Our very first visitors!

I think we're all going through withdrawals right now (including Tuscan)...the fun is over. My parents came in town for almost a week and treated us to a great time. We ate like food was going out of style, enjoyed the beach, toured the harbor, and experienced the Pageant of the Masters. Finnley was in heaven constantly calling for "Ma Ma" or "Pa Pa" who played with her and spoiled her rotten.

Finnley loved playing on the beach. Grandma would build up mounds of sand and ultimately Finnley would destroy them and they'd start all over again. They put seaweed headbands in, and when it was Finn's nap time, my mom walked her to sleep on the beach.

My parents even treated Mitch and me to a little date night. Amber Garrett was so sweet and willing to watch Finnley while us and my parents ate out and then went to the Pageant of the Masters. If you don't know what that is, it is this amazing show where they use live people to recreate famous works of art, but the catch is you can't even tell! It is amazing and too hard to describe. You'll just have to see it for yourself sometime.

We all met up with Mitch after class one afternoon to tour the USC campus and the dental school. It was so fun to see where he will be spending all his time and to meet a few of his classmates. He showed us his desk in the Sim Lab - which is even equipped with the typical dental light and air-thingy! Finnley loved that!USC has a pretty impressive Sports Hall of Fame. We checked it out and saw all of their Heisman Trophies including Matt Leinart's, Reggy Bush's (above) and O.J. Simpson's. They also had the National Championship trophy on display.

Finnley loves those carousels, so grandpa had to take her...twice!

She took a liking to this little bike in the Toy Boat store. She would walk it around everywhere, hop off grab a different toy, and then hop back on. Who can resist that? It is now Finnley's and that night she pretty much rode it all around Fashion Island.

I think the highlight of my parents visit was our trip in the "Crappy Old Dingy" we rented in Balboa. We've always wanted to rent an electric boat and tour the harbor looking at the beautiful homes and yahts. Well, they were all out of the nice electric boats and only had one small motor boat left. "We'll take it!" So what if it wasn't as nice as those other boats we were looking at- so what if it didn't go over 5 mph- so what if we had to be careful not to swamp it (even in wake less areas) - it was a blast!

Finnley loved it too. She just walked from the front to the back (occasionally stopping at grandma's purse to dig up a new treasure to play with). Oh, and Dad...you made that boat look good!

The night before we rented the boat, there was a story on the evening news about a boat that had been sunk by invading sea lions. So, when we spotted these guys lounging on teh back of a pretty nice yaht, we had to go in for a closer look. Four of these smelly, blubbery mammals were on the back of this boat with a fifth just waiting for an opportunity to hop up. There was fish guts and blood on the swim deck...yuck! You have to admit though...they have pretty cute faces. Finnley thought they were great and couldn't get enough.

Mom and Dad...thanks for the fun week. Now back to grilled chicken and rice, TV re-runs, and lonely walks. We'll miss ya!