SISTER STUFF!! I LOVE sister stuff. The weather has been beautiful lately so we decided to spend our Saturday walking around the outdoor mall. After getting some things we needed and letting the kids play on the playground the boys wanted to go through the apple store so Ave and I decided to go into Charming Charlie's and look at all the fun accessories. Emma was fast asleep in the stroller. We were having fun looking at all the cute earrings and necklaces when we walked by the kids section. Avery walked over and started checking out the necklaces. "Ohhhhh!!!" Look Mom how cute these necklaces are!" Avery said excitedly. Picking them up I assumed they had packaged them incorrectly as I saw that there were two necklaces on the one tag. Then I realized what they were. Best friends necklaces. Now I was the one leaning over to Avery talking excitedly. "Avery do you know what these are???" I asked her. "These are best friends necklaces. You keep one and then you give one to your best friend." I then told her about my first best friends necklaces that were shaped like two pieces of a heart and you could put them together and then they said Best Friends. I remember having many different BF items over the years as a little girl. I laughed remembering my best friend mood rings, ahhh mood rings that was an interesting fad. I told Avery she could pick one out and asked her who her best friend was. Claire, Sophia, and Emma she quickly replied. There was a pretty good selection of necklaces but she kept going back to these little hot pink roses with words Best and Friends on small little tags.
Looking them over they were $10 for the pair. Wanting to have her get one but not wanting to spend twenty bucks in friendship necklaces for five year olds I told her she would have to choose one friend to give it to. Her response was so sweet. "Mom if I give it to Claire then Sophia will be sad, and if I give it to Sophia then Claire will be sad." she thought for a minute. "But Emma is my best friend and my best sister, so I will give it to Emma." I looked over at my sleeping toddler wondering if she realized what an amazing big sister she has and handed the necklace to Ave and started towards the counter. We checked out and Avery insisted on carrying the bag. "I can't wait to show Emma our necklaces!!" she said as I reminded her to let Emma sleep for now. As we continued to walk to mall every few minutes Avery would peer into the stroller to do a status check to see if she was awake yet. Finally Emma started to stir and instantly Avery was about an inch from her face talking in her "little mommy" voice that she uses for Em. "Emma guess what? Avery got a surprise for you! I got you a special necklace for us to be matching...." she said holding the necklace at Emma's face. Emma looked at it groggy and barely awake not yet registering any emotion on the subject. Avery hugged her.
"We are best friends Emma" she said as I scooted her back a little so Emma could wake up a bit. When we got home Avery wanted to put them on so I had them both go into the bathroom and stand on the step stairs together so they could see themselves in the mirror. I put them on for them to see and then they spent the next ten minutes giggling and holding them up to the mirror. Avery grabbed her rose and pulled it forward. "Emma hold your flower" she told her "now click it with mine like this" she said as she demonstrated it. "Then we say Best Friends!, okay Emma now you try it, let's do best friends, hold your necklace." Completely obedient Emma held out her rose and Avery clinked them together and happily yelled Best Friends! Emma smiled.
By the end of the night when Avery would call "Emma, let's do Best Friends..." Emma would run and find her holding her rose out and then they would clink, Avery would say the familiar phrase and Emma trying to join in would mumble something close as she could.
I may have been warm and fuzzy all night about these two. Avery is such a good big sister, she seriously loves being a big sister and has always, always been so inclusive of Emma in whatever she does. Emma loves her so much and most of the time will follow whatever Avery tells her to do. I am so grateful for moments like this to watch their little sisterhood develop. It is so precious to me. I love when they are getting ready for the day and decide that they want to wear them, or when I will hear them playing in their room and all of a sudden stop to do their best friend thing. It is pretty sweet.
The next morning we woke up and headed to check out the pier and all the shops along it. Kimbre and Marley this picture is for you and you know why :) :) :)
Got to see a rockin replica of Optimus Prime at the Ripley's Believe It or Not store..
Went by the wax museum and saw renditions of stars like Clooney and Angelina Jolie. I have to admit wax museums kind of friek me out. 
A sweet bakery that makes these fun animal shaped breads....
a kite shop that the kids would have loved.
A shot of the ROCK for Deke who loves that movie and has always wanted to take the tour there. Babe we will get you there before Brenn and Kaulin graduate I promise. 
Watched the sea lions hanging out for awhile.
I really liked the shopping places they had at the pier lots of neat little stores with all kinds of fun things.
Had my first experience going into an oxygen bar. Loved the lady that put the nice warm heat packs on my shoulders and back but didn't want to try the "flavored oxygen" have had the nose prongs before and it felt weird to me. But I had fun watching the girls try it.
They have a left handed store there. How fun is that. It has all different kinds of tools and things for people that are lefty's. Across the top of the store they had pictures and lists of all the famous left handed people which was cool. Hunter this picture is for me and you :)
a fun sock shop....
another fun store of the day was this spice shop that we spent a good amount of time in. The tuscany blend that I chose for chicken or dipping bread with oil smells AMAZING. It was seriously so hard to narrow down which ones to take home.
After we had once again shopped and relaxed the day away we headed down to find some yummy fish and chips at the fish market. 
As it got dark and the city lit up I couldn't help but think how beautiful it was the lights against the water and how romantic it could be. We headed back to Brenn's place to hang out and veg.
We got to the airport and got out and all four of us hugged. It never ceases to amaze me the power I feel when the four of us are together. I just wanted to stay there hugging them. It is amazing how when I am with them I feel so safe, I can't believe how much I miss each of them at different times for different reasons. When we are together we have so much fun and laugh so hard. Even when we are just hanging out there is so much peace just being together. This trip was really special to me because it really felt like we were all living together again. Loved all the moments of our different dynamics and bonds and that we all just understand each other. I feel so lucky to have them and so grateful for this trip that we had together. Love you sissy's.
