Currency:
US Dollars

Highlights:
Spending time with the LeiseGANG and special friends on this side of the world, our second wedding.

Our Adventure Summarised:

Day 1 - Arriving in the OC:

What a welcome we received into Orange County (the OC)!! The whole Leisegang family was there to greet us at the airport which included 3 very excited little people! For those of you that don't know, Shaun's brother Ian moved to the OC about a year ago with his wife Sally and 3 kids - Ben and Hannah (twins - aged 6) and Luke (aged 2 - who is also our godson). It is quite ironic that they ended up here as this is exactly where I lived for 3 and a half years (I left in 2005) so it was also great for me to return and see some old faces and show Shaun around (as his trip had been cut short last year when we were in Cali).

Shaun berates me for not including enough facts in my blog so best I describe a bit more of the OC before continuing (and yes Annie - this is the part that you can skip). The OC is comprised of several different areas - most notably awesome little beach towns like Newport and Laguna Beach but also some other lovely areas like Irvine (which is there the Leisegang's live and is the most successfully master-planned community in the States (it is somewhat like being in the Truman show in terms of everything being perfectly laid out and very clean - but it is great to see an area that is not only safe and beautiful but also has so many great schools and other facilities).

Okay enough facts for now... Although we had just seen Ian at our wedding in Sep, Sal and the kids had unfortunately not been able to make it so we hadn't seen them for a while and had lots of catching up to do. The kids insisted that out first dinner that night be at one of their favourite restaurants - Joe's Crab Shack in Newport Beach. I think what they like best about this restaurant are the shark that appears to have crashed into the roof and the waiters performing the carwash song. For us though, the margaritas and food were awesome!

Ben and Hannah made the evening though - I've never felt like such a VIP before as they were just showering us with attention and love. Luke took a while to warm up to us on the trip but by the end of it, we were rewarded with some monster hugs! The kids are all absolutely gorgeous - both inside and out - and it was so wonderful spending so much time with them this trip. You can see in the pics but Hannah has long blonde curly hair and big blue eyes and is such an extrovert - she loves interacting with people and singing and dancing for them - Shaun has already told Ian he is buying a shotgun for him later to ward off all those boys! Ben is the splitting image of Ian and Shaun (but especially Shaun) when they were younger - he comes across as a little shy to begin with but we quickly learnt that this is indeed an act and he is the more dominant leader among the kids. And little Luke just steals everyone's hearts - he has a big mop of curly blonde hair and looks like a walking ad for a surfing magazine. He holds his own among the kids though and when he's not playing with his Disney cars, he's roaring like a tiger - too cute! And as for their parents - Sal and Ian are the most fab brother and sister-in-law anyone could ask for!

When we got back to their place, the kids had another big surprise waiting for us. They had kindly given up their bedroom for us to sleep in while we were staying - but this was not any room - they had transformed it into 'the coolest room ever' by drawing in and colouring in so many pictures for us that they adorned all of the walls!

You can check out our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355329&id=713415257&l=c9216b1aca

Day 2 - Admin Day

Shaun and I caught up on some much-needed admin - shopping etc. but managed to sneak in a quick lunch with Ian and a former work colleague of mine, Rae at the spa close to Ian's work. I got to have the sushi I had been craving for so long!

That evening we cooked up some great fajitas and the 4 of us adults did some much-needed catching up over a few glasses of vino! Sal and Ian also introduced us to their favourite game - Cashflow. For those of you who have read the book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', you will have probably heard about it. Basically you start in the 'rat race' and have to make a series of good investments to get out of it into the big leagues. You can imagine me and my risk-adverse personality - didn't so much make it out the rat race! Ian showed us how it was done leaving his boet and Sal especially looking for revenge!

Day 3 - Thanksgiving

We were so lucky with the timing of our trip in that we ended up being with family over Thanksgiving. As most of you know, this is probably the most important day in the American calendar - a day to spend with family and to reflect and give thanks.

We started off the day with an awesome brunch on Crystal Cove beach - Sal had really gone to town and not only gotten bagels and lots of other goodies but even champagne and orange! Going to the beach with kids is definitely a different type of beach experience - so much fun though! But they had us running around in all sorts of activities - playing in the waves, baseball etc.

That afternoon (after Sal and I had a mad rush roasting veggie and apple pie making session), we headed over to Art and Sheila's place (friends of Ian and Sal's who had taken Ian in for his first Thanksgiving alone last year) - lovely people with such great hearts. Not only had they opened their beautiful home to all of us but also to 2 marines that they had invited for Thanksgiving from Camp Pendleton for whom it was their first Thanksgiving away from home. And what a feast - every veggie you can imagine, lots of turkey and ham and stuffing - followed by an array of desserts (apple pie, pumpkin pie, brownies, ice cream). The kids kept us entertained for most of the day too with the Thanksgiving songs they had learnt at school - 'Albuquerque is a Turkey' being my personal fave.

Our photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355339&id=713415257&l=8a7e17763b

Day 4 - Our 2nd Wedding

I really am so lucky. Not only did I get to meet my soul mate but I got to marry him - twice!! Sal and Ian had had the brilliant idea to give us another wedding as their wedding gift to us so that the kids and Sal could join in the celebration more. We didn't really know what to expect as Sal had planned it all but as per usual, she did a fantastic job.

