Long weekend in LA

My long weekend in LA was all about spending quality time with family and eating food. Two of my favorite things! Even though it was a short trip, it was nice to get away for a few days to enjoy some warm weather, catch up with my cousin and see how much my cute (and I mean cute!) nephew has grown in last 9 months since I've seen him. Probably the best thing about getting over my fear of flying is that now I don't hesitate when a opportunity to visit comes up. And I'm thinking that going to LA might turn into a yearly thing. 

(pictured above: giveaways + party hats!)

My main reason for going to LA was to celebrate my nephew, Julian's, first birthday. And soon as I got off the plane, my cousin and I went straight to In-N-Out (priorities!) and then we got straight to the party stuff. She had so many cute ideas but just didn't have the time to put everything together. So the two of us + one of her friends were putting together favors, banners, decorations, party hats and goodie bags. It was a lot to do but..

(banner + ballons!)

Totally worth it! Everything came together so nicely and you know me, I love planning things like this and seeing the end result. 

The cake! Plus Julian's smash cake. He wasn't that impressed and then everyone singing happy birthday scared him! Poor baby. But he sure does look cute. 

One of my favorite pictures from the party. Look at that smile! Then one of the many things I got this boy was a Baby Duck's Coffee sippy cup. He doesn't really know how to drink from it yet but he likes to pretend he does. 

Julian smiles at me a lot (which makes my heart melt) but almost every time I try to take a picture, he looks at me like -- uh, what are you doing. I still snapped pictures of him anyway. Then the photo on the right is the view from my aunt's house. The houses, streets and overall vibe is so different from NJ. Whenever we're driving around, I find myself just looking out the window and taking everything in. 

(Soyrizo burrito)

On Sunday, my cousin, her husband, Julian and myself met up with my aunt and uncle for lunch. And we walked to this Taco Spot which was delicious! It was so nice to be able to eat outside in the middle of November. (Can I just say - coming home to 30 degree weather was such a shock to my system after being in California!)

(cheese rolls + last picture I snapped of Julian before going to the airport)

After lunch, we hit up a few more food spots like Porto's Bakery & Cafe and Leelin Bakery. Porto's is famous for its cheese rolls and I'm not ashamed to admit that I brought home 6 of them with me. And ate them all myself. They were that good! Then Leelin's Bakery is a Filipino bakery that's only in California (as far as I know) and every time I go, my family asks me to buy stuff to bring home. If you're ever in LA, go to both of these places! But especially Porto's. 

So that was my trip to California! It was harder to leave this time and I'm missing my cousin and nephew more than ever. But there's another trip already in the works for next year so.. I'll have more LA adventures to share soon enough!