Vacay- Day 2

We woke up around 6:00 AM Sunday morning, which was Father's Day!  We gave Stephen his little card and gift, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Laguna Beach.  It was only about a 15 minute drive from the hotel, which was a nice reprieve from the day before.  We left steamy, humid Atlanta and woke up to 63 degrees in LA!  It was very chilly, so we didn't wear our bathing suits to go to the beach, like we had planned to.

Honey, I shrunk the kids!

The ocean!

We first stopped at a park called Crystal Cove State Park, which had some hiking trails that we ventured on.  You hike on dirt trails up with nothing but mountain views, until you get to a certain height where you can have a great view of the Pacific Ocean!  That was about as high as we made it, with Taylor, the "hike hater", starting to gripe and moan and complain.  We turned around, tried to avoid any rattlesnakes (we didn't see any, but we saw warning signs every quarter of a mile!) and drove to another part of the same park, which was across the street by the ocean.

Here, we could walk down to the beach and see the ocean.  The beaches are gorgeous, yet so different from east coast beaches.  They don't have as much of a "chill on the beach all day" feel, as there isn't as much free sand to hang out on and there are lots of rocks on the beach.  The waves were pretty strong and we got to see some brave souls surfing in the distance.

See that house?  We zillowed it and it was something like $64 million.  We were so tempted. ;P

After the beach, we headed to a cool park called Bluebird Park.  They had different types of playground equipment, and the kids enjoyed it for about half an hour.  Then we went and grabbed some lunch before heading to the actual town of Laguna Beach.

By this point, the temperature had warmed up to the mid-70s, and Main Beach in Laguna Beach was hopping.  There were several volleyball courts, basketball courts, lots of sandy beaches, and tons of people.  Still not as much sand space as most Florida beaches have, but people were all crammed in there, claiming any space they could... and they didn't seem to mind.

We walked around downtown Laguna Beach, shopped a little, hit up a candy store, went down to the beach to people watch.  You really saw all sorts of people- tourists, locals, people in bathing suits, people dressed up, old, young, skateboarders, dogs galore, etc.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel and hung out there the rest of the evening.

Super foosball!

Vacay- Day 1

The kiddos and I tagged along on a business trip to LA with Stephen in mid-June!  He extended his work trip by a few days so we could all do some fun things as a family.  We left Saturday morning and got back Wednesday night.

Saturday morning, we woke up suuuuuper early- at 4:10 AM- to head to the airport.  It was funny, because there were still some youngsters hanging out by the pool at our apartment (from the evening before!) when we were pulling out at 4:45.  Oh, to be young again!  (Actually... nah, I'm good. ;)

We were cutting it a little close getting to our gate after grabbing CFA for breakfast at the airport, but thankfully we made it and had an uneventful flight.  We arrived at LAX, rented our car, and headed for Hollywood!

He got his wings!

We met one of Stephen's friends, Jay, at this place called the Magic Castle right in the middle of Hollywood.  Jay had taken Stephen there one time when Stephen was in LA on business, and he enjoyed it.  It's a place where magicians come in and do magic tricks, and there are several different rooms and different performances that go on.  Saturday mornings are "kid friendly" so Jay had told Stephen to bring us all there when we were in town (you have to be a guest of a "member" to even get in).  We enjoyed several different magic shows- the kids even got to participate in them!- and had a great time.  It was definitely something different from the norm.

There was a strict dress code and no pics were allowed inside, so this is all I got!

Afterwards, we hit up Hollywood Boulevard, since it was within walking distance of our valeted rental car.  I think I can sum it up to say that my kids have now seen Hollywood, and they are probably good to go without seeing it again for the rest of their lives! ;). If you haven't been there, Hollywood is full of tourists, characters (who want tips!), street vendors, more tourists, cheap shops, smokers, and more.  We saw some of the stars on the Walk of Fame, ventured to Hollywood and Highlands mall, saw the Hollywood sign from a distance, and happily ventured back to our car.  It was a Saturday afternoon, so that probably didn't help with all the people.

Oh, don't let them fool you... those super heroes wanted $5 for each fist bump.

See the Hollywood sign in the background?

We then made the trek to the hotel, which was in Orange County- about 45 minutes south of LA.  However, the traffic was randomly awful (or maybe it's always awful on Saturdays at 5 PM...) so it took us easily 1.5 hours.  We stopped for dinner, made it to the hotel, got settled and called it an early night!

Dinner.

Scoping out the hotel amenities.

Vacation Bible School

The kids went to the best VBS last week!  There were no tears and they came home every day so happy.  It was almost like a little camp- they made good friends, learned great bible verses and stories, and got to play all kinds of sports/games.  Thursday, they had a carnival type event, with food and bouncies and other games.  It was awesome!

Parker and his "locker"

End-of-the-week presentation

Sydney made the slide show!  She's the 3rd from the front, with her mouth open.

Now THIS was fun.  An inflatable soccer field.  

Parker scored!

A visit from the Tooth Fairy

Parker has lost his first (followed closely by his second) tooth!  His two bottom teeth have been pretty wiggly for a few weeks now, and he finally lost one.

However, it freaked him out enough to not want to try to pull out his other (very) wiggly tooth, but finally about a week later, Stephen convinced him to try.

They had success!  Whoop!

The Tooth Fairy came and he got some moola.

The Tooth Fairy also had a big fail recently with Sydney.  Sydney lost one of her molars while at the mountain house over Memorial Day weekend.  She was sleeping at my sister's cabin, and she put the tooth under her pillow, but the Tooth Fairy never showed up... she tried again the next night, and, again, the Tooth Fairy didn't show.  She wasn't that upset, but I told her we'd take it home and try there.  Well, long story short, we kind of misplaced it, and then forgot about it.

Sydney decided to write her a letter for the night Parker first lost his tooth, to give it a shot.  She put it under her pillow (sans tooth). ;)

It worked!  Woohoo!