essentials for a roadtrip.

los angeles: 334 miles. at this point i had already been driving for a couple hours. all in all...24 hours of driving in four days. covered about 1,200 miles. essentials for a roadtrip: sunflower seeds. sweettarts. caffeine. water. music. my iPod. my cell phone. my laptop.

our first stop, my friend misty's house. she has a pool. duh. it's about 6pm at this point. it's not hot. it's not even warm! but the kids didn't care. the boys stripped off their clothes and had a blast with misty's girls (payton and ellie).

the next morning we got up and drove. more. these women were the reason for my trip. this photo was taken by tara. so yeah, that's why it's good.

i love this photo. i, of course, was the last one heading back to the car (from the beach) on our way to dinner. thai of course! so i snapped this photo. love it.

after a leisurely morning at tara's, the boys and i got back in the car. and drove. more. eventually found a beach (that was my goal) and we got out and played. E (my little photog) took this shot of me and alexander. alexander and me? whatever.

E. ALWAYS in motion. look at the smile on his face!

alexander (at seal beach).

hmmm. yeah. a photo of my ass. it's as if james is still alive. james took photos of my ass. ALL the time. lol... so i guess E is taking after his daddy because he took this photo. and this is just SO wrong on SO many levels!! lol...

E also took this one.

i drove around for an hour and a half looking for a beach. yeah...me and driving in L.A.....um....HOLY CRAP. when i finally found a beach i was very happy. as we were getting out of the car alexander saw this house and said, "we should buy that house." he is very aware of what we are doing. roadtrips...always looking at places...houses...the right place to be (L.A. is not the place for us)...he's ready. and i am happy about that. sometimes he just seems so much older than 5. he is so very aware of what is going on around him.
these photos are very out of order. oh well. one of the things we (me, tara, em, dona, maren, kari, michelle) did was go get pedicres. dudes. i have never in my life (until this weekend) had a pedicure. so not my thing! but whatever. they all wanted to do it..so i did. all the girls were choosing their colors...pretty pink...nice bright happy red. me? purple. ha!!!!!!!! i dig it. this is the first time my toes have ever had polish. it was a trip.

alexander loves the ocean. and i am so so so happy about that.

the kid that NEVER sleeps in the car. he was finally SO exhausted even he couldn't fight it. this was on the long-ass drive home on monday. he slept for...no shit...15 minutes. then woke up. but he was so adorable how could i not take a photo (and yes..it was while i was driving)! lol..

the big one didn't sleep. what's a kid to do during all that driving? play his DS of course. so yeah..snapped this one while i was driving too! ha.