4th of July vacation - part 2

We had lots planned for Friday and Saturday.  The first was another hike.  The kids weren't too excited about this especially since we had just gone on one the day before.  I had heard that you could hike up to the Hollywood sign.  I knew that you couldn't touch it or anything, but I was curious to see how close you could get.  Ryan and Mandy did some research and found a trail that seemed doable.  By doable I mean, for six kids as well as four adults.  It couldn't be too steep or rocky.  We looked and looked at the trail on Google and Ryan mapped it out to be 1.5 miles one way.  We figured that it had to be mostly down hill on the way down, right? Our intention was to leave early so that we could beat the heat and/or crowds, but we didn't get there until about 10:00 am.  Here we are driving up the street to find the place to park.  It seemed so far away, but the street went uphill as we approached the area to park.  It wasn't an official lot or anything, just  a dirt turn out.  But it was full, so we parked in the neighborhood at the base of the mountain. 

Here we are at the start of the hike.  Can you see the Hollywood sign in the distance? The first part of the hike was all dirt.  It was actually a fire road, so it was wide. There are stables near the base of the mountain and you go horseback riding.  Well, that led to horse poop and Claire's first (of many) breakdowns.  She claimed that she couldn't go any farther because the trail was too stinky.  We assured her that it wouldn't be that way the whole time. 

About halfway up the mountain, the dirt becomes a paved road.  There is a radio tower at the top of the mountain, so cars need access.  I won't lie, it was hot, and it seemed to be never ending steepness.  We took lots of water and snack breaks.  We eventually broke into two groups, with Many and the older kids and Ryan, Danny and I with the smaller ones.

Oh, and lets not forget that we had to push Grant (the 29 lb toddler) up the hill in the stroller.  Claire was crying and whining a lot and I didn't want to come this far and not make it to the top, so I let her get on the front of the stroller.  She also complained about this because Grant was kicking her back.  Danny and I took turns pushing and in parts Ryan used the leash to pull.  In the distance on the back side of the mountain is Burbank. 

Yeah, the top!!  Here is Danny pushing the final few feet.  We thought we would be there around every corner.  It seemed like the longest 1.5 miles ever.  You actually climb higher than the sign. This fence prevents you from going near it.

This is the view from behind the fence. I'm sure it is an amazing view on a clear day.  It was quite foggy/smoggy/hazy this day.

I kept trying to get all of the letters in one shot, but I couldn't do it.

We were all quite hot and thirsty at the top.  We all had a granola bar and water and started the trek down.

The way down was very fast for Mandy, Isabel, Andrew and Landon.  There they are way below us.  Andrew and Landon wanted to run all the way down.

And here we are meandering down with everyone else.  You can see the sign and the tower from here.  The road ends right at the gate to the tower.

There wasn't anywhere to eat our lunch, so we sat on the curb and inhaled sandwiches, fruit and chips.  We were all so proud of the kids for doing the hike.  It was a great experience and a lot of fun and also free!

The next stop was the Los Angeles temple.  I had never been there before and I thought the kids would like to see it.  We took a scenic drive through Hollywood and Beverly Hills to get there.  Our first stop was the visitor's center.  There were several of these darling sculptures in the front.  I didn't even have to ask Claire to pose for this picture.

Love this shot!  We walked around in the visitor's center.  They had a great interactive area for kids, so great in fact, that my kids were fighting over some of the electronic devices.  This coupled by the fact that we looked like we had been camping for a week, I'm sure the workers were wondering who we were.

Posing outside under a beautiful tree.

I think the background almost looks fake in these two pictures.

As a side note, Ryan, Mandy, Danny and I were able to go back on Saturday night and do a session at the temple.  It was a great experience.  Maybe it was because we also got to go to dinner afterwards kid free....just maybe.

And THEN we went for ice cream.  We went to a place in Westwood where you can make your own ice cream sandwich for only $1.75.  You get to pick your cookie and ice cream flavor.  There was a long line and by this point Grant was past done.   He was totally melting down in line. We had to eat in the parking lot so that we could put Grant in the car.  The other kids didn't seem to mind though.  We were right next to UCLA, so we drove past it on the way home.

Whew!  If that wasn't enough, we got up and went to the beach on Saturday morning. It was a foggy morning in Malibu, but that didn't stop the kids from getting right in the water and digging holes.  The nice thing was that it wasn't too cold.  Unlike Santa Cruz, where when it is foggy it is also windy.

Do you see the seal in this picture?  It is near the bottom right of the picture.  We were sitting there and the seal just came gliding up in the water, kind of like it was body surfing.  The kids were thrilled.

Ryan taught the kids the game pickle, which proved to be quite fun for them.  Although these pictures show Ryan running and diving, the kids all got turns.

Grant was not happy that we wanted him to stay by us and not wander down the beach.

Then, just as we were trying to leave, Isabel and Claire decided to go back in the water.  We got lunch on the way home and some of the kids took a nap. 

We had such a great trip!  We love living near our cousins.  Andrew stayed down there with Landon for the week, so he should have some fun adventures to talk about when he gets back.

