Fun in L.A.

“All the leaves are brown

And the sky is gray.

I’ve been for a walk

On a winter’s day.

I’d be safe and warm

If I was in L.A.

California dreamin’

On such a winter’s day.”

- The Mama's and The Papa's

Newport Beach was an absolute dream.  It was fun, beautiful, warm…everything we hope for a snow-birding winter.  Our last day at Newport Beach was filled with laundry, swimming, face painting and games – head to head, apples to apples, Clue, Indian poker and Rock, Paper, Scissors. On the 27^th we traveled to LA.

 

Parker Butterfly

Peacock Calla

Lincoln is a future tattoo artist

We found every deck we could to play cards

Dad leads Indian Poker

Pool fun

We are perplexed.  How could there still be stop-and-go traffic on a Saturday at 10:30 in the morning with seven lanes of traffic going north?  We drove over congested traffic at 5:30 and at 9:00pm.  We drove with the traffic on interstates and highways.  The scene was the same…red tail lights as far as the eye could see.  I don’t think Los Angeles or Orange County is ever a place we could call home.  It would likely cause Travis or myself to have a stress attack.  (Contrary to the song, L.A. wouldn’t be safe for us.)

Travis and I had a Family Heritage (FHL) reception to attend Friday night so my mom, sister, and the kids went out to eat in the L.A. Live complex.  My mom found a place called The Farm for dinner.  (It was a no-brainer for our family to eat there!)  It was all-natural, grass-fed, farm-raised, local, organic food.  Everyone thought it was delicious and fun.  They liked it so much we all returned for two more meals!

Lincoln and Parker use the reading lights to perform "Jingle Bells"

Travis is recognized at the 2nd highest producing Director in all of FHL

Family Heritage always has family fun planned during these meetings.  Saturday you could choose to go to Hollywood, Disneyland, or Universal Studios.  We found none of those options to be right for the Wilson Family.  The last time we went to a theme park between Christmas and New Year’s, we vowed never to do that again.  The kids were only bummed because their friends were going and we weren’t.  But hour-long lines for a ride or to see a princess weren’t going to help the homeostasis of our family.  Instead we went to a show called STOMP.  It was incredible!  Parker still votes it as one of her two favorite parts of our trip – she says, “It was too funny!”  Fun and entertaining for all ages.   Here’s a YouTube link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7aYQtIldg

Parker ate all the popcorn before the show started

The STOMP Stage

The show was at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.  We walked a few blocks to dinner after the show to find a Yelp recommendation.  Wahoo’s Fish Taco hit the spot.  Everyone enjoyed Mexican meals.

We noticed we were only a few miles from the Griffith Observatory.  It is an observatory built by Griffith J. Griffith (our kids thought that was funny) in 1933 located on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood, (which is right next door to Mount Wilson, btw).  It’s like a science museum for astronomy.  And it just-so-happens that our kids are studying astronomy in science right now!  

Calla checks out The Big Picture

Parker is an astronomer

The observatory has over 2 million visitors every year and has received great reviews.  We stepped on scales to find out how much we would weigh on each planet.  (We should consider space stations on Venus instead of Mars. ;-)) We learned about star clouds.  We made an earthquake.  We watched an interesting video about the Griffith Observatory.   And, to top it all off, we got to see Orion’s Belt and a star cloud up close when we looked through one of three free standing telescopes on the front lawn.  These high-tech telescopes each cost somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000.  As we looked through it I thought, “this looks exactly like what we see in astronomy books!”  The view was so clear and precise.  It dawned on me a few minutes later that these big, fancy telescopes probably have cameras in them, too.  The one I looked through might actually be taking photos for the next astronomy book published. 

It was a cool, memorable experience.  However, we were still there between Christmas and New Year’s.  There were a lot of people there.  Our line to see through the telescope was only 8 minutes and we didn’t have to wait to get into the movie, but the amount of people could still cause a bit of claustrophobia.  And the 3-mile drive up the mountain took about 30 minutes.  If I could do it over I’d go after New Year’s Day. 

The next couple days were spent mostly by the pool and with friends.  The pool at the J.W. Marriott - L.A. Live was heated.  The area around the pool was 10 degrees warmer than the temperature on the street.  This heat encouraged lots of pool activity.  

The hot tub was just as popular as the pool

I wasn’t really prepared for so much swimming on this trip.  Last year’s weather was unusually cool all over the southwest (at least that’s what everyone kept telling me).  It was still warmer than Minnesota so it didn’t really bother us.  And I used last year’s weather to gauge what I should pack for this year.  We have lots of long sleeves and layers, only 3 short-sleeved shirts and 2 pairs of shorts/person (none for Parker – we had to cut off some jeans for her ;-)).  We’ve been doing a lot of laundry to get warm-weather clothes clean.  Thankfully we accidentally left a bunch of summer clothes – including extra swimsuits – in the dirty laundry bin in the RV from a camping trip we took this summer (if you can call RVing camping).  Unfortunately I only brought one swimsuit for myslef.  As I prepared to swim for the third time, Miss Fashion Calla looked at me and said, “Mom, you already wore that swimsuit twice and it’s brown.”

“I know,” I replied.  “I only brought one swimming suit.”

