California: Days 5 & 6

So, I know I have Dalton's birthday to talk about yet and also what we've been up to the last few days when I've been doing trip re-caps. But this is the last of the recaps, and it's over a week now so I feel more anxious about getting this one out of the way before starting on other more recent events. Sue me.

I should also warn you, however, that I don't know how predictable my blogging will be this week. It is a VERY busy week 'round here with yesterday spent celebrating Diddlebug, then we've got Carson tomorrow and a total of 4 doctor's appointments this week: my first trimester screen with the perinatologist, my regular 12 week OB visit, Easton's anosmia ENT visit, and Dalton's 2 year well-child with a NEW doctor. See...busy. And when that's all over and done with it'll be March. Ack.

But back to the Cali talk.

So, Sunday morning found Dalton up even earlier than his normal time. Waaaay too early for the rest of us so I grabbed his milk and put him on my chest. We both fell back asleep and I was able to roll him off of me to keep sleeping once Easton woke up:


Easton and I were able to leave the bedroom (being an Embassy Suites) and watch some TV in the other room while the others snoozed a bit longer.

After the included breakfast in the hotel and waiting on housekeeping to come clean our filthy shower we were finally able to drive across town to meet my mom and Lauren in Hollywood for some touristy things. First stop was the handprints outside the Chinese theater:


Jason trying on Tom Hanks' prints:


Easton wanting to pose with Gramoo:


Me seeing how I compare to Marilyn:


Lauren, Jason and Easton over at the C3PO R2D2 square:


Dalton waving at the Mickey Mouse or Elmo guy:


Being just a week away from Oscar night, the Kodak Theatre was closed for people like us. You could see things they were doing to get ready though, like all the bleachers were out for the red carpet entrances and then lots of people walking around the area with various press passes.


Next we walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. looking at the stars on the Walk of Fame. We also saw this Mickey Mouse to pose with:




Jason found the star he was most wanting to see:

It's Mötley Crüe's if you can't read it for yourself.

In the Hollywood & Highland Center. See the teeny tiny Hollywood sign behind us:


You can see it a little better in this shot of Gramoo and Lauren:


Before long it was time for lunch. Lauren had been raving about this turkey sandwich she and her friend get from one of the restaurant's there at Hollywood & Highland:


It was really a neat place. It must be easy to be a waitress there because all the tables were outfitted with multiple touch screens so the patrons could look at pictures of the food and drinks, customize it with "hold tomatoes" or whatnot and then push "Send to kitchen". Here is Easton and I putting in our names:


After you order your food and drinks, you can then play all kinds of fun games on the screen in front of you. Wheel of Fortune or trivia or Bejeweled or whatever. They even had many games for kids. The boys loved it:


The turkey sandwich was good too. Part of what made it "special" was the addition of avocado and bacon and a fancy mayonnaise--all things Jason avoids so he had ravoli. :) But Moo and Lauren and I all got it. Easton ordered spaghetti and made a big mess. We sent the leftovers home with Lauren. But Easton kept this part of the kids meal for himself:


We wanted to make sure we saw the beach while we were so close. So that was our next stop. We drove down Santa Monica Boulevard (and I had to sing it like Sheryl Crow every time I said it) to get there. So, it wasn't necessarily the fastest route but certainly took us past many of the places to see. Dalton fell asleep shortly before we got there. D'oh! But Easton was excited!!! He was planning a big sand castle and sand angels and all sorts of things. It made me sad because he had elaborate plans involving needing buckets of water for his castle and I had to tell him we didn't have a bucket. :( It was all good, though. Here's the guys waiting for Gramoo and Lauren to park their car:


We took off E's shoes first thing so he could enjoy the sand:


And he went immediately into his sand angel:


Santa Monica beach:


Eastie wasted no time finding a stick to write his name in the sand:


Poor Diddles missing out on his first trip to the ocean:


Easton had been to the beach once before. The day he turned 10 months old we went to the beach near The Alabamaw's house. Still didn't get to get in the ocean but toes are a close second:


Such joy from our little guy:








Lauren apparently trying not to be recognized, professional make-up artist that she is now!


I made sure that sleeping Dalton's toes touched the sand...and that we documented the proof:


But eventually he woke up anyway and got to check it out for himself:




Gathering wood, because boys like sticks:


Sharing:




Wonder what that tastes like?


More stick fun:


Right then and there I decided that our next vacation has to be to a beach to actually play in the water one day. I have no idea when that day will be as I don't want to take a little tiny baby to spend the day in the sun for quite some time so we'll see. But those boys loved the beach that day. Easton's hair and clothes were full of sand. But it was so worth it.

We walked up the stairs to check out Santa Monica Pier:


Like most piers it is made of wood and the next day we noticed Dalton got a splinter in his foot. We both hated the idea of trying to take it out so for right now it's still in there!!! Aren't we awful? I just can't bear to un-bury it from his foot if it's not bothering him. We're hoping it'll work itself out soon.

I made a little Smilebox of our day at the beach. Many of the pictures are repeats but there is a video too.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

After we left the beach we headed to a little Mexican restaurant in Lauren's hood. Dalton wanted to dress up as Daddy:


And instead of eating their kids meal, Dalton fed both boys a bunch of Goldfish:


We headed back to our hotel after dinner for our last night and woke up to pouring-down rain!


After the hotel's breakfast we lazed around our room packing up and waiting for my mom and Lauren to drive over. The boys played with their new souvenirs:


And closed themselves in the hotel's wardrobe for awhile having dubbed it "the Superhero Club":


Once Gramoo and Lauren arrived we checked out. The boys had been wanting to pose by the waterfall in the lobby and we finally had our camera with us to do it:


We drove the short way to the Westfield Santa Anita mall for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Afterwards we bid adieu to my mom and Loe. We began our dreaded trek to LAX. Perhaps because it was a holiday, but we made excellent time. We stopped to fill up the rental car in a scary part of town so we hopped back on the highway to a less scary area to stock up on snacks for our flight home over the dinner hour. The boys slept in the car with Jason while I ran in:




We dropped off the rental car, the rain started pouring down again as Jason un-installed the car seats, we took the shuttle over to LAX and then did the whole airport things with all our gear once again. Easton was amazing thanks to his "trusty friend Buzz" accompanying him every step of the way. :) Dalton wasn't great as we waited to board the plane but after that he was fine. They both were. At first we were able to score him a seat but at the very last minute someone needed on from stand-by and we had to take his car seat off. Bummer. But both boys did really well during our flight home, during our time at the Denver airport, and our trip to get our car as well as our drive home.

It was after 10 p.m. by the time we got home that night. Way later than the boys are used to being up but they did great. It's always good to be home.

The end.