How to impress Jenny

My good friend Jenny called me on Sunday to say that they were planning a last minute trip to southern Cal and would be at my house on Tues and Wed. I was so excited to see her and her family I couldn't wait. Then I hung up the phone and reality set in. Jenny is my OCD cleaning friend that wipes out her refrigerator EVERY morning (I think I wiped ours out a few months ago). I started to stress. There is no way that I could get our house up to her standards in two days... so I decided not to even try. She lived next door to me for three years and knows that cleaning is not my strength.

Jenny was such a trooper, even though we were up late getting kids to sleep, she woke up early and went riding with Melissa and I at 5:30 am!

So where did I take my great friend (and her 4 clean adorable children) while she was here... probably the dirtiest street in LA, Santee alley.

We bought designer sunglasses ($5 each) and checked out all the purses, clothing and jewelry.

Her little boys were having fun playing ring around the umbrella pole, trash can and taking turns jumping over the sick liquid in the middle of the street. Jenny just kept dispensing antibacterial gel.

Then the unthinkable happened....
Weston announced that he needed to use the bathroom.

"NOOOO" Jenny said really loud as if her detesting would make it not true. It was clear that he couldn't hold it, so we found out that there was a bathroom not far away up some stairs and on the roof.
We had to pay .50 cents each to walk into the bathroom only to find the most pathetic looking and smelling bathroom you could imagine. I said "Oh my gosh, there is not even toilet paper". At this point Jenny was hyperventilating from watching her kids touch every surface possible. Then the Lady that collected our money came in and handed us each a toilet seat cover and a piece of toilet paper that she had personally unrolled and folded for us. So sick.

About 10 stores later, Taylor (Jenny's oldest) said "Oh my gosh, I left the bag with the sunglasses in the bathroom". I watched the other kids as Jenny and Taylor returned to their now favorite hang out in LA. to retrieve the bag.

When we came home, I picked up my girls from school and the kids were all thrilled to play. Jenny and I were exhausted, but made a trip to our local Mexican market to grab some stuff for dinner. Jenny was dancing in the isles to the music in the store and we were cracking up.

As I am typing about what we did when she was here, I am wondering why I took her to every dirty place here, maybe I was subconsciously trying to make my house looks cleaner.

After dinner we roasted marshmallows over sterno in the garage. This is my kids favorite thing to do and Jenny's kids loved it too.


I fell in love with Jenny's youngest Weston. He is so handsome and loves animals. He would carry Opal around upside down and just sit and hug and love her forever.
Did I mention that the 2nd night they were at our house we had a 4.1 earth quake followed by a 1.9? We really know how to bring the best of LA to our visitors.

Jenny- I feel like I need a do over! We should have gone to Balboa Island or Disneyland.