Beach Day

On Thursday we were going out to West L.A. to go to a bridal shower, so we decided to make a day of it and spend the afternoon at the beach. It was fairly cool as far as beach weather goes, but when the sun was shining it was still warm enough to splash around in the water.

Later in the afternoon the clouds rolled in and the kids enjoyed playing in the sand mostly.

Daniel, Amanda, and Hannah joined us and Amanda taught Julia how to find sand crabs. They are like the amphibious form of roly polys/potato bugs/pill bugs so Julia loved them and how they tickled her hand when she held them.

Micah was a little unsure of the water and sand at first. This was the first time he has been to the beach and actually been awake (we went when he was a month old and he slept the entire time) so it was a whole new experience for him.

After a while though he absoultely loved it. He likes playing in the sand of course, but he also discovered the joy of having the waves rush up onto your legs. He really liked bending over and picking up fistfuls of sand each time a wave would subside, and then throwing it into the water when the waves came back.

Stagecoach

I was listening to the radio on March 27,  Robert's birthday, and heard the cue to call for Stagecoach (a three day outdoor country music concert in Indio, CA) tickets. I don't usually call in for things but I thought "That would be a great birthday surprise for Robert if I won." So I called in and actually won! And when the DJ heard it was my husband's birthday they called Robert on his cell phone while he was on the train to wish him Happy Birthday and tell him about his birthday present.  Here's what they said on the radio about it.



One month later we headed out to Palm Springs/Indio for a weekend away with no kids! Robert's Dad came into town to take care of our kids for one night and he got backup the next day when Robert's Mom came into town.

It was my first time to Palm Springs. I've never seen so many windmills.

It was so nice to be able to go out to dinner and not have to gobble down our food before the kids start to get bored. After dinner we made it for the headline singer for Friday night, Toby Keith.

The next day was suppose to be 100 degrees so instead of going to the venue at noon when it opened and cook in the heat we opted to just show up for the big names in the evening and relax at the hotel pool and go out to eat again before heading out. I actually got to sit by the pool and read a book! It was awesome!

Rodney Atkins is up on that stage somewhere...

Robert and I are not much of party people so we did a lot people watching between acts. Very interesting  the California redneck crowd.  This was the view looking towards the back from our seats and the view from the very back of the main stage towards the front.

Everyone in the general admission area just brings camping chairs or blankets and sets up where ever you can find a spot. We were only in the sun for like an hour once we found a spot, but it was a pretty warm for that hour. We were glad we didn't come when the sun was really hot.

The actual view from our seats, but there was a giant TV screen just to the right of us where we could see. We could just see a teeny tiny performer when we stood up from our seats. We also saw Dierks Bentley, who totally rocked it. We liked him the best and I was surprised at how many of his songs have been really popular country songs. He could of been the headliner! After Dierks we saw Lady Antebellum, they have great songs but they weren't as engaging with the crowd as Dierks was.

Robert wasn't as into people watching as me. Here's his attempt to take a nap. By the end of the night we were both pretty tired since I usually go to bed by 9 or 10 o'clock and we didn't get back to our hotel until almost midnight. It was a party for us! The next morning we headed home to relieve the grandparents so they could take off to Hawaii. I think after spending two nights with Micah and Julia they deserved it!

Los Angeles Temple Grounds

Last weekend Robert's parents flew into town to stay with our kids while Robert and I got a weekend away in Palm Springs. On Sunday after we dropped off Robert's parents at the airport we stopped by the temple to eat our lunches and walk around. It was a beautiful day and all the spring flowers were so pretty so I took a bunch if pictures.

The River

A couple weekends ago Steve and Wendy invited us out to join them at their place on the Colorado River. It was nice to get away from our house and not have to worry about what yard work or home repair we were going to tackle that weekend.

Micah proved once again that he loves the water. I put him in a couple times and he was happy to splash around in the river or pool.

These ducks lived near our beach and love to hang around people asking for a handout. They seem to go up the beach from group to group looking for food, then float downriver with any boats floating down and beg for handouts, then start over again going back upriver near the beach groups. They stopped by multiple times a day to beg for food and Julia would always see then coming, run and fill up her toy bowl with sand, and then offer them her "duck soup" once they got to us. Only, the ducks didn't really seem to care for duck soup so usually she would end up chasing them down the beach yelling, "Here ducky! Eat your duck soup!"

