LA Trip

Doug and I headed down to LA on Saturday morning.  I thought we were going to pick some stuff up for the Flowrider.  Turns out that, unbeknownst to me, we were going down to see some old friends of ours from BYUH, Josh and Lindsi.  

We haven't seen them in four years, since just after Keilana was born.  Which is really kind of silly when I think about it, since we've lived in Lindsay for the last 2 1/2 years, and they've lived in LA for 2 years, and its only about a 3 hour drive between our houses.  

Anyway, it was a kick to see them again.  They live just a couple of miles from the Santa Monica Pier, so we headed down there with the kids and enjoyed the sunshine and the sea breeze.  Its been so hot for so long, the moderate temperatures and little breeze felt fantastic!  Keilana, normally my shy one, must've felt that she had a kindred spirit in fellow strawberry blonde-haired Lindsi, because after getting over that initial few minutes of quiet and shy, she became quite talkative.  She told Lindsi about her little sister, about how she was going to be Ariel for Halloween, and about going to Disneyland.  I got in trouble a few times for interrupting:)  

The kids (small and grown alike) enjoyed the Santa Monica pier carousel.  Dylan loves horses, be they real or carved, so his first protest of the day came in having to leave when the ride was over.  He soon consoled himself in trying to climb over the edge of the fence on the pier and wildly chasing the poor frightened pigeons that were everywhere.  

That evening we tried to find the Rockler store in Torrance so Doug could pick a few things up, and he learned the joys of trying to navigate LA when you are being served by a horrendously bad navigator (that would be me--I do not exaggerate, I am SO bad).  Anyway, we did eventually make our way there, and fortunately there were several car dealerships across the street, so Josh was able to go car shopping while Doug looked at wood and tools.  We made it back to the apartment in time for Doug to watch and become rather depressed by the Fresno St/Wisconsin game.  Three points.  So sad.

Sunday morning after Josh and Lindsi left for church, we got in the car to go exploring.  We drove by the LA temple (so huge!) and through Beverly Hills, which was weird.  Its always strange to me to realize that that many people live that extravagantly.  Stranger still to realize that I don't envy them.  There were some beautiful houses and some beautiful views (and Obama yard signs everywhere--further proving, of course, that Republicans are the party of the rich.  Ha ha.)  Once we found our way down out of the hills and back onto major roads, we headed up the Pacific Coast highway.  Malibu was not nearly as exciting as I was expecting ('course, I'm not sure what it is I was expecting), but the beaches all the way up were beautiful.

We drove up 101 clear back into San Luis Obispo and then headed up to Morro Bay.  Keilana had been all set to "see the fishies" when we went to Santa Monica, but the aquarium ended up being closed, so we stopped at Morro Bay so that she could feed the seals and sea lions and walk through the small aquarium there.  For some reason she's been a little obsessed with octopus and jelly fish lately, and seeing a couple of those and some star fish seemed to satisfy her.  We enjoyed a walk out on the pier in Cayucos (where we saw some dolphins! I've never seen live dolphins before) and some time on the beach.  There was kelp just covering the beach, so Keilana stayed up on the dry sand, but Dylan and I headed down to the water.  Every time I thought we were far enough out to satisfy him, he'd point to the ocean and say, "Ww rr!  ww rr!"  He loves the water--creek, lake, pool or ocean, it doesn't matter.  The kid's a fish.

It was a great weekend--good friends, good weather, good times--and couldn't have come at a better time.  We both needed to be farther than an hour from Lindsay for more than a couple of hours.  It was rejuvenating and I was so grateful for the mini vacation!  But, obviously it didn't restore my brain power completely, as I seem to have loaded the pics from our trip in nearly exact backwards order.  Oh well, you get the idea.

Dylan doing a little light reading on the way home.  We bought this at Target to keep him occupied while Josh and Doug watched football.
Keilana reacts to watching the sea lion perform for some fishie parts.  He was a pretty big show off.
Despite knowing and being able to pronounce the word "seals" and "sea lions", Keilana still insists on calling them both "Arr Arrs"--which isn't helped by the fact that that is what Dylan now calls them.
Dylan tosses the sea lion a fish head.
Keilana preparing to build a sandcastle (which is lot harder to do when the sand is that dry!)
Dylan explains a few things to one of the seagulls on the Cayucos pier.
Doug and the kids heading down the pier--and into the wind.
The view looking northwest off the Cayucos pier Sunday evening.
Lindsi's hat was the hit of the weekend.  Dylan kept putting it on and saying "Yee haw!"
Annoyed that the pigeon wouldn't come to them, Dylan and Keilana decide to go to the pigeon.
Most people try to get pigeons and seagulls to go away.  My kids try to get them to come.
Keilana cheesin' out on the Santa Monica Pier.
Dylan pats his horse as he goes round and round on the carousel.
Keilana is such a ham.  As soon as she sees the camera come out, she starts posing.
Lindsi tries to decide whether or not to dunk Dylan in a fountain at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
Doesn't Keilana kinda look like she could be Lindsi's kid?  Which is funny, because since Josh is Pakistani, Lindsi's own kids probably won't look this much like her.
The fountain was actually a spitting tricerotops, which Keilana and Dylan both loved.
Dylan is happily dunked feet first into the fountain by Josh.
Doug thought this was a good way to go in.  Dylan disagreed quite heartily.
But he was very happy to have his legs submerged over and over and over and over and. . . .