dbxcakes

Had a weekend full of birthday celebrations. Had sushi lunch with Natalie on Saturday at Simi. Today we started by celebrating with the Arnold's in Burbank for Gavin's 10th birthday. He had an amazing game truck and pizza party. Then we headed to Valencia for little primo Jacob's 1st Birthday. Scooters Jungle is insanely huge. We had a room of bounce houses to ourselves.  This evening we celebrated Kris's 22nd birthday at C&O Trattoria in Venice.  Good night! 

We went to Portland over Columbus Day weekend to visit our sissy. We had a cute time as expected: we met her boyfriend Andy; ate at Higgins, the French restaurant he works at; hung out with Peppy and Andy's puppy, Polly; hiked; tried to visit the Goonies house; hung out at a brewery; had lots of beer; met the grumpy cat Isis; played pin ball; chased waterfalls; ate donuts; brunched; got rained on at stunning Cannon Beach. It was a packed weekend and Shkrinty drove her sisters around everywhere. Already planning our next trip! 

Just came home from a week in Munich for Ryan's 33rd birthday. He's celebrated the last few years at Oktoberfest in Alpine Village, Torrance. This year, we did the real thing!  It was more than we expected for sure. It was a huge carnival for adults! Compared to the one beer tent that we're used to, there were several large tents, each with a theme and sponsored Bavarian beer. We dressed in dirndls and lederhosen, ate pretzels, pork knuckle, bratwursts, and strudels, rode bumper cars while buzzed, and drank lots of bier (me more than usual). Vi Vadi Hotel was conveniently a few blocks from Oktoberfest. We were also not too far from the city center. We walked around Marienplatz, the main square. Saw a bit of the outdoor market, Viktualienmarkt, mesmerized by the surfers in the river at  Englischer Garten, and had good coffee at Man versus Machine.  We even made time to leave the city a couple days. We visited the oldest working brewery in the world, Weihenstephan. It...

We spent the last weekend of summer at Twin Lakes, Mammoth. We stayed at the campground, built the perfect campfire, ate S'mores, hiked to views of surrounding lakes, saw a large waterfall and canoed on the marshy twin lakes. The weather was beautiful during the day and extremely cold at night. We weren't prepared for the cold, but Nacho loved being able to cuddle. Farewell summer! We may have learned to love you as much as we love fall! 

We finally made it to the Lobsterfest in San Pedro! We've been wanting to go for years. We got there early and had the perfect little time. We shared a 2 lobster meal with French roll, cajun potatoes, and cole slaw for $38! It was so good. And we went back for shrimps! Starting our vacation with one fest before heading out to the big one..

We didn't actually see Calvin Harris or do any twerking this weekend, but we did have a fun, relaxing, spontaneous trip to Vegas. Kris decided not to go to EDC this year and we ended up taking advantage of my parents timeshare that Kris was supposed to use for the weekend. Tamya and Beanface joined us. We had lots of burgers, finally went to Heart Attack Grill which was a fun experience, and did lots of hanging hanging out by the pool. It was pretty much mandatory considering the temperature was above 100 all weekend and reached highs of 113. A Vegas trip was definitely due. We're already thinking about another one! Sicilian white deep dish pizza from Secret Pizza.  Heart Attack Grill. I didn't finish my hamburger and Tamya was a good friend and took the spanking for me. Pool time and floating around on the lazy river. Shake Shack cuz we miss NYC, and it's just that good! Now off to spend the rest of Father's Day with Papa. Bye! ...