We also got to go out on the sea doo . I never did much water sports growing up and to tell you the truth driving the sea doo kind of freaks me out. I made a point to go out and drive around with Robert tagging along once a day so I wouldn't regret it, but whenever I would look down at the water my heart would start to race and I'd get a panicky feeling. I chalk it up to not being used to speeding around on water. Julia, on the other hand, also got to go out once a day with Robert, loved it, and had absolutely no fear. I hope we can find a good balance eventually of teaching her what is dangerous and not making her afraid to do things

Here is a video of Julia on the sea doo.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Robert got to watch another space shuttle from his work this week. This time it was the Space Shuttle Endeavour coming to L.A. He just watched it out the window from his office building in downtown L.A. 

Temple Lights

This Christmas we went to see the Christmas lights at three different temples. I already posted about Washington D.C., so here are Los Angeles and Salt Lake.

We went with Steve and Wendy and family to hear a Bell Choir performance at the Los Angeles Temple Visitor's center and then saw the lights (It was our first time hearing a Bell Choir so that was pretty neat too.)

We were only in LA for a few days and then we went to Utah. After Christmas with the Wheat family we spent a week with my family. Robert and I got to do a session in the Salt Lake Temple, and then we waited for the rest of my family to join us with Julia.

So here's me alone while we waited for my family.

Then my parents and a bunch of cousins and aunts showed up and we saw the rest of temple square together.

Then to warm up we went to the Church History Museum across from temple square and Julia had fun in the new(ish) children s discovery area.

Playing in the play kitchen.
Knocking down the prison walls?
Fishing on the boat on the way to the promised land.

Poor Julia will never be mistaken as a Mexican even though she actually is 1/4 Mexican.

Knott's Berry Farm

A view of Knott's Berry Farm from where we rode on the top of the Stagecoach.

Before we got to L.A. I was toying with the idea of taking Julia to an amusement park. I was sure she would love it. Whenever she is on the swings at the park she always tells me "higher, higher" and throws her hands up like she is on a roller coaster. So Wendy suggested Knott's Berry Farm since it was free for Julia and half the price of Disneyland for me. Plus I'd never been there so it would be an all new experience for both Julia and I. Below, Julia gets a bearing on the layout of the park.

Of course Julia did love it. Not only did she go on every ride she was tall enough to go on (which granted wasn't a ton, maybe 12?) but she went on her favorite rides 2-3 times. And she learned the appropriate response is to scream with delight on the fast rides. Well, maybe she would have done that anyway because she usually screams when she gets really excited. She was definitely worn out at the end of the day.

The only other person who was available to go with us that day was Woody. He gallantly became our photographer, videographer, load bearer (backpack carrier), and even a nice chair in the shade during the shade-less Peanuts Characters show (seriously, you'd think they would put a cover over the amphitheater for the show that is especially for kids and has no natural shade). Don't worry, we let him come on all the kiddy rides with us too, although sometimes he had to sit alone.

Julia's favorite ride was probably the Carousel, and her favorite animal to ride was the zebra.

Riding the train. It was hard to get her to sit still on this one since we didn't have seat-belts like the other rides and she was well aware of it.

We did manage to get a picture with Snoopy!

Here is a video of crazy Julia riding a couple rides and bouncing in the bounce house. I especially like how she throws her hands up in the air at the end of the first clip to imitate the kid in front of us. At the end of the second clip she saw the Ferris Wheel and was pointing out that she wanted to go on that one, which unfortunately we didn't because she was a couple inches too short for it still (it was a pretty open seat).

Disneyland

Julia had her 4th and 5th Disneyland visits while my family was here. Last year she was two months old when we went three times and she mostly slept. This time we was awake (more than she should have been)and loving it all.
Her favorite ride was It's a Small World, I think because it's so light and upbeat. That was my first time on that ride as well, and I really liked it, but I think they need a longer song for such a long ride because by the time you get out of there you are soooo tired of hearing that song. Julia just kept looking around and around at all the puppets and bouncing around to the music.

She also liked playing soccer in the Innoventions House