Los Angeles

Late on the night of Wednesday, July 2 Josh and I decided to take the boys on a trip to see his sister Mary and her husband Eddie in LA for the holiday weekend. I packed while Josh was at work the next day and we left after dinner that night. We drove about two hours and stopped to spend the night in a Best W*estern. We brought the Pack n' Plays and prayed the boys would stay in them long enough to fall asleep. We turned out the lights and Michael and Sam started talking. (Brookie Cookie is Brooke, Uncle Shawn's daughter, who they met and loved at our recent family reunion).

Michael: Where'd Mommy go?
Sam: Macow, it's night. Go to sleep.
Michael: Hey! Where'd Mommy go?
Sam: We're, we're, we're, we're sleeping in a hotel. (He tends to stutter when he's tired).
Michael: Um, Uncle Shawn? Shawn?
Sam: Oh, Brookie Cookie?
Michael: Oh yes! Brookie Cookie!
Sam: Macow, go to sleep.
Michael: Ok. I go sleep now.I was dying laughing and tried so hard to keep quiet. Josh had already fallen asleep and missed the whole thing. It's making me think they would like to sleep in the same room at home. We're looking into bunk beds and will experiment with putting them in the same room once they stop napping.
The drive was fun and LA was different. It was fun to be somewhere new. It was all blue skies and palm trees and cement. We stopped at Mary's to let the boys take a nap, then drove in to Hollywood. It took us forever to find a parking spot and we had a good chance to drive around and see the strange people wandering the tourist spots. This is some outdoor mall.

We saw the Chinese Theater and the hand prints in the sidewalk. The newest one is Hugh Jackman, put in this last April. It was fun to see Betty Graebel's leg imprint, Gary Cooper and John Waynes hand prints, but I never did find Cary Grant's. Bummer. We saw the Walk of Fame with all of the stars in the sidewalk and a huge gathering of people were around Michael Jackson's star. There were so many names I've never heard of! I think fame is fleeting, even with your name on a famous sidewalk.
There were street performers and people in costumes who would take a picture with you for a tip. We saw Darth Vadar. He came up to the stroller and gave Michael a high-five. Then he tried giving one to Sam, but he SCREAMED no and started crying. I had to take him out of the stroller and hold him the rest of the time. He was absolutely SHAKING with fear. It was awful. We saw Elmo on the way back to the car who took this picture with us for free to help Sam be happy. Poor Sammy. He's been having nightmares about Darth Vadar ever since. I guess he doesn't believe us now that Darth Vadar isn't real! He keeps telling the story: "I saw Darth Vadar in Hollywood and I said, "No five!" and I was crying."
That night we went to dinner with Mary and Eddie at an Italian place near their apartment in Burbank. It was tricky to eat with the overtired boys, but the food was awesome. Can't beat those family owned places. It reminded me of The Hill in St. Louis. We put the boys down and stayed up watching 2 episodes of LOST with Mary and Eddie. We've passed on our obsession to them and they have been catching up on seasons 1-5. We drove by the Disney studios where Eddie is working right now. It is very cool. We really hope they keep him on when his internship is over in September.The next day, on July 4th, we went to Santa Monica Beach. I had forgotten that my dad lived very near there for a while when he was little. It was the best beach I've ever been to. The water was warm, the beach was deep, the sand soft, there were restrooms and play ground equipment, a bike path, and tons of families. Maybe it was special because it was a holiday, but we had so much fun. Sam wouldn't go into the water and spent the entire time playing out his Darth Vadar fears with that green bucket on his head and making a deep breathing sound. Michael buried our feet in the sand over and over again and fed me fresh strawberries. This was so much more fun than our attempt at the beach last summer. We actually got to sit down and enjoy ourselves while the boys played instead of keeping them from running into the ocean the entire time!


Parting shot of the beach out the van window.

We drove all the way back up to Sacramento - 5 hours - that night and made it to see fireworks. When the first one went off, both boys started crying so we watched the show from the car as we drove the tired little guys home. It was a great weekend and we hope to be able to see Mary and Eddie again soon!

And to finish off, here's one for the grandma's. Michael being his adorable self. Don't worry, we'll kiss him for you!