We started our adventures by hitting the beach. I made an executive decision and chose Newport Beach (we beach-hop...love trying out new beaches...but this is becoming a favorite). We found a free parking spot (love going to the beach during the week!) and were soon all set up for a fun day.
We played some ladder ball. It's hard to say who the reigning champ is...since we didn't all play each other...but I was never beaten that day. Just thought that little detail was important to remember. Ha!
We discovered that Zeb loves to be buried...
...as does Abigail! What crazy kids. Although, I guess I should have seen this coming since they love to dig so much. Some might say that the water was cold that day...but it really wasn't so bad once you couldn't feel your feet anymore. Gregg, Erick, and I had some fun with the boogie boards for a bit before having to get back on the warm sand to thaw. All in all it was a great day at the beach!
Tuesday we sent the older kids (Gregg, Rachel, and Erick) to Disneyland, thanks to some passes we got from Bryan's cousin. They were so excited that they got there before the park even opened! They went on every ride they wanted (hooray for fast passes!) and several more than once. Gpa, Gma, Zeb, Abby, and I had a nice day staying around the house. We played games, played a bit of Wii (Zeb rocked Gpa at sword fighting!), and went to a park. Another great day!
Wednesday we chose to spend in Los Angeles. The morning was a bit gloomy, so we weren't sure how many activities we would want to do, but we pushed on. We started our city adventure with a stop at Little Tokyo.
We arrived just in time to do lunch and a bit of shopping. We wandered around looking for a restaurant serving kostudon (4 out of 6 ordering wanted kostudon...) and finally settled on one that we saw at the beginning of our trek. The food was delicious!
Zeb found some samurai swords outside of a boutique where Gregg and Gpa stopped to speak some Japanese with the owner. He had the time of his life pulling out all the swords and exclaiming things such as, "Mom! This is the biggest sword I ever saw!" and "Mom! This is the smallest sword I've ever seen in my life!". He gets the flair for drama from his daddy...honest.
After Little Tokyo, we headed to Hollywood to meet up with Jordan, Ashley (my cousin), and Kimball.
First stop was Grauman's Chinese Theater. Amazingly, this is the best picture I have of the cool scene. Guess that's what happens when everyone else is too interested in the surroundings to be watching my children for me. Honestly (said with a smirk).
Just across Hollywood Boulevard was the world premiere for the new movie The Avengers. Kind of cool to see it all set up. We didn't see any stars (I guess they were all watching the movie at the time) but we did see a bunch of people dressed up like stars. Some of the costumes weren't too bad...while others were pretty hilarious. Gotta love Hollywood. Then we started down the Walk of Fame. Too bad I don't recognize most of the names on the sidewalk.
We walked past the famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum...paused for a bit...and just kept walking.
We were still walking when all of a sudden, Zeb stops and yells, "Look! It's Ripster!!". Ripster is a Street Shark (one of Zeb's recent favorite shows - from the days when Erick was a wee lad). We just had to pause for a photo with Zeb's most favorite shark.
Next up was the entrance to the Guinness World Records museum. (We didn't actually go into any of the museums that day.) Erick used to think he was getting pretty tall...
Zeb loved spinning the globe (he reminded me that it's just like the one at Disneyland...who knew this kid had such a great memory!?) and seeing the robots.
Another museum entryway...that was so cool!
The crew posing with Bumblebee...the real one, believe it or not!
This motorcycle is very special...combining two of our family's favorite things...
This picture is made up of the script for the movie "The Godfather". The man who did this is left-handed and wrote it upside-down so he wouldn't smear any of the writing.
Finally...the Hollywood sign. We had originally planned to do the hike up to the sign, but the weather changed our minds. Once we got to L.A. and made the entire afternoon without rain we almost regretted that decision. To make up for it we drove as close as we could - without a map or directions...so we basically just guessed which streets to turn on - and got some pictures. Rachel's doing her 'happy dance' to show her excitement. After all that adventure we were ready to head home for dinner. One problem. It was 5:00 and we were in Los Angeles. Dreading the traffic we started out anyway...only to be surprised with no traffic on the way home! It was like living in a dream world. No traffic. In Los Angeles. At 5:00 in the evening. I still don't believe it.
Sad to say the family had to leave the next morning to get everyone home in time for work and school to start again. We sure had fun having adventures!
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