A Special "Thank You" from/to Auntie Eli

Our friend Elizabeth (Benjamin's "Auntie Eli") moved back to San Diego recently. She had been living in The Netherlands on a two year contract with her company. She left when Benjamin was a month old and was able to see him a few times when she returned for work or a short visit. Since she has returned home permanently Auntie Eli has become one of Benjamin's very favorite people. I'm so glad she is home and Benjamin is just happy to be able to see her pretty much whenever he wants!

When Elizabeth was making her move back to San Diego she asked me to help out a little with the purchase of her new home. I was happy to oblige...anything to make it easier for her to be home!! Unfortunately some of the helpful things were quite time consuming and aggravating!! I had to sign all the loan documents, get the bank to accept my Power of Attorney so that I could have the cashier's check for her down payment, and best of all, I had to get the seller to FINALLY get out of the house after it had closed...ugh!!! Lucky for me Elizabeth had a fantastic way to say "Thank You" to me!

My gift from Elizabeth was a night spent at The La Jolla Shores Hotel in La Jolla and a gift card for dinner at The Shores restaurant. The best part of the gift...she offered to babysit Benjamin over night. A night away for Nate and Cindy...a dream!!
Here's a picture of the hotel from the beach. Our room was on the third floor, second room from the right. The room was AWESOME!!! There was champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. We could open the sliding glass door and hear the roar of the ocean..it was unbelievable! We had a nice dinner at the restaurant...we went all out! We had appetizers, wine and dessert with port. Everything was just incredible. Then we went back to the room, slipped on the cozy robes they provide in the room and sat out on the deck all night. In the morning we resumed out seats on the balcony and watched the beach combers. We saw surfers, kayakers, divers and tourists playing in the surf. After breakfast we took a long walk along the beach. It was pure heaven! The best part of the whole thing was that Benjamin had SUCH a good time with his Auntie Eli...although he was very happy to see us when we returned home! So a very special "Thank You" goes out to Auntie Eli for such a special gift from such a special friend!