Insta Friday: SoCal Edition

It has been a crazy busy week.

Super fast.

Time is flying.

That is one of the perks of taking Monday off.

The four day work week.

The overlooked and underrated perk of the 3 day weekend.

Or in my case, 3.5 day weekend.

Friday I took a half day, to head South to celebrate Margaret's Birthday!

Followed by Saturday through Monday in Orange County for Blog Sugar!

Here are some pre-Sugar, during Sugar, and post Sugar Insta's.

First Row we have: The gorgeous sky at work on Friday Morning, bags are packed and ready to roll, and when I picked up Jessica I discovered they are officially raising nerds - a telescope? Really? Thankfully, nerds run Google, or so I was told by Dave (Jessica's husband) in response to the nerd comment.

Second Row we have: My sister giving Kobi a pep talk. Is your dog low on self-esteem? Are you going out of town and your pooch is getting mopey?  Call Laura - she is a miracle worker. On the road - Highway 5, endless. But actually gorgeous on the drive down. And we may have done a Highway 5 food crawl - that is a Chocolate Dipped Foster's Freeze Oreo Twist.
Otherwise known as diabetes in a cup.
Delicious.

And Third Row we have: The gorgeous southern california sky, the welcome sign for the spanish speaking Pastor's convention taking place at our hotel, and the other gift bag options I found at World Market.
Oh, I know.
Run.
Don't walk.

We met up with the Blog Sugar girls, and had lunch at Cafe Rio - my very first C-Rio experience. And I had the barbacoa. Should have taken a picture of that. And I just googled locations. None up north.
RUDE, Cafe Rio, RUDE.

Any way. Post Rio we hit up Coffee Bean. Which I have only been to twice before. (Yeah I know!) But we only have two locations around here - and they aren't exactly close! I had a Japanese Cherry Iced Tea. LOVED IT.

At the Sugar we had Donut Topped Mocha Cupcakes. Whose brilliant idea was that? Seriously. I think my sister and Ashley both would have had those at their weddings had they known that was an option.

And I loved the very appropriate verse. The Lord IS good. Seriously. {Note: My instafeed was quite donut happy on Sunday night - I'm guessing InstaFriday is gonna need a serious sugar detox over the weekend}

Earlier in the day I had given Julie's little guy a pre-blog sugar snuggle pep talk, and from what I hear he was a rockstar, you're welcome Julie. Sunday night he and I got caught up on our day. We shared our highlights, and well, one of us was WORN. OUT. The good news is, both of us liked to cuddle.

And then it was back to real life, where fall has arrived.
Although, I'm not sure the weather has gotten the memo.
But the grocery store did.
I LOVE all of the funky squash that shows up.
I love the turban squash in the middle.
And I think I need to go get myself a blue pumpkin again this year - they are my fav!

And then I was attacked by a "leaf bug" - which is what I so unaffectionately named this ugly creature that Coworker Cary discovered on me. She once discovered a "spider bee" on me. Both experiences were quite traumatic. And involved letter openers and staple removers as tactical defense weapons.
My staple remover has been renamed the Multi-Purpose tool.
I can MacGuyver anything with that sucker.

And lastly, my dad makes my mom her lunch everyday. Well, two lunches since she works twelves. This is the start: Diet Coke, Diet Snapple, Pink Snowballs, and Cranberry Sauce.
Yeah, weird, I know.
Right after I took this picture she made herself a snackbowl: Grapes, Pretzels, and Cheetos.
Yep.

Linking up with my {new} real life friend Jeannett - as always!!!

Also, do you love linky parties?
Starting in October - my friend Jessica is hosting the
PinterTest Kitchen!
Click on the button and head on over and check it out,
and be sure to link up next Thursday!