Dana Point, CA

Dana Point, California at Laguna Cliffs

June 6th - June 10th

Brent and I headed west for another AMAZING trip with Liberty Mutual. This time we were able to leave both kids in Lexington with Nana (MASSIVE Thank You!!!)

We landed in Orange County around 11AM on Wednesday and headed straight to the Chelsea Lately Show. We were issued tickets for 1PM, but we still had to stand in line for several hours.

They do not allow you to bring any cameras or phones into the taping...so the only picture I have is from the parking lot before I locked my camera in the trunk.



 The taping was so much fun! It is truly amazing how they do that show- they do not do any retakes. So what you see on air, is pretty much exactly what you see in person. The guest at that taping was Aubrey Plaza (from the NBC show Parks and Recreation).

One of the ways they pump up the audience and keep the energy up- you're told when to clap and laugh- is to throw these stress balls. Brent caught one!

 As soon as the taping was over we headed towards Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We had big plans to do a lot of sight seeing, however traffic was bad. Like, really bad. We chalked it up to typical LA, until we saw about 50 members of the Secret Service and a helicopter hovering overhead. We did not realize President Obama was in town!

We did get to drive down Rodeo drive and see a couple of touristy places, but not nearly as much as planned. That just means we'll have to go back...



Thursday was the official check in day with Liberty. We enjoyed visiting with everyone and spending the afternoon at the pool. That night we had a nice reception and dinner out on the lawn.

 Friday morning was the Circle of Excellence Award ceremony. Brent was awarded his 'Manager of Excellence' plaque (just a totally non-technical FYI, the trip to Hawaii was awarded on Brent's overall management during 2011 with the biggest focus being on sales. This trip was awarded because of Brent's service team management. Basically, Brent has the most unbelievable team of employees! 3 of his Service Reps were on this trip with us!)

 We spent Friday afternoon at the Spa which was wonderfully relaxing! And then had the big, fancy formal dinner that night.

 Representation from Brent's Zone

How fun is this ice sculpture bar? They were pouring the drinks through it and into the glass!

One of Brent's Service Reps, Tammy, won the highest award that they give at Circle of Excellence. It takes into account all of her years of service. We were so proud to be there to watch her accept the award!

Saturday morning we went on a dolphin/whale expedition. When Brent told me that he'd signed us up for this, I was under the impression we were going to be swimming with them. That would have been really cool. The boat ride was slightly less cool, but we had a really good time with everyone who went and a bunch of us got lunch in the marina after the ride.

 It was really hard to get pictures right as the dolphins were jumping out of the water!

 Most of our pictures turned out like this- you can barely see it, but there is a tiny fin sticking out of the water.

I look totally touristy. Brent failed to give me the memo that said 'bring a jacket' so I had to purchase a sweatshirt.

Sarah and Tavis

Leon and Brent

We spent the rest of the day Saturday shopping and hanging out at the pool. The dinner theme for the night was a street bizarre. They had all different food stations (like street vendors) set up and different activities. They had people painting murals, a spray paint tattoo person, candle making, etc. It was a really cool idea!

Of course we had to get tattoos-



The options weren't quite tacky enough for my taste, so Brent and I opted to get matching ones. 

 The night ended with a little karaoke-

We headed home on Sunday mid-morning. Unfortunately, our plane out of Orange Co had some sort of maintenance issue so we missed our connection in Chicago. Fortunately, they were able to get us onto another airline and get us home around 1AM Monday morning. Our luggage got lost somewhere in the shuffle, but they've returned that to us now too.

We were both SO ready to see the kids (although, that lasted about an hour on Monday before we were ready to be back in Ca!)