Moving On With Molly: #MandNRoadTrip2016

Hey guys, long time to talk... again! I have so many drafts to finish because I cannot seem to finish a post. So many Birthdays have passed, but first things first...

Last weekend I had the best weekend of my life. Nothing can even compare. My sister Nicole & I left Las Vegas for a long weekend and went back home to the S.F.V aka The Valley aka Northridge! We went home to visit and go to the beach of course, but mostly it was a trip for me to go to The Vampire Diaries Convention on Sunday- which was incredible! I mean really the whole weekend was fantastic.. The best trip I have had in a long, long time! Plus my sister was with me which made it so special because she had never come with me before! We both had the best time! Cannot wait to go back as soon as I can.. Maybe a Winter Break Trip? We shall see.

Ryder wasn't happy I was leaving. I missed him just the same if not more!

So... Day one was the drive to the Valley, and I had taken alot of videos and photos on my Snapchat, and I thought I saved them all, but somehow they all deleted! To say I was disappointed would be an understandment. Nicole and I car kareoked the whole way (when she wasn't napping), and we also stopped and got Alien Fresh Beef Jerky in Baker, California. The drive wasn't too terrible- just the normal 118 Freeway traffic when we got into the Valley!

When we finally got into town we settled into the Katz House and then got ready to meet up with our Aunt Josie, Uncle Bob, and cousin Angelee at dinner. The original place we were going to eat dinner at didn't work out, which ended up being for the best. We ended up eating at this amazing super legit Italian restaurant called Matteos. It was sooo beyond delicious, and fancy-pants lol. Nicole, Stefanie, and I didn't understand the majority of the wording on the menu and the waiter asked us if we wanted bottled or tap water and sparkling or not lol! Typical me I got pictures of some of the delicious food, but we were all so in the moment visiting that we all forgot to take family pics together. Face-palm! I had Penne pasta with tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant. I also tried 2 different kinds of Pinot Grigio, and a Rose. I was in Wine Heaven! We also got 3 different kinds of Dessert and passed it around the table. My favorite was the Cheesecake!

After dinner, before we headed back to the Katz House, we stopped by the most amazing Mexican Food place. You seriously cannot get any better food than Titos! Of course I had to stop there and get chips and salsa for me to eat, and some to bring home to Dad! If you have never had their food you are seriously missing out, and should try it asap!

We were up late of course Friday night and since we had gotten up so early to leave for the vacation we were freaking exhausted! So of course we had a super late start to our Saturday, but what is vacation without actually getting to sleep in a little bit.

So after a late start, we made our way towards the beach. We headed towards the local drive-thru Starbucks for some coffee, then we made a quick stop at the Calabassas Barnes & Noble to visit the cuzzo Andy! As short as the visit was, it was so nice to see him! Love you Andy! <3

After the quick visit we headed towards the beach. We went to our go-to beach, Zuma in Malibu! Approaching the beach it was just a beautiful site to see! I am seriously a water baby for life, and living in Vegas tears me up because we don't have a real beach with legit sand and waves and just all around amazingness! When we got to the beach it became apparent that it was definitely not a good day to come. Not because it was super busy or anything, but because it was Super High Tide. Like high tide like I had never seen in my almost 28 years of life! It was completely insane. They had built a huge sand wall to separate the high tide waves from the area where you could set up your towels and stuff! The lifeguards were pretty much standing on top of those mounds the whole time as opposed to being in their towers, and they wouldn't let people swim out that far, or ride waves on anything. We all had to keep our feet planted in the sand. Nicole was super mad because she had wanted to go out and find cool new shells for her Hermit Crabs and they just wouldn't let her! Nicole, Stef, and I still had a great time regardless. We played in the waves as much as we could and kept falling on top of each other when the waves would knock us over like a domino effect! Which in itself was pretty hilarious! It was such a fun afternoon and I am glad I got to spend it with my sister and my beach buddy for life Stef! P.S. Nicole made a new friend at the beach- picture posted below haha!

When we came home from the beach we had dinner with the Katz family- Jennifer came over with her boyfriend and we had Chi-Chis Pizza and the best Minestrone Soup ever! We continued our water hangs with swimming in the pool and having some drinks in the jacuzzi. Somehow we all ended up playing Marco Polo in the pool which was freakin hilarious! We were up til like 4:30a at least!