I had a lovely session of pampering in the morning - hair and nails - divine! And then Hannah and I put on our special dresses together. I had bought a simple white dress in Mexico and Sal had found Hannah the most gorgeous flower girl dress - basically a big tutu of red and gold with a flower head band to complete the look. Let's just say that thank goodness this wasn't my only wedding otherwise Hannah would have completely upstaged me! She looked so cute that so many strangers stopped and asked her if they could take her picture! Sal had also found a beautiful dress for herself and the guys were all looking very dashing in their matching outfits of chino pants and white shirts.

The ceremony was held in the gazebo looking over Laguna Beach - one of my most favourite spots in the whole world!! When I lived there, I had actually always said that it would be such a perfect spot to be married in so it was another wish granted! The gazebo has open sides and stands on top of a cliff - looking over the town of Laguna on one side and beaches and gardens on the other. Actually the whole day was another wish granted in that I had always said I would have loved to have an intimate wedding ceremony also - it was so much fun doing the big wedding thing and having a massive party but our only regret was that we couldn't spend as much time with everyone as we would have liked and in this setting, we really got to spend time with everyone.

My friend Annie kindly agreed to be our photographer for the day and we took a few great family snaps on the beach before the ceremony. Most of my good friends from Cali were able to join us for the day - Annie and Justin (who were also in SA and came down from San Fran), Ben and Julie (whose wedding I went to last year), Kelly (who came down from San Fran), Anika (who came up from San Diego) and Janeen and Lawrence (SA friends from Irvine). It was so wonderful to see them all again and to share in our vow renewal with them and of course our family on this side of the world.

Hannah and Ben led me down the aisle (pathway through the trees) to the gazebo with the new Collective Soul song 'You' playing in the background. Such an incredible sight with everyone waiting for us and the ocean below our feet. Mary-Anne performed the service for us and she had some beautiful words to offer us on love and marriage. We renewed our vows - which were the same personal vows we had shared on 12 September earlier this year. And then we got to kiss and the celebrations began again!! We had to laugh as Hannah stood behind us and listened so intently to every word the minister spoke and when her parents asked her later what her favourite part of the day was, she replied, 'Everything'. Ben, on the other hand, proved to be a typical boy and was much more interested in hanging over the side and watching the surfers and when his parents posed the same question to him later, he replied, 'Playing on the beach before the ceremony'.

We headed up to Las Brisas, the upmarket Mexican restaurant next to the restaurant and arrived just in time for happy hour. We had a few bottles of champagne to accompany the margaritas (which may just have been my downfall later). It was great to catch up with everyone and for Ian and Sal and the kids to get to know my friends. Hannah kept us all enthralled and Uncle Justin was a firm favourite for the kids!

The kids were such troopers and sat with us until past their bed time when Ian and Sa bid us adieu and the rest of us headed into town to find some dancing. Being that it was only 7pm, we weren't sure what an easy task this was going to be - but we got lucky as when we walked into Hennessey's (Irish pub that used to be a local spot for us), there was an awesome band playing. The place was empty which was even better as had the bar and band all to ourselves. We got to request any song we wanted and they ended up playing everything from Collective Soul to Tom Petty! I think they were loving us as much we were loving them as we were feeding them tequila each time we had one and we were very enthusiastically dancing and cheering to each and every one of their songs! Julie, Annie and myself also 'assisted' in the singing and Annie showed off her stuff on the drums. The band also surprised us by playing a special wedding song for just Shaun and me to dance to -'I Want to Grow Old with You' :)
Soooo much fun!!!

Our photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355347&id=713415257&l=cbaddb69d4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355352&id=713415257&l=7705750f90

Day 5 - Newport Beach

There was no time for hangovers on Saturday as Ian and Sal had thought of a great way to show Shaun around Newport Beach - more specifically the peninsula called Balboa where there's a lagoon that runs parallel to the ocean with lots of houses and boats set around it. We hired a boat for the day and cruised around the lagoon. Sal had packed us another superb lunch of wraps and other snacks and we had another great day with the kids all taking turns driving the boat (a little scary with Lukey at the wheel as he just liked to turn it in one direction!). The amount of money in this part of the world never ceases to amaze me - seriously what do all these people do that allow them to have such incredible houses and boats on the water?! We are looking forward to when we return to Cali (hopefully next year) as Ian is planning on getting his sailing license so we can charter a yacht!

After the hard afternoon of boating, we decided it was time for ice cream as a reward and we headed across to the beach where I used to live. It made me very nostalgic to see my old place and old local bar - Cabo Cantina… We ran around with the kids on the beach some more until everyone was thoroughly covered with sand and ready to go home.

That evening Sal cooked us a superb meal of salmon and salad and after the kids had gone to bed, we settled into another game of Cashflow where Sal completely dominated!

Our photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355356&id=713415257&l=bbd6ea261e

That was it for the OC and our next stop would be San Diego!

Lara + Leise