The Ray's: Girls trip to LA

Since I have been married I have never been on a trip with out Aaron, unless you count going to the cabin a few times. He wasn't too excited that I wanted to go on a trip without him but I really wanted to go have some fun with my friend Cortney and we wanted to go without kids. We decided back in April that we would go this summer. So we picked LA, CA. She had never been to this part of California and when I went last Hayden was 18 months old and there were things we couldn't do with children. One being...going on a tv show. So once Cortey and I set up our hotel and everything we made some plans. We wanted to go on a talk show but since it was the summer time it was limited to what shows we could go see. I like the Chelsea Lately show on E! and watch it every night. So I thought it would be fun to go. We found out a week before that we got tickets. Looking at the time we had to leave our homes at 6am to get there in time but we did it and it was so worth it. We got to LA around noon. We drove to the Chelsea Lately show parking lot to make sure we knew where we were then we drove down the street to just grab lunch. Then we went back to the parking lot to park and walk to her studio down the street. We got there at 2pm and they said we wouldn't get in until 3pm. The weather was fine I just didn't like standing in the sun and of course we were tired from the drive. One cool thing about being outside is we saw Ross Matthews (Ross the intern) from Jay Leno's show drive in her parking lot and as some people yelled at him driving by in his convertible we heard his giggle. It was funny. Before we got to go in we had to deal with her security. I must say they were so rude to everyone. They were super stricked, sometimes it sounded like they were making up rules as they went along, they all seemed like they have never done this before and just talked to us all so rudely. I was pretty shocked this is how they ran things but I figured maybe they get some real jerks who ruins it for everyone else so they have to act this way. But once we were in and walked into her studio it was all worth it then. It was so cool to see her set for real. It was so small and even though we sat in the back we were so close to the stage. Before the show this guy who works the floor, Brody Stevens, was talking to us to get us excited for the show to start and he ran some rules over with us. He was much nicer and he was super funny. He has been on some movies like The Hangover and he was just cracking Cortney and I up. Before the show started the people all come out and Chuy seemed pretty shy and Chelsea seemed so serious not like she looks and act in front of the camera. That night on the show the guest was volleyball pro Gabby Reece. At the Round Table was John Caparulo, Christina Pazsitzky, and Matt Braunger.

The show aired the day after I got back home so I Tivo'd it and took some pictures of my tv so I could remember it.

This is where Cortney and I sat

The round table

Gabby is so tall!

After the show was done we walked back to our car just talking about how fun that was. It was so cool to see how a show is done plus it was such a blast because this show has so many comedians on just making you laugh so hard. I really want to go again!

After the show we drove to our hotel to check in. The Ayres Hotel was so nice and pretty.

Our room

where we had breakfast each morning

1st night we went to the Santa Monica Pier and had dinner on the Pier

Cortney on the Pier

see the moon on the right?

Cortney was so cold she bought a sweater on the pier. I was cold but I was soaking it all in because I knew I would be hot once I got home.

Friday we spent the day at Universal Studios. It was Cortney's 1st time going and my 3rd. But there was lots that changed since I went years ago. Even though we didn't have our kids with us we still took pictures with characters so we could show our kids who we saw. It was fun! I really liked the Simpson's ride and of course the tour is always fun to go on.

Our last full day there was Saturday and we just wanted to relax. We wanted to go to the beach. We drove to Manhattan Beach which was only like 2 miles away from our hotel but as we got there all we could see is tons of people and no parking. We wanted something a little more quiet. So we drove to Redondo Beach. As we got to the beach we had to walk over these big rocks (we were taking a short cut) my foot slipped and my leg slid between 2 rocks. This scratch stung for a long time, I think it was because of the salty air.

I sent this picutre to Aaron from my cell and told him a shark bit me. He of course didn't believe me.

I took this picture with my cell to send my kids

Cortney and I layed on the beach for over an hour just enjoying the scenery and the chance to relax. It was nice to lay in the sand, watch the waves and talk. He took a few shots of us before we left the beach.