Frat House 4th of July

I decided to branch out this year and try something new for 4th of July. I always have fun at Carol and Brads with the family BBQ and fireworks in the street. This year Shana and I decided to make a trip down to Huntington Beach to stay with Heidi for the weekend. She warned us that we needed to get there at least the night before in order to find a parking spot anywhere near her place which is conveniently located a few blocks from the beach. So neither of us had to work on Friday but due to extraneous circumstances we didn't head down to HB until about 5:00. Yeah the traffic was bad and we didn't really know where we were going and went several exits past where we were supposed to get off, but it didn't take us all that long. I guess everyone had exited LA the night before when we were stuck in traffic for an hour going from Olympic and 14th to Shana's house after playing tennis.

We get to Heidi's house and end up parking a couple of blocks away. As we were carrying our stuff in we were trying to remember what number Heidi lived in. When we passed what turned out to be Heidi's neighbor she said "it's the next one down" like she had been directing traffic there all day. That should have been an omen for the rest of the weekend. Heidi's entryway was strewn with bags, clothing, and other weekend accessories. We decided to grab some dinner before heading to an open mic night on someone's front lawn a couple of blocks away. So we, along with half the city, went to Chronic Taco and got some food. Ryan met up with us there and then we headed to the open mic night. It was an enjoyable time of people watching and listening to the guy behind us shamelessly flirting with Heidi just waiting for him to get her number. Don't worry, he did. Ahh the OC party scene. After we'd had enough of that we headed back to Heidi's place and wanted to go in the hot tub, but sadly it was 86 degrees. Not nearly hot enough and only warming up at a rate of 1-2 degrees an hour. The frat house look was becoming complete by the time we got back there that night. There were air mattresses in the living room, extra blankets and pillows strewn all over the house. We found out the next day that a grand total os 33 people were staying in her house that weekend. Our air mattress barely fit between Heidi's bed and the bathroom door in Heidi's room. But I guess it could have been worse, we could have been sleeping in the bedroom next door with something like 8 people in it. I think that half the state of Arizona and Utah were staying there that night, or at least visiting.

Saturday morning we got up and put our beach stuff on and headed to Main Street for the 4th of July parade. It was a lot of fun and I only managed to get my feet sunburned at this time (not so luck in the latter part of the day). Some guys in Heidi's ward have a house on Main and so all the young single adults in the state of California were watching the parade from their house. It felt like we were part of the parade because there were probably 20 people sitting on the roof of the house and every time a new float/group went by in the parade inevitably one person would start jabbing another person and pointing to the roof. The people in the parade were taking pictures of us! After about 2 hours of parade we decided to hit the beach. We walked down there and layed out for a while. Shana and Ryan decided to go meet up with some other people but Heidi and I just stayed on the beach for about 3.5 hours. I thought that I had put a sufficient amount of sunscreen on, but somehow the top 3-4 inches of the back of my thigh region was insufficiently lathered. By about 3:00 the wind had kicked up and we were all freezing. So we decided to head back up to Heidi's and hit the hot tub. Let me tell you, sunburned legs in a hot tub, not a good mix. After hot tubbing for a while and getting cleaned up we headed out for some dinner before watching the fireworks from the beach. We ended up just getting Jamba Juice because the lines were too long everywhere else. The fireworks were great. Sadly I didn't bring my camera with me because the shutter is stuck open and I didn't want to get sand in it and destroy it permanently. So my blog posts may include fewer pictures from now on, or I just might not post as often. Oops. Heidi had made the mistake of wearing very cute, but incredibly uncomfortable shoes and had a large blister forming on her foot. We were all tired and decided to skip out on the dance party of the century later that evening and just crash in Heidi's room. It was nice and relaxing.

Sunday morning we got up bright and early so I could get back to LA and make enough pasta, potato, and green salad to feed the ward since it was break the fast and very few people had signed up. So I cooked for about 3 hours and then got in the shower 30 minutes before I was supposed to be at church. Somehow I still made it on time and in a dress. Mad skills I tell you. By the time church was over I decided I needed a vacation from my vacation. But it was great weekend. It made me appreciate that I don't live with 7 other girls or have 32 other people staying at my house at any random time or have to keep my bedroom door locked for fear that my belonging will go missing. Heck I don't even think my bedroom door has a lock, never looked.