The boys and I made a very fast trip out to Orange County this weekend to see Laynie and meet the newest member of our family, Sophia. By fast, I mean we left Friday after school, got into OC at 10 PM, spent Saturday and Sunday morning with Laynie and Sophia and then boarded a noon flight headed for home. We packed a lot in our trip and it was SO SO worth it!
First things first—food. We traveled United through Chicago and I kept telling the boys the food court would be up ahead. Only I never saw the food court I knew was there. Of course, I forgot that I usually travel on American or Delta and their terminals offer different options. The boys were happy with their dinners all the same.
We stayed at an airport hotel and after breakfast we headed over to hang out with Laynie and Sophia. (While many hotels offer Belgium waffles on the breakfast bar, these round mini waffles were a new offering for us.)
We had such a nice day! The weather was beautiful, of course but the real joy came in meeting Sophia for the first time over coffee.
First snuggles!
I love their smiles!
Doting cousins!
After a quick trip to Trader Joe’s, we headed off to Fashion Island in Newport Beach for a great lunch at Hopdoddy Burger Bar. Their burgers were made with humanely raised beef and the fries were hand-cut from Kennebec potatoes. In fact, we fought over the truffle fries. After lunch when I popped into Starbucks and Mason discovered this fountain. He couldn’t resist dipping his fingers in the water.
After lunch, we swam at the pool and had more snuggles.
I didn’t want to overwhelm Laynie and Sophia so we made an early exit for 5 PM mass at Our Lady Queen of Angels. It was a lovely first communion mass with a visiting choral group from Danville, California. Though Laynie has seen Kobe there, we were not as lucky.
I promised the kids I would take them to dinner at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Irvine where I used to work. Laynie said she couldn’t picture it but Irvine has changed so much since I went to UCI so I didn’t worry. Walker made an offhanded remark that it would be funny if the Irvine location had closed. It was as if he knew! Thankfully, there was another location in South Coast Plaza. The mass had these amazing floral arrangements. They reminded me of my cousin, Deana, who loves orchids.
So here’s the skinny on Claim Jumper. The style of the restaurant has really changed over the years but many of the signature dishes were still on the menu. I knew the kids would eat well there and that they would enjoy one dessert in particular—a six tiered chocolate cake with chocolate icing and walnuts called The Motherlode.
Yes, this is Walker’s hand for scale and no, I didn’t let them eat the whole piece. We finished up dinner and returned to the hotel to pack. It was hard to bear that we were headed home so soon but happily we were meeting Laynie in the morning for coffee once again.
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