“You did?!”  Calla looked confused.  She thought about it for a minute and said, “Fancy Nancy would not think you are very fancy.”  The story of my life. ;-)

Besides improperly packing our swimsuits, I didn’t bring any life jackets.  We’ve never done formal swimming lessons with our kids but, because we live by a lake, they get to swim a lot.  I knew they were pretty good swimmers, but I didn’t realize they had learned to swim so well.  I was most surprised by Lincoln and Parker.  They jumped in wherever they decided to jump in and, with their heads under water, began to swim.  They can both swim from the middle of the pool to the side without any help – most of their journey being under water.  My life just changed.  Usually when we go to a group pool setting I have to spend most of my energy watching my kids to make sure they don’t drown.  I feel free!!!  I talked with people, read a book, blogged…it was great!!!  (No worries, I did have other adult eyes helping me just in case.)  I have four swimmers.  I love it. 

This is Bubba.  Can you say, "Cutie"?!

Of our Family Heritage friends, Parker is one of the youngest.  We had a ‘hang-out-by-the-pool day’ with the other Family Heritage moms and kids while dads were in meetings.  Only Bubba was younger than Parker and he was the only one who couldn’t yet swim on his own.  All the rest of the kids – including Bubba’s big brother Cash, could jump, splash, twirl, and swim on their own.  That’s the beginning of a fun day at the pool! 

Usually when Family Heritage has a meeting, the hotel is overrun by Family Heritage.  It is common for people in the elevator to ask, “What is your group here?” or “Are you part of that big group?”  This time we were in the minority.  The hotel was overtaken by green and white.  Michigan State Spartan players, coaches, their families and fans were everywhere!  Taite spotted the Spartan head coach, Mark Dantonio, by the pool talking with another coach.  We found the players to be very courteous as Taite offered them words of encouragement for their game or as the boys played football outside of the hotel and missed a pass.  A couple of the players tossed the ball back and encouraged the boys in their game as well.

The kids loved playing with the other Family Heritage kids.  One evening FHL hosted a celebrity night, which included a dance party.  The boys were not very interested in dancing so they found a quiet corner of the hotel and played freeze tag until the hotel security put a stop to that (there were about 15 boys…the corner was no longer quiet and it was just a matter of time before they were stopped or someone got hurt).  Then they played cards in the hallway.  The girls enjoyed cuttin’ a rug.  Calla is hearing the beat more and more every time she dances.  ;-)  Parker wanted to go to bed long before anyone else was ready for bed.  Thankfully, we asked my mom to join us on this trip to help us with the kids.  It seems everyone wants to do something different at different times.  Travis working at these meetings and me being a single person makes it hard to handle four schedules and four sets of  desires on a trip like this…in a hotel…for four days.  It was a huge help to have Jim and Linda with us last year.  My mom and (by default) Mindy were a huge help this year too.  I’m not sure my mom and Mindy knew what they were getting themselves into by agreeing to help us.  I’m sure they were glad to get home and have some peace and quiet. 

Our last full day in LA was also my birthday (December 30).  My fabulous girlfriends found a gluten-free, low sugar treat and presented it to me in song by the pool.  Coconut, strawberry, and lemon sorbet.  We all shared the delicious desserts.  The frozen treats warmed my heart.  I love girlfriends and moms and sisters who make my birthday special;-).  For my birthday I also got to chat with the ladies (since my kids can swim!), enjoy watching our kids play in the pool, eat lunch poolside, ice skate, and eat dinner at the Yard House. 

In the center of the L.A. Live complex was an ice skating rink with a giant Christmas tree in the middle.  How fun to ice skate in shorts!  There was a wide variety of talent on the rink.  In one corner of the rink were a few seasoned skaters performing spins and jumps.  Cruising around the Christmas tree were beginner skaters holding their moms’ hands or falling then standing, falling then standing.  Our little friend Jack Davenport fell into the category of Persistent Amateur.  I give him credit.  He’ll go far in life with that kind of commitment!  His parents might consider stock in Icy Hot.  

Nikki and Ella Terborg skate together

Skating in shorts?

Professional Skater

Taite helps Parker on the rink

Lincoln was a surprisingly good little skater.  Mindy put on skates and went out with him for a while.  It wasn’t long before he didn’t want any help.  He cruised around the Christmas tree like he’d been skating for years!  Impressive balance on those small double-bladed skates. 

We left the rink for an early dinner.  We learned the night before that the Yard House is a popular place.  There was an LA Lakers game on the 29^th and the Staples Center (where the Lakers play) is right across the street from the Yard House – still in the LA Live complex.  You could either choose to have dinner at 4:30 or wait until the game started and everyone left.  On the 30^th there was a Clippers basketball game in the Staples Center.  (Did you know LA has two basketball teams!?  And they share the same arena?!  Crazy.)  The dinner wait was going to be the same so we headed to the Yard House at 4:15 to find a 15-minute wait for a table.  Travis and Taite had tickets to the Clippers game through Family Heritage and had planned to tailgate with the FHL crew.  We had left Taite with Jack Davenport, his mom Leslie, and Elijah and Amy Rogers to play some football in the opening between the hotel and the Staples Center.  By 5:30 Taite and Travis had connected and joined us briefly for a bite of our delicious Yard House meals and birthday desserts.  Then went about their Clippers events.

The Yard House and a couple card games completed our time with Mimi and Grammy.  They cabbed back toward LAX for their flights on the 31^st.  It was heart warming to see the kids give hug after kiss after hug to my mom and sister.  It wasn’t until after our door closed that the tears flowed.  The kids did not want Mimi and Grammy to leave!!!  I offered them hugs of comfort, but I found the best solution was a Charlie Brown New Year’s show.  Shiny red ball?  I’m not sure.  But their attention was definitely diverted as Snoopy offered ice skating lessons to Peppermint Patty. 

What a way to end our last night in LA.  The 31^st would begin another adventure with our friends, the VanSumeren’s.