4th of July vacation - part 1

Since July 4th was on a Wednesday we decided that it would be fun to go to LA for a really long weekend.  We are so glad that we did.  We had such a good time with Ryan and Mandy and their kids.  We kept the kids busy everyday with fun activities.  We left San Jose on Wednesday and found out about 40 minutes from our house that apparently Grant gets car sick.  And then car sick again.  We are prepared now in case Andrew gets sick, but not Grant.  So we had to pull over twice and change his shirt and clean him up.  Luckily, the rest of the drive was uneventful.  About an hour after we got to Ryan and Mandy's we left to get In and Out Burger and head to a park to wait for a fireworks show.  We were joined by Mandy's friends and her cousin and his family.  The boys passed the time by playing football in the parking lot.

Claire and Mia and Grant were running around.  They wanted to play football, but were a bit too young.

There were lots of people there and even more came after this was taken.  I'm sure that isn't soda Danny is feeding him :)

They did some early fireworks and we quickly found out that Mia did not like them at all.  She was crying with her hands over her ears.  It was getting a bit breezy and we thought that Grant wouldn't be too thrilled about the loud fireworks either, so Danny volunteered to take them both home.  There was a great fireworks show complete with music.  It lasted about half an hour.  It was a huge crowd leaving the park, but all of the kids said they really liked the show.

On Thursday we headed to Vasquez Rocks.  Danny and I had seen this park on a TV show.  There have been many shows that have filmed there including Star Trek. I guess it is supposed to look like another planet, which it does!   It is also supposedly the inspiration for the first Cars movie poster background.    It was only about 25 minutes from Mandy's house.  The moment we got there the kids were up on this big rock.  We hadn't even gotten everything out of the car yet!  They found these walking sticks by the information sign and "borrowed" them while we were there. 

We walked a bit down the road and saw what is called the "Famous Rocks".  I made them stop and take a picture, but they really wanted to keep going to find more rocks to climb on.

Finally they found a place to climb up.  It was a bit steep and Mia had to be rescued by Landon and Isabel.

We got to the back of the Famous Rocks and the kids started up right away.  Danny went up with them while Mandy, Grant and I stayed behind.  

Farther and farther up.

Grant wanted out of the stroller and tried climbing up, but his little legs were too small.  Then he started to cry for Danny.  He could see all of the big kids, but he can't do what they can yet.

If you look really close in this picture you can see Grant at the bottom and Landon on the rock.  He climbed the highest.  He is straight up and a little to the right of where Grant is standing. He is a little black dot.

They all made it down safely and had a bunch of water to drink.  They played around on some other rocks but it was starting to get quite hot, so we decided to head home for lunch and another adventure.  The next thing was bowling.  Landon and Andrew were working on their bowling belt loops for scouts, so we went over the rules and etiquette before.  They were all excited to play and especially when they were winning.  Here is Andrew doing some crazy throw.  Mia and Claire did the squat and throw method.  I have never seen a ball travel so slowly down the lane.

Final scores - Isabel won.  It was a close game for a while.  It was interesting to see that Mia and Claire hung in there with the scores. 

A trip to San Francisco

Last week Natalie was going out of town for the week, so we planned on doing some activities around here on Tuesday and then heading for LA on Wednesday.  It was a toss up between Monterey and San Francisco.  Of course Andrew wanted to go to the aquarium and Claire wanted to go to a zoo.  So we compromised and sort of did both.  We headed to the California Academy of Sciences.  It has both zoo and aquarium animals to see.  We went there a couple of years ago around Thanksgiving, but the kids didn't seem to remember that.  Andrew used to be really into dinosaurs, so he liked the large T-Rex replica in the lobby.

Andrew really liked this huge sting ray in one of the aquariums. 

Checking out more fish.

I couldn't seem to get a picture of them looking at the albino alligator, but they thought it was really cool looking.

Grant liked getting up close to the fish in the aquarium. 

Claire was nervous to touch anything in the touching pool, but she finally touched it when Andrew did. 

In the amazon underwater forest. 

Claire would not pose for a picture up on the living roof.

Andrew and Danny went to an exhibit on earthquakes where you go into a house that actually shakes.  I took Claire and Grant into the play area for little kids.  I think that both of them could have stayed in there all day.  Claire was content to play kitchen on this boat.

A picture in front of the fountain outside.

Since we were so close, we decided to head over to the Golden Gate Bridge on the way home.  Andrew has been asking about going there for a while.  Here he is with Alcatraz in the distance.

A cross section of the cables. 

Yeah, a family picture!

Then we decided to walk onto the bridge.  Andrew really wanted them to do this, but Grant did not like the noise of the cars so I took Andrew and Claire. 

It was really windy on the bridge and we had to navigate all of the other walkers and the bikes.  Andrew wanted to go all the way across, but we didn't have time.  We asked a ranger and he said it was 1.7 miles across.  Maybe next time!

A view of the city on the way back.

I try so hard to get a picture of all of them looking at the camera.  I got pretty close this time. 

Once we got back in the car Grant fell asleep really quickly and we headed home to pack for our next adventure.