Saturday: We had a nice morning together as a family. We spent the morning enjoying being together while packing, cleaning, etc. Around 11am we took the kids over to the Williams house. They are kind of surrogate grandparents to Lillian and Wilson. The kids were very excited when we arrived. Daniel and I sat and visited with JC and Dianne for awhile over a cup of coffee and some pastries. Around 11:30 we decide we would head north (in hopes of getting on an earlier flight). We prayed together and sad goodbye to the kids, at which time I was trying very hard to hold back my tears. I didn't want Lillian or Wilson to see me sad prior to our departure. After lots of hugs and kisses, byes and we love yous, Daniel and I hopped in the car, at that point my tears fell. I dried them up quickly but they were definitely present. Daniel and I had a wonderful drive to the airport. During our drive we both had moments of pointing out the trains to each other and other random landmarks on the outside of the vehicle only to remember that we didn't have any small children in the car with us. We both giggled.
Once we arrived at the airport we enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll to security. When we got to our gate we saw that our plane was delayed by 25 minutes so we jumped on the earlier flight at the last minute. I enjoyed a TCBY yogurt all to myself as my lunch while on the plane. I read the entire plane ride! It was so nice. I have not been able to do that since having kids and I forgot how nice it was to just open my book and read. I still read a lot but it is usually in the evening when I am fighting my eyes to stay open for one more paragraph before I give in a go to sleep.
We got to LA-picked up our rental car (white Dodge Journey) and went and checked in at our hotel. It was a Courtyard by Marriot in Century City. We then returned to the airport to pick up our luggage that was on our original flight and then head to Santa Monica to find some food. Daniel's boss has a brother who lives in Santa Monica so he told us to go to Montana Avenue. That all of the locals headed there to eat. We found a darling little cafe with white twinkly lights called Cafe Montana. We enjoyed our Chicken Marsala and quiet conversation. It was even a treat to be eating dinner after 7pm because most of the time we are home putting kids in bed around this time.
After our quaint dinner we drove over to Hollywood and met the rest of the Gungor band at the house they were staying at. We visited and discussed what the next day would entail.
Sunday:
We woke up early and headed to Angelus Temple in downtown LA. This is the church that is connected with the LA Dream Center (www.dreamcenter.org). The Sunday service was featuring several different people that were up Grammy Awards. It was a wonderful morning and lots of great music. Daniel was thrilled to spend some time with Kirk Whalum. He is a Grammy winning saxophonist who ran the Sunday service.
Kurk Whalum and Lalah Hathaway
Sinbad introducing Isreal Houghton
After church it was time to hurry up and get dressed for the Grammy Awards. Daniel and I had driven our car so he raced out and grabbed our clothes and we changed in a back room at the church.
Michael Gungor getting his finishing touches
My hot date
All dressed and ready to go
You can not see my shoes in any of the pics...so here is a picture! Thank you Something New Boutique! I love my new shoes!
My clutch...thanks to my BOBBFF Kristin Sharpe!
We had a VIP parking pass so Daniel and I jumped into our rental car and headed to the Staples Center.
We were not allowed to take cameras into the events so we left ours at home. We had to make do with our cell phones (both of which had very low battery power left). When arriving at the show we were greeted with food.
Our tickets, parking pass, program
Greeted with lots of food and drinks
We sat and enjoyed the Pre-telecast show-which opened with a song played by Esperanza Spalding (who later won best new artist) and Bobby McFerrin. The drummer from The Roots also sat down right in front of us. Daniel had fun with that. Gungor did not received any Grammy awards that night and we were all a bit disappointed.
Here is the link to the opening act
www.youtube.com
What better to do when you are bummed than to go eat??! That is what we did...we walked and ate and a little place across from the Staples Center with the rest of the band-until we headed back for the prime time show.
Now I have no more pictures from the night. We enjoyed the chance to be at The Grammy Awards but we were both really tired by this point. We had a blast but we both agreed that it would be a lot more fun if we could sit where John Mayer and Keith Urban get to sit. :) We are sooo glad we went and had a great time but if we are going to go again (and pay) we want to be up close! :) As far as seeing anyone "famous" that didn't really happen. All of the celebrities get sent in through separate entrances and have their own bathrooms. They really do not have to mix and mingle with us common folk at all! As Daniel and I returned to our car we laughed because the red carpet was set up right by where we parked-had we stayed at our car we probably would have seen a ton of people!
Monday:
Daniel and I started our day by driving to Santa Monica Beach and eating at a cute little breakfast joint right off the beach. We then took a nice walk along the beach.
After that we hit up the Santa Monica Goodwill and I scored a darling purse.
We headed back to our hotel and took a nap...I never take naps and this was such a treat! We then hit up a sushi joint (with pink rice for Valentine's Day)
We also enjoyed a leisurely walk on Rodeo Drive.
We then found a theater and watched the movie The King's Speech. We both really enjoyed doing that.
Here is a picture right outside the theater. It was in a very nice outdoor mall area.
Lastly we met up with one of Daniel's dad's friends at a little restaurant in Beverly Hills. Daniel and I laughed because we felt like we were living an alternate life...here we are in the 90210 zip code enjoying a trio play that Michael Buble just produced their album. Daniel's dads friend was eating with Mrs. Mancini-the widow of the late, great, Henry Mancini-who has won the most Grammy awards of all-time at 20 total, Henry's daughter and son-in-law, as well as Phil Ramone who has won 15 Grammy awards himself. When we sat down to eat we saw that the minimum bill for that night was $90. Thankfully our waitress allowed us to eat just dessert (we later found out that Daniel's dad's friend purchased our food) Thanks so much Mitchell Moore!
Here is the website to the little lounge we hung out at: www.nicsbeverlyhills.com
Tuesday:
We slept in a bit and then walked around an outdoor mall and had breakfast. We came back and packed up and slowly worked our way to the airport. Our flight home was relaxing and peaceful. It was so great to see our kids and give them hugs. They did so great without us! We are so thankful to have wonderful family and friends who helped us out soooo much! We love you!
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