Girls Trip with Family

About a month ago, I had the chance to take a girls trip with my mom, 2 sisters, and sister-in-law.  My sister Denise did a nice blog write-up of our trip, which my other sister copied and posted on her blog to save time, and I was tempted to do the same, but decided I'd post my own thoughts on the trip.  (I did steal a lot of the pictures from her blog, though..... Thanks Denise!)

So, as I was saying, we decided to take our trip to Newport Beach.  Tammy and I flew into Ontario on Thursday, and my sister Denise picked us up.  The three of us went out and played some pool, and then decided to head over to Pinkberry.  I had heard of this yogurt shop before, and we don't have them here in Arizona, so I was excited to try it out.  I thought it was VERY yummy, and especially loved the fresh fruit on top!

After spending the night at Denise's house, we met up with my mom and sisters at the Newport Temple to do a session.  It is getting to be a kind of tradition that we go to the temple on our girl's trip, and I love it.  It's so nice being there with family I don't usually get to go with.
After the temple we headed to Pei Wei's for some lunch, and then went to the hotel to check in.  We spent a couple of hours relaxing and visiting and it was fun hanging out and talking.  (One thing girls do well is talk, right?)  Then we headed over to the Fashion Island Mall.  I had never been there before and it was HUGE!  It was fun to see all the fun shops.

It was pretty funny cuz we'd see a fun picture spot, ask some stranger to take a picture of all of us, and then throw 5 camera's in his/her face.  I'm sure they loved us.  (Towards the end, we did mellow out a little and decided to only use 2 or 3 camera's and just get the pics from one another.)  

After window shopping, we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for some dinner, then back to the hotel to sit in the jacuzzi.  

Then on Saturday we headed to one of my most favorite places in the world, the BEACH!!!!  I was so excited and it was a perfect day.  The weather was nice, the waves were good, and I caught the best boogie boarding wave of my life!  I was in heaven.  
The water was so warm.  It was nice to get in and not freeze to death.  I really could have stayed there all day.  After a couple of hours everyone else was ready to go.  I was NOT ready to go, but the majority won and we left.  Since I don't live by the beach anymore, I try and soak it up as much as I can when we go down to CA.  There is just something about laying on the beach with the sound of the waves crashing, and the sun shining, and the breeze blowing.  Someday I hope to live by the beach again!
After the beach we hit this BBQ place my sister said was yummy, and it really was.  It was kind of a hole in the wall, but the food was great!
That night we headed back over to Fashion Island and went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.  We noticed another Pinkberry Yogurt shop and my mom had never been, so we decided to go again.  (I was excited since I loved it so much!)  
The next morning, mom and Lori headed back home, and Tammy, Denise, and I headed back to Denise's house to get there for her kid's primary program at church.  After church I spent the afternoon relaxing, reading my book, and enjoying the time with my sisters.

Monday was more shopping, eating, and then flew home in the afternoon.

It was so much fun hanging with my mom and sisters.  I was so glad Lori was able to come, and hope next time we can get more of our Sister-in-laws there.  Where should we go in 2 years????