mmm...krispy rice

 the kids and i headed out to the grove last week for some fresh air and some retail therapy.  none of us could even remember the last time we'd been there (although i guess i could probably search for my last blog post about it, huh) and we were kind of excited to see what was new and different.

we grabbed a snack at wetzel's pretzels, something none of us had had in a really long time.  and it was so good...because carbs are our friend.  i didn't even get a picture because we totally hoovered those things up in no time.

the nike store was our first real stop, where the girls picked out some new kicks.  because who doesn't love new shoes?  and then we browsed through a few other stores before we decided that the pretzel had only served as an appetizer, leaving us even hungrier.  when we'd pulled into the parking structure we passed umami burger with a sign outside that said that they were also serving up other deliciousness, like nashville hot chicken sandwiches and something else that had caught our attention - krispy rice sushi.  we all know the bean lives for sushi, and even the old lady was interested in some of the things on their menu and so that's where we headed.

with the new health guidelines, we were actually able to sit inside.  normally we would have still chosen outdoor seating, but it was a little chilly that evening and the dining room was practically empty.  and so we sat at a booth, marveling at how weird it was to be sitting inside an actual restaurant after a year of take-out, delivery and outdoor dining.

look how cute their soy sauce packets are:

and the little characters continued on other items, too.

our sushi was brought to us in to-go boxes.  kind of wasteful, but i guess that's just how things are going these days, dine-in or not.

everything was delicious, by the way.  even my weak ass chowed down on the spicy tuna krispy rice sushi - partly because i really wanted to try it since it's obviously their specialty and also because it really wasn't very spicy.  i also really enjoyed the salmon/yuzu krispy rice sushi, and everyone had seconds of the baked crab hand rolls because they were that good.

after we'd stuffed ourselves silly with sushi, we headed back into the grove where we stumbled across the new store owned by drake - october's very own.  i really don't know much about it, but the old lady and her special friend had wanted to check it out so they were happy to check it off the list.  with sweatpants hovering around $250 and fairly plain tees priced at $50ish, we walked out emptyhanded.

on our way out, i got them to stop for a quick selfie with minimal moaning and groaning.

we stopped here to grab some ice cream that the old lady promised would be worth the drive (spoiler alert:  it was).

and back at home, the bean was stoked to open a gigantic box sent from her grandma that contained a full set of brand-new BTS plushies.

i'd say it was a pretty good saturday indeed.

starstruck over the jonas...again

so on saturday after that girl scout sleepover, we dropped the old lady off at work for an abbreviated shift and then headed home to get showered and cleaned up.  a couple of hours later, we drove back over to pick her up and head out to the west side for an adventure.

i should backtrack a bit first.  so the old lady had seen nick jonas post something interesting on his instagram account a few days earlier.  he'd been working on a collaboration with a line of unisex shoes, and the official release was going to be at nordstrom at the grove out in l.a. she called the store to find out the details and learned that those who pre-bought a pair would be given a wristband and a spot in line to meet nick and have him sign the shoes.  and the stars just happened to align in such a way that had her available that evening to head out there with her special friend.  they could grab the shoes, have a nice dinner, enjoy a rare weeknight out together.  done and done.

before we got on the road, we decided to indulge in a little treat:

the molten chocolate latte was really good, by the way.  gotta love those special limited edition starbucks flavors.

it was a pretty easy drive to the grove, but the moment we pulled into the parking structure we knew we were in for it.  a quick glance at the sign at the entrance told us that there were a shitton of people in there, with just a few spots showing available on each floor.  the top floor seemed to be our best bet, with over a hundred spaces open, so we made our way up there only to find that the top level is for employees only.  WOMP WOMP.  and so we circled back around and down to one of the lower levels and found ourselves sitting here for longer than we'd ever imagined possible.

it was incredibly frustrating, and we started talking each other through it, bracing ourselves for the very strong possibility that we would just return the shoes and completely miss the meet & greet.  it was already 1:45, and the event was supposed to go from 2:00-4:00.  crap.

after circling several times, we finally scored a pretty decent spot that was just a few feet away from the elevators.  and so we grabbed the bag of shoes from the trunk, woke up the napping bean in the back seat, and made our way towards nordstrom.  being a saturday on the weekend before valentine's day, the grove was extra crowded.  and when we finally got to the store, there was a nice long line that snaked from about the middle of the store all the way out to the door.  we checked in with an employee, who checked our receipt to verify that the shoes had been pre-purchased and then handed us tickets and directed us outside.

while that line didn't look too bad when it stopped at the door, it turned out that it was just chopped off to avoid blocking the entrance to the store.  the rest of the line actually snaked around the building, and we found the end of it here:

we'd overheard people saying that he was going to stay for the first two hundred people in line, and a glance at our tickets told me that the parking snafu hadn't hurt us after all.

the bean was pretty excited to get to meet nick again.  we'd told her that she's met him before, but she was only 3 back then and didn't remember it at all.  she spent most of the time we waited in line sitting here:

we sent the bean into the store once to check things out around 2:30, and she took this to show us that he hadn't gotten there yet.

time moves pretty slowly when you're in line, and especially when what you're waiting for doesn't actually arrive until an hour into the scheduled event time.  yup, that nick didn't get there till about 3, which was really rather excruciating.  but once he was there, the line finally started moving...about 10 people at a time.  and when we got near the door, we caught a glimpse of the growing standby line of folks who were hoping to get in on the nick action after the ticketholders got through.

yay, finally inside the store!

these are a few of the shoes designed by nick, as well as other shoes by creative recreation, the line he collaborated with.

behind the dj was a promo video highlighting the entire collection, plus random shots of nick.

look, there he is!

