When we arrived we had to get down to business and do the most important things... jump on the beds and "call Grandpa." Ryan had a pretty good conversation with him without actually being connected. The other important thing we always do when we arrive at hotels is disconnect all the phones. That way our kids can't call anyone and no one can call us if our kids are being loud all night long ;)
When we woke up the next day we rushed off to meet up with the Balenas at Griffith Park! The reunion was so sweet. These two started running towards one another they were so excited. Liz and I started bawling... and hugged and we were just so happy to finally be hanging out with our dear friends again! Catie ran and gate Grace a big hug too.
Ryan and Hank had fun goofing off on the train as well.
We rode the train, the ponies, and the carousel.
The medium speed ponies rode FAST! It was so funny to watch!
We also visted the La Brea Tar Pits. It was HOT but interesting... there were several tantrums throughout the visit by the littlest guy, but we survived. Not my favorite part of the trip.
We also visited the Hayes family!!! And we got NO PHOTOS since I was so busy inhaling the yummy homemade ice cream Meredith made and chatting and eating the cookie bars she made too. The kids had fun making a disaster of their home and we had fun catching up. Yay! So fun to have friends to visit that aren't too far away!
Liz and I continued our adventures with the kiddos once Kevin went back to work and we went to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.
We also hit up a yummy donut place and the Taco Deli for lunch. Hank fell asleep on the table at the restaurant while he was eating and me and Liz gabbed and gorged ourselves while my kids played on tablets and Ryan spilled food everywhere. It was blissful and so wonderful to just have chat time!
We stayed at the Embassy Suites and these kids loved the elevator and the huge free breakfast. They also loved that we were right next to LAX and we could see the airplane flight path from our hotel window. I took them down every morning in their pjs for breakfast. They were very self sufficient and helpful and ate everything in sight.
We tried to get a workout in so we ran from Hermosa Beach to Manhattan Beach and back... I ran and pushed the double jogger and Andrew rode his bike. It was HOT but I got all the kids ice cream midway through the 40 minute jog, so they all survived and were happy.
We also played at the beach a bit afterwards.
We went to the cutest story hour at the LA Temple with the Balenas on Tuesday and then we hit up Sprinkles Cupcakes and Sprinkles Cookies! Yum Yum! I LOVE the cookies!
I was SO sad to say goodbye to Liz... but fortunately we'll be back down to LA in a month or so again!
The kiddos and I attempted to go to the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica... but it was closed because of weird summer hours. The kids were VERY disappointed.
I cheered them up by taking them to the Santa Monica Pier and letting them ride rides and get amazingly large slurpees. They cheered up quickly!
We spent many evenings watching movies on my laptop... One night we were waiting for Kevin to get back so we could go swimming... Ryan decided that sitting on top of Catie was way more cozy than sitting on the couch.
On our last day in LA we drove down to Irvine and met up with Meredith Hayes and kiddos to hang out at Pretend City. It is seriously the perfect place for kids! My kids had a blast!
After saying goodbye to Meredith we grabbed yummy drinks at Sonic and then we went and picked uo Kevin, packed our car, and hauled ourselves back to the East Bay! Other than stopping every 50 miles so kids could go to the bathroom we made really good time and got home right around bedtime!
What a fabulous trip!! So glad we could tag along with Kevin and get to see our good friends too!
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