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pros:

more big people to love, kiss and tell you how adorable you are….

cons:

more hand-me-down clothes (and peek a boo toes).

Before we even made it out there to the West coast, Jason (Brett’s brother) had some great plans/ideas lined up for all of us.  You will have to excuse this very long post, but I just had to get the next part of our trip in….as much as I would like too, I can’t extend our LA trip on here forever!

On Saturday we all went to the Santa Monica Pier.  Our new friends Myriam, and her son Ethan joined us too.

Of course the kids started riding the rides immediately….this was Gabe’s first time on a ride, and he LOVED it.

Priya waited in line for 30 mins. to do this….

her legs looked so much longer than all the other kids.

My pal Renee (who came to LA with us to help with the kiddos) waited with me for Priya.  Isn’t she purdy??

Meanwhile, Jason, Myriam, Adin, and Ethan were off trying some other rides.  I think Brett was playing paparazzi.

Riah waited with me oh so patiently…

Adin and Ethan rode the roller coaster.  There they are- 3 rows from the back. 

Finally, Riah’s patience payed off.

Looking out over the pier….it was a little chilly.

Renee was so patient. 

As I told you before we had some new friends join us.  We were so excited to meet and hang with them.  Ethan is 12 yrs. old, and a mini musical genius. He goes to the real “school of rock.” He has a band called, “Front Line Failure.” Did I mention he is 12??  I wasn’t sure what he would think of our kids…would he think they were lame?  Would he be annoyed because of how young they are?  He was amazing.  He couldn’t have been more kind, patient, and polite with the kids.  And they absolutely adored him!!

And here is the lovely Myriam.  It was such an honor to hang with her…just wish I could have more.  She is an AMAZINGLY talented photographer, and if you have a moment you should check out her work HERE.  But brace yourself-you might be blown away.

She snapped some shots of the boys eating their corn-dogs. 

I just love Gabe’s little face here….

**so them. **

Brett’s view of me shooting the kiddos…..

And the picture I shared here on the blog a couple weeks ago.

(If you look closely to the lower left you will see Brett shooting.)

Fun in the California sun.

If you made it this far and have actually READ what I wrote- BRAVO!!  You have earned a free hug from me. 

So, on to the next day.  Actually on Sunday we did the family beach shoot you may have seen a couple posts down (If you haven’t seen it, go look!).  This was Monday when we went to the California Science Center with Dom, Elijah and Pam.  What a fun place!!  Jason had coordinated everything with the nice people there, and nothing was left out.

When we first arrived the kids tried rock climbing for the first time.  Priya struggled to make it on that overhang…Adin came the closest to the top.

Here are the boys giving it a try…

Meanwhile Dom and Gabe compared the bottoms of their shoes and had a little conversation about it. 

Moving on we had a mini-lesson in “air pressure.”  The kids were so intrigued with her experiments.

Then we explored the world of sound and how it travels…..

We watched chicks as they hatched, and also learned about levers and how they work.

SCORE big for home school today!!

When we took a break for lunch, we found this sign welcoming us.   The food was yummy.

What better to do after lunch than go play with some big cockroaches!  Riah was taking photos of Elijah holding his new friend.

Brett decided to make a new friend too.  I refrained.

Then we had the best puppet show EVER, presented by Mr. Turtle and Miss Panda (a.k.a. Elijah + Pam).  Gabe even joined in.

Next we went to the 3rd floor so everyone could try out the bike on a wire.

First up was Renee, and then we have Pam, Jason, Brett, Elijah, and Priya.  That is as far as Priya got though.  She was a little nervous.  Poor Adin cried and cried because he wanted to do it so bad, but his feet couldn’t touch the pedals.  Next time.

The hurricane simulator!! Pam and the kiddos stood there as the winds went up to 75 mph. and then back down.

And then just like that, we were done.  Time flew by much too quickly.

ONE more LA post coming soon….thanks for tagging along as we reminisce. 

I am continuing our L.A. trip on the blog this week because frankly, who was I kidding that I could finish it in one week.  We took A LOT of photos.

So, the main reason we made the trip out to Los Angeles was for the amazing west coast light and to see Brett’s brother Jason of course.  He was so excited that we were making this trip…or should I say, he was so excited that OUR KIDS were making the trip out.   (He is kinda crazy about his niece and nephews, and it makes our hearts mushy that he’s this way.)  We arrived on a Wednesday evening and the following day was Jason’s birthday.  Normally he comes home for his birthday every year and the kids really look forward to it, so it was extra special for them to be in L.A. this time.

Our first day we had an amazing breakfast at the Griddle, which is the BEST breakfast, but I didn’t bring my camera.  Bummer. Then Jason and Brett made a small journey to a Sri Lankan restaurant called Wadiya to pick up food for a party we were hosting at our rental house.  (It made me laugh that we had a party in our house the first day in L.A.)  J invited some good friends, most of who we were meeting for the first time, and it was such a great evening with really AMAZING food.    Day #1 we scored on some food goodness!!!

Loading the car with the Sri Lankan food….

A small taste of what we had…mmmmmm.

Uncle J could almost always be found with one of the kids in his lap. 

With the help of some of J’s friends, we secretly got him a cake from the wonderful Sweet Lady Jane’s Bakery.  I wish I had taken a better photo of how pretty it was, but it even tasted about 200x better than it looked.  Seriously, it is so good I don’t live in this town.

The next day Uncle J had to go to work at the The Recording Academy, but we came to his office to meet him for lunch.  He warned the kids that they would feel like celebrities because of how many people knew them from the blog/internet.  I just laughed.  But wow, it was really true.   People were coming out of the woodwork to meet “Jason’s family.”  It was so stinkin cute.

Adin is making sure Gabe’s head is pointing the right way. Priya’s doing her “normal” face.

Goofing around at the Grammy’s.

Here are two of Jason’s friends we met that were just awesome with the kiddos.  Christina on the left, and Suzy on the right.  HI GIRLS!! 

Kids. Sometimes they are so cute, you just can’t help yourself.

We scored on some new hair care stuff.   Riah rocked it out.

That night we went to dinner with more friends at a fantastic Lebanese restaurant.  Some of you may know that Brett used to live in the Middle East, and he speaks Arabic, but you may not know that Brett and Jason are part Lebanese.  We had such a HUGE dinner that night, but it was so good.

We were all laughing because they wouldn’t quit bringing food out to us!

By chance right before we went to LA, Brett found a long lost college buddy from the University of New Mexico, Amery aka “cabron.”  They quickly figured out that Amery had been living about a mile from Jason for years and never knew, also less than 1/2 a mile from where we were staying.  Brett was so happy to reconnect with his old pal, and I loved meeting and getting to know him and his beautiful wife Felicia.

We also met a great little family.  In this family is an adorable sibling trio rock band called Lynhurst consisting of Jake, Matt and Mari.  Two brothers, with a baby sister who works the drums- Meg White style.  These three were so ADORABLE!  Go have a listen to them…

Mari, 18 yrs old, singer and drummer.  I can’t wait to see where these 3 go. 

Thanks for looking…Stay tuned for the next couple days coming soon….