A Compressed, Free Vacation

How many things can a determined person do in 24 hours? A heck of a lot, it seems. After working all day yesterday, I snatched my kids and popped over to my friend Harmony's place. We set off for LaCosta at 6pm; by 7:40 we were at her brother's new home (he graciously let sis use the place overnight.) Dumping our stuff off, we headed out to see just about the worst movie ever: Deck the Halls. So stupid, but the kids loved it. Then we headed over to The Golden Spoon, where the frozen yogurt is served with...golden spoons! Back to the pad, I crashed upstairs on the cool "gel" mattress; Harmony and the kids camped out on the biggest, most comfortable couch the world has ever seen. This morning, we headed out to a fantastic breakfast at The Potato Shack in Encinitas where they serve "man-hole cover sized pancakes" with chocolate chips. So decadent, so delicious. From there, we met up with my cousin Candace Naiditch at Costco, where I bought a faux-fur throw for Allie (who was obsessing over the one she slept with at Harm's brother's house.) THEN, we headed over to the Carlsbad outlet mall (40% off at Banana Republic!) before I dropped Harmony off at the Rancho Santa Fe Country Club (she had lunch with her daddy Bruce and grandma.) While she was eating, I took the kids over to the Forum mall in Carlsbad, where we had spicy hot chocolate at the Venezualan Chocolate shop, Chuao. After an hour, I rushed back to the club, grabbed Harm and took her to the coolest market in the world; Stumps. We really enjoy walking up every aisle there. Looking at our watches, we realized we'd have to jam if we wanted to hit our next destination: The Pink Pinapple Scrapbooks in Vista. Without any problems, we made it over there in no time flat. I was so happy to see Marah Johnson's artwork over there...she is teaching at Sweetpeas and Snapshots on December 16th and I am signed up for all three of her workshops. It was really time to head back to Los Angeles by then, but Ben and Allie were jonesing for some Chuckie Cheese, so we caved and took them there for a cup-of-tokens-each amount of time. After that, we headed home; made it back to my place by 7:30pm. A whirlwind of a weekend, but a good time was had by all!