Mark and I had such a great time in San Francisco and I survived my first time away from the kids with flying colors. In fact it was so much fun, that we vowed to do it every year. I mean the flight is only an hour, we love the city and there are so many great places to eat and walk.
Here are my favs from our trip!
Of course staying at the
St. Regis was AMAZING and you get treated impeccably your whole stay. But part of why we stayed there is because we are
Starwood Preferred Guests and we have been involved in their program for years now. We use our Starwood Preferred Guest American Express for any credit card purchases which earns us points towards hotel stays. We also bought a Starwood timeshare years ago, which gave us bonus points from our purchase. So basically our stay at the St. Regis was FREE because we used our points and had earned a free night from previous stays. If you read my blog you know we love staying at the Westin hotels, The W Hotels, and the St. Regis hotels and they are all part of the Starwood network. I highly recommend going this route if you or your husband uses a credit card for work expenses or can earn points by staying at Starwood hotels while traveling for work. We also had free flights we earned from traveling too, so this vacation was almost free!
We found these robots in a candy store in North Beach. We loved them and bought them for "decorations" in Brody's room. But when we got home, Brody was obsessed with them! So he has one as a toy and one for his room. The company that makes them is called
Schylling and they specialize in recreating classic toys. Their toys are pretty rad, especially the tin ones like these robots. But they do say that they are for collectors only, ages 14 years and up. So take that into consideration.
We found a version of these slippers in Chinatown in an upscale store called Asian Images. I love the ones I bought for Piper and imagine my surprise when I saw them in the
Chasing Fireflies catalog after we got home. They are just so delicate and sweet and will be great for dress up as well. I think I will be purchasing another pair as Piper grows.
Our hotel had a great selection of cool magazines in our room and
dwell magazine was one of them. It's a magazine about homes in the modern world and caters to architects and interior designers, but I loved reading it and looking at the houses they have featured. The designs are incredible!
We loved our dinner at
Betelnut Restaurant with friends Dan & Leslie. Apparently it's a hard place to get into and I see why! It's been around for 15+ years and is really cool and had great food. It was packed on a Sunday night. The menu is delicious and at a great price. You should definitely go there, but make reservations first.
After all was said and done, our favorite parts of the trip were just walking all day and getting lost in the city. We walked from one end to the other and enjoyed every blistered step. My feet are still recovering. There is something about visiting a familiar city and ditching the regular tour. For the first time, we toured ourselves and enjoyed every step and cab ride along the way.
Until next year!
No one likes to talk about doing a will or a living trust, but it needs to be done. We finally started our living trust and had our wills done before our trip. I read a statistic that over 40% of parents do not have one. We used Legal Zoom online to create everything we needed and got the paperwork right away. Now the rest is up to us. I highly recommend you start the process if you haven't yet and if you don't have access to do it with someone in person, follow our route and do it online!
We found these robots in a candy store in North Beach. We loved them and bought them for "decorations" in Brody's room. But when we got home, Brody was obsessed with them! So he has one as a toy and one for his room. The company that makes them is called Schylling and they specialize in recreating classic toys. Their toys are pretty rad, especially the tin ones like these robots. But they do say that they are for collectors only, ages 14 years and up. So take that into consideration.
Our hotel had a great selection of cool magazines in our room and dwell magazine was one of them. It's a magazine about homes in the modern world and caters to architects and interior designers, but I loved reading it and looking at the houses they have featured. The designs are incredible! 
We loved our dinner at Betelnut Restaurant with friends Dan & Leslie. Apparently it's a hard place to get into and I see why! It's been around for 15+ years and is really cool and had great food. It was packed on a Sunday night. The menu is delicious and at a great price. You should definitely go there, but make reservations first.
If you would like to be a part of our inner circle at Concerts in the Park, you must purchase one of these Table in a Bags from Crate and Barrel. When you are at the mentioned Concert in the Park, if you look around you will see that all of Ladera Ranch has purchased the entire stock of them over the years. It's super portable, we set up all our food on it and it's just plain cute! If you don't have one you can be a "guest" for the night, but if you want to keep coming back for more I suggest you hit up the local C&B (I'm kidding of course). Thank you to Lauren & Leslie for always keeping our tables stocked with yummy goodies for the whole night.
I know I've posted this before, but I am once again reminded during the summer months that InStyle magazine is my bible of fashion, beauty and decorating. I can't tell you how much I love it and even more sitting by the pool or on a hot summer night. My FAV!
My Oil of Olay Complete all day moisturizer with spf 15. I love it because no matter what I am protected from the sun, but it's also light and non-greasy. Perfect for all day in the summer.
This dress is from Gap Maternity. It doesn't look that great in the picture but I am in love with it. Even though it's maternity, I would buy it not being pregnant! It's soft and so comfortable, plus I wear it strapless (the straps come off) and it's long and flowy on me. Perfect for summer nights!
Sometimes you forget the simplest things. Seriously making smores is something you can do on the stovetop at home or even in 100 degree heat near a fire. It's a simple dessert that makes kids and adults happy. We have been rediscovering them lately and they never get old! Make them for your kids one night!
In passing, my friend Corey mentioned how much she loves her new Sonicare toothbrush and how it was better than a teeth cleaning at her dentist. So I used my birthday gift cards from Target to get me one and I really like it! It looks like I got my teeth whitened when I use it. I laugh because the vibrating shoots toothpaste everywhere (I forget that you need to keep it in your mouth and then turn it off). It's a great fav!
I just did this shower invite for a good friend. It's one of my all time favorites. If you haven't been to my Creative Nest Designs Blog recently please visit it here to see what I have been up to!
