A Beautiful Birthday

This year, my birthday happened to fall on Superbowl Sunday.  I was not very excited about this, and knew that it also meant a drive up to LA - not my favorite (the driving part I mean).  So Dom did his best to make it more enjoyable and he totally came through!  We headed up on Saturday, arriving in the early evening.  The girls stayed with Grandpa Rick, Grandma Glo and the kids, while Dom and I headed out with Richard and Nicole.  First stop - sushi.  It was super yummy and I would have been happy with that alone, but we got back in the car for another surprise.  

Dom knows me so well (I love doing the cheesy, touristy things in LA since I am not from there) so we headed over to Universal Studios City Walk.  At night it is lit up with neon signs, there are musicians playing on the sidewalks, and music videos on a big screen outside.  We walked around a bit, then made our way to Howl At The Moon, a dueling piano bar.  It was such a great night!

In the morning, we were slower to get moving than we planned, but I was determined to go out and enjoy nature.  Since our Superbowl party was in West Covina, we decided to go check out Frank Bonelli Park nearby.

We started by saying hello to all the ducks.  They swam right up in hopes of something to eat, but we hadn't come prepared to feed them.

Such a beautiful park!  It was sunny but not hot, perfect weather to hike and explore.

The girls happily ran down the trail and stopped only to appease my need to take pictures.

Dom took this one of the girls and I.  The dam in the background was closed for construction, so next time we'll have to go to that side of the lake and walk across it.

We walked around the lake to a little pier, then went down under it, and made our way back along the water.

Cattails at one end of the lake.

Audrey posing for me some more as we made our way towards the playground.  The girls had so much fun playing on the playground.  There were some other kids there to play with, and lots of ladders and slides.

On the way back to the car, we stopped for one more picture by the daisies.

Then it was time for the big game.  The girls went to Chuck E Cheese with Mamaloop, while Dom and I went to the party to watch the game.  Our friends brought me a football birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday right after halftime.  The game itself was ugly - Seahawks totally blew out the Broncos, but it was a fun party and great birthday overall.