July was full of family visits. At the beginning of the month, my mother came down with her friend. They were here for her friend’s conference, but mother made time to hang out with us too. We ate a bunch of good food (mainly Lebanese), took a ride along scenic highway 1, and walked the Hollywood walk of fame. It would have been better if it wasn’t 100 degrees outside though. I also got to show her around my work campus. I think it was a bit larger than she expected since she needed a nap afterwards. All in all it was a good time.

Towards the end of the month, Billy and his family came to visit us too. They were able to stay a little longer and were here for vacation. It was so exciting to see them again and see how big Jolie has gotten! Emily was also preparing for university!! It’s crazy how quickly the time goes by. While they were here, we got to do a few things with them including trying a bunch of new styles of food (Korean BBQ/ Dim Sum), check out the spectrum, and more. I’ll talk about some of the larger activities we did with them like Disneyland and the San Diego zoo.

My favorite thing was the San Diego zoo. It was a hot day, but much of the zoo was shaded. And both Jolie and Emily really seemed to enjoy watching the animals and hanging out. Well, Jolie enjoyed the animals that were moving anyway. We didn’t get a chance to see the whole zoo, but we did get to see the main attractions like the pandas, polar bears, monkeys, and big cats. Jolie really seemed to enjoy the tiger!

Another activity we did together was Disneyland! This is the stereotypical thing to do in SoCal, but it was sooooo hot. We couldn’t even make it all day. Overall though, I think they had a good time. Jolie got to meet her favorite Disney princess, Moana and Emily got to ride some of the larger rides. There were also quite a few smaller rides that Jolie was able to ride on with Billy. I think they had a good time. Although, I think Jolie was probably a bit young for Disneyland this time. Hopefully next time, it will be more magical.

Finally, we also did a BBQ with them. We hung out at our apartment complex pool (poor Emily couldn’t stand being in our house with all the pets; I felt awful!). But we did get all of the food to BBQ at the pool and with the hot weather, it really was a nice day for a swim (even if it did melt my cupcake icing). All in all, it was a good trip and I enjoyed hanging out with family. Hopefully we can see each other more frequently in the future.