and here are the chocolate bars i chose:

r showed up just as our nail appointment time rolled around, and i had a black forest ice blended waiting for her already. we bid our goodbyes to the MB crew and made our way into the nail salon.

inside, we were shown to our spa pedicure chairs, where we proceeded to laugh and talk our way through the entire hour. it really is so much better to be able to hang out and talk face-to-face rather than catch up long-distance via e-mail! we covered it all, from the wedding preparations to updates on the teen and bean, to her relationship with her longtime boyfriend. it was a great time, and i was happy that she was able to fit me into her jam-packed weekend home.

i'd asked her nail techs to give me the tickets for her services, because her birthday was coming up and i wanted to pay, but she managed to grab the one from her manicurist. but i'm a sneaky little shit - as we got up to leave, she turned around to grab her purse and i snaked it right out from under her and sashayed to the counter to pay. heh.

unfortunately, as we talked, i'd gotten a text from the teen, who said that she'd managed to hurt her ankle at P.E. (yes, again) and wanted to be picked up. i asked her to contact MIL, who was closer, and so on the way home, i called her to see what her status was. MIL was taking her to grab something for lunch, and knowing that she needed her nails and toes done for the weekend too, i just asked her to have MIL drive her to our local nail salon and i'd meet them there.

when i arrived, the bean was fast asleep in the car. MIL took her home while i went to the salon with the teen. after her services were done, we raced home, got changed, the hub arrived and off we went down to marina del rey for the rehearsal.

we hit quite a bit of traffic going down there, being a friday afternoon, but we pulled up to the ritz's valet right on time. we made our way down to the rose garden, where the ceremony was to take place, and found that we were among the first to arrive. such a pretty site!

the girls' lola was excited to see them both, as always.

more of our lovely surroundings.

look at my pretty mommy! and my gorgeous teen, of course.

the bean was quite entertaining, running around, laughing, pointing at all the things she could identify. "pool!" "tree!" "light!" "water!"

the coordinator finally made an appearance, and we all went through the motions and did a couple of run-throughs. the bridal couple was excited and glowing with anticipation. they looked so happy - as a couple about to be married should be.

a few more venue details.

the rehearsal dinner was scheduled at organic panificio, a restaurant within walking distance to the hotel. normally, this would have been an easy, short walk - but with me hobbling around in heels for the first time in ages, plus the teen's ankle issues, it was more of a challenge than we'd anticipated. the teen ended up riding on the hub's back for most of it while i whipped my shoes off and walked in my tights with the bean on my shoulders. we must've made quite a sight. but we made it.

the bean was particularly excited to see the array of brightly colored gelato in the display case.

it turned out that we were actually dining at the waterfront restaurant, which was just on the other side of the cafe. it was more formal, and seemed more fitting for an occasion such as this.

inside, the bean was transfixed by the sight of real live "nemo" and "dory" in the fish tank. it was fun to watch her as she pointed to them.

after a bit of confusion amongst the staff and servers, we were finally seated in a large room by ourselves near the kitchen. it was a huge space that made me want to do cartwheels through it - except that i can't do cartwheels. i always ended up pulling off some weird flip-looking thing instead. i made a great cheerleader, let me tell ya.

it was super dark in there, so my pictures (of course) are really bad. but y'all are used to that by now, or at least, you should be. this is the hub's house salad and my ribeye steak with coconut rice. holy cow, that coconut rice was delish. i wanted to eat an entire bowl of the stuff.

after dinner was over, there were hugs all around and then everyone went their separate ways. there was a lot of excitement in the air, and we were all anxious and eager for the big day.

more to come tomorrow!

p.s. a very happy birthday to my aunty orlando today :)