50th Anniversary Bash

My step-mom put it best when she said, "You're the travelingest people I've ever met!" The fact that we get away often is on the Top 10 List of things I love about my marriage. Matt and I are great travelers, both open to anything new, and trying to find as much adventure in a single vacation day. It is no surprise that Sam is following in our footsteps. Sam is wide-eyed to the world, and the things he's experienced have made him a cool little dude with absolutely no attitude. We are so lucky. We cannot wait to see who he becomes; I think he's going to be quite something, but if he doesn't learn to clean up his room, we'll put the kibosh on all future ventures. Ahem.

We traveled to California for Matt's parents' 50th wedding anniversary, which was a complete surprise for them since their good-doings often go unrewarded. We left our house at 3:00 a.m., and were in Cali by 9:15 a.m.. I dropped Matt at his office there (a nice perk for him now), and Sam and I headed to a hotel in Costa Mesa. I gave the girl at the front desk our sad story (it was 10 o'clock in the morning), that we were from Indiana, that we were in town for a big surprise party that didn't take place for nearly 12 more hours, that my child was jet-lagged (he was fine) and, behold, she let us check in early. Oh, humanity! I think adding the part about Indiana always helps, because no one west of Kansas knows where Indiana is, so they give you this, "Oh, you poor thing, living life deprived" look, and bingo, you're in.

Sam and I swam all day at the hotel California, ate a really expensive lunch, I ironed everyone's clothes for dinner, and we picked Matt up early and headed to Newport Beach. I didn't feel like doing the beach thing with Sam earlier. I was in the mood for a heated pool and a bathroom really close. There's always the issue of filling your pockets with quarters to feed the meters at Newport (it's very old school), constantly keeping an eye on "your stuff," which includes your child, and I knew that it would be packed with summer tourists. It was. Matt and Sam couldn't surf that day because the beach had been "black-balled" (too many swimmers, no surfboards allowed). And the people, the thousands and thousands of people, were giving me hives.

Time for a margarita!

We whiled them away until the meeting hour, when a very large restaurant table was filled with the F'an family. All three brothers, girlfriend, token wife (that's me), cousins, and Matt's parents' best friends from Chicago. Surprise! It took Matt's parents several minutes to conceive that the party was for them. It wasn't my parents...but it was awesome to see their faces, nonetheless. Sam fell asleep three minutes later. :)