Sunday came around and it was time to go to The Vampire Diaries Convention aka the BEST DAY EVER!! I was so incredibly excited and nervous and tired all at the same time! Nicole & I got up and got ready to head over to the Con which was being head at the Convention Center part of the Burbank Marriott Hotel. Nicole was feeling like a fairy that day and dressed and did her make-up accordingly and I just tried to look as cute and put together as possible because I was taking photo-ops with Paul Wesley and Christopher Wood at the Convention! When we got there we entered into the Vender Room and I b-lined for the ISF Booth aka The Ian Somerhalder Foundation Booth because I was snap chatting for my followers and fans of the show who wanted to see and because I really wanted to meet the Youth Coordinator Jules Trace (who is seriously the sweetest woman ever). Of course I had to donate to the cause and bought a cute new t-shirt and donated another dollar for a matching sticker haha! At that time I didn't meet Jules because she was in the photo room with Ian, but I later got to see her and we took pics and discussed different new ventures for ISF. After the Panels I also got to meet Ian's brother Bob Somerhalder, who is seriously the nicest guy, and was so gracious enough to take a photo with me.

Once Andrea got to the convention we headed over to the photo-op room to take our duo photo with Christopher Wood and Paul Wesley, and then I took my single pic with Paul- fun fact, I got 2 photos with him because they didn't center the first photo right when they shot it- which was amazing! While Andrea and I were in line waiting for our duo photo we spotted Ian still in the room, so while we didn't get a photo with him, it was still pretty cool to see him up close! After our photo-ops we headed into the panel room and waited to see David Alpay (Professor Shane), Michael Malarkey (Enzo), Christopher Wood (Kai Parker), and of course Paul and Ian (Stefan & Damon Salvatore)!

Chase Coleman and Micah Parker who played Oliver on the Originals and Adrian on TVD respectively, were the MC's and part of the house band for the convention.

After David Alpay had his panel, which included Professor Shane Mad Libs and playing an instrument for the first time in public, Malarkey and Chris came on stage and they were freaking hilarious. They kept cracking each other up and had all of us in the audience in stitches, It got to the point with Chris was beat-boxing and Malarkey was rapping and Chris grabbed a tambourine, which he then dropped and Malarkey preceded to drop the mic. During their panel I got the nerve to get up and ask them a question. I was standing there shaking like a leaf, which I then told everyone in the audience because when I went to ask my question I said "quis" instead of Chris and immediately corrected myself and asked him a "Containment" question, because its a show Chris is currently starring in and I love! It was amazing and awesome to ask him a question, regardless of my screw up! I snapped practically through all of the panels as best as I could, but I also tried to be in the moment because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I was trying to cherish.

Before Ian and Paul came on stage for their panel, Nicole was like please don't scream and I was like don't worry I wont. Well...when Ian and Paul came on stage Andrea and I screamed like 14 year old girls haha! Ian & Paul cracked the audience up as well as answering questions about all things TVD past, present, and future. Meanwhile through the whole thing Nicole looked down and was reading crap on her phone- she could care less about the epicness going on around her haha- thanks for the moral support Nicole! lol! I wish I knew how to get videos to work on here to show you some of the vids I took during the panels, so you guys are just going to have to take my word for it or follow along on my insta and look up #mandnroadtrip2016 to see all the pics and vids from not only the day and con but from the whole vacation!

The day was seriously amazing.. and before we left the convention I had Nicole pick up my photo-op pics and we also went back into the Vender area and shopped more. Nicole ended up with a TVD thermos and I bought a TVD Wine glass and beanie that will get soo much use! The whole day was so incredible and I am so glad that I got it on camera. It was so special to meet Andrea, after weeks and months of communicating back and forth through ig, youtube, twitter, and texting! #tvdfamily

What an experience, one I will never forget!

p.s. tbh I am not sure which pics are mine from the con and which are hers- so if any of these pics are yours Andrea- credit goes to you!

After the convention we headed back to the Katz house once again and had dinner with Jane & David. We ended up watching a super cute movie with David. We got all of our stuff together for the next morning because just like that our vacation was nearing its end.

Monday, we woke up and loaded up the car, stopped for gas and ice for the cooler and got back on the road to Las Vegas. We stopped a couple times. We stopped halfway through the trip back at a place called Peggy Sues Diner for lunch! My entire life we have always stopped there and for as long as I can remember I have ordered the Tweety Bird Chicken Sandwich with Fries. We also stopped back off at Alien Fresh Jerky so Nicole could buy more Jerky for her and boyfriend. And last, but not least, we stopped at Seven Magic Mountains which was in Jean, just outside of Las Vegas. It was these really cool tall colored rocks built buy donated funds. They were really pretty up close!