we'd already been told that once we got to the front of the line, we would hand our belongings over to an employee who would hold them while we had our brief shining moment with the man of the hour. the bean was bummed to hear this, because she wanted to show nick the picture we'd taken way back in 2011, when we randomly met him in texas, and the picture was on my phone.  WOMP WOMP.

when it was our turn, she was holding the shoe that he would sign.  she was a little tongue-tied as she smiled nervously at him, and so i said "hi, nick!  she's a little bummed because she wanted to show you a picture she got to take with you when she was about 3."  he smiled back at her, signed the shoe and said "oh really?  how old are you now?"  and my little starstruck child just gazed at him with wide eyes as she finally stammered out "i...i'm nine."  and he said "oh, that's cool!" and then we took our picture.  i thanked him and told him it was nice to see him again, and he said "thanks for coming out!" and then i glanced back to watch the old lady as she floated up to him on a cloud.  heh.  i didn't get to take any pictures of her as my phone was buried in my purse that was handed to me, but it was fun to watch her beam at him as they spoke for a few seconds.

here's the signed shoe!  we had him sign it inside because we figured the ink might wear off of the leather on the outside.

and then we found ourselves in another incredibly long line to get our photo.  rather than emailing us a link to a website to get it, we had to wait to have it printed out for us.  ugh.

at least we got to check out some shoes as we waited.  like these beauties by gucci...spice girls, anyone?

and these super fun, super sparkly boots by j-lo.

the bean decided to go have a seat and made a friend.

not long after that, the clock struck 4 and we caught a glimpse of nick as he was whisked away.  he'd only been there for an hour, and i wondered if everyone in line had gotten their shot at their meet & greet.  that standby line for sure didn't get any nick love.  that kind of sucked...i'm sure people had waited for a long time, so hopefully everyone who had a ticket got through.  since it was grammy weekend, he had to have quite a packed schedule, and all of the people standing around had to be a major disruption for the store.

after we'd been in line for about half an hour without much movement, staffers started coming by with printed photos to try and locate their owners.  the old lady overheard one of them mutter "next time we do this, we need to just do digital photos."  well, duh.  most people don't even want a printed photo anyway...just something they can share on social media!  and a few minutes later, they started handing out little slips of paper with a website to download the photos from.  along with what was probably the entire line of people, we hopped onto our phones to make sure we could find our picture before we left.  all that activity slowed down everyone's connection, and we actually got handed our printed photo before we found them online.  in any case, here's our money shot(s):

and here's the photos from the last time.  everyone looks so different now:

i'm not gonna lie...totally worth the wait.  heh.

this was our next stop (of course, with another line to stand in):

just the sight of the green exterior and gold lettering brought back all sorts of great memories from our trip to europe...almost four years ago.  they have a cafe for afternoon tea and treats - part of it is outside:

there's also a seating area inside, upstairs above the macaron and pastries counter.

it's all so pretty in there, although much smaller than the ones we got to visit in europe.

you want a fun box designed by jimmy choo for laduree?  only $85, and you get 15 whole macarons inside!

we went for the pink box, of course, and each chose two flavors.  the bean went with salted caramel and chocolate, the old lady chose the jimmy choo flavor (champagne with berries) and coffee, and i took a salted caramel for myself and picked a lemon one for the hub.

after all that waiting around, i took the bean to the american girl to pick up something for her doll.

the fountain was doing its thing as we headed back towards the parking structure:

and then we made one last stop before we left.

pretty successful day at the grove, i'd say.  and it'd been a while since we'd gone on an adventure like this.  so thanks, nick jonas.  i'm sure it was great seeing us again too.

my little nike athlete

twitter came through for me again a few weeks ago when i came across something that sounded super fun:

i'm always looking for opportunities for the bean to try her hand at various activities and sports, and this was a free event that i thought she might like.  so i booked a spot for her and then we headed out to the grove one early saturday morning to check it out.  we arrived about 20 minutes early and found that the nike store was already bustling with activity.

while we waited to check in, i got her to pose for me.  as much as i thought she would enjoy this, she was actually pretty damn grumpy to have been dragged out so early while still on summer vacation.

she got a free t-shirt and a wristband (which she actually despises because she hates having stickers on her skin, and people always manage to get a piece of it stuck on her), and then she got to put on a really cool pair of nikes that i would've loved to snag for her if not for the $150 price tag.

all the kids gathered near the stage as a nike staffer welcomed them and gave them the lowdown on what they'd be doing during the hour-long event.  they were going to break up into several groups and take turns going through a few different stations where they'd focus on basic skills in soccer, basketball, and running.

then they introduced the cast of "the kicks," a new tv show on amazon about a girl who moves across the country and has to adjust to a new school and try to make it onto their soccer team.  the cast was going to be playing right alongside the kids.

they ran a couple of laps to warm up, and i avoided the bean's gaze as she totally shot me the stink eye.  running is not her favorite thing.

the first station was a relay race where they took turns running, skipping, and running backwards.

then she moved on to the speed zone, where she was timed as she sprinted for what looked like 100 meters or so.

and then on her second try she got to jump over the hurdles.

soccer drills were next:

here, she got to see how high up she could jump.  the answer:  not very.  heh.

last but not least, she got to run through a few basketball drills before sinking a basket on her very first try.

the very last thing was a big ol' group pic.  i couldn't find her for the longest time, but when i did...well:

i'm still laughing at that, by the way.  she was so grumpy, but grudgingly admitted later that she'd actually had fun going through the various stations.  i KNEW IT.

when it was all over, they all lined up for some grub - nike-shaped waffles with all sorts of tasty toppings.

she also received a $10 amazon gift card, but had to give back the shoes.  heh.  that's okay, though.  she was totally happy with her waffles and i was a fan of her free t-shirt.

everybody wins!