Los Angeles

I am going to be having this baby boy in just a few weeks and I know Mike and I will have even less "us" time when that happens. So we planned a little 'babymoon' to Los Angeles for the day. We left super early in the morning, like 4am and got back around 1am but it was a great day! We planned it all out and amazingly everything went according to our plans and we got great California weather too! The only downside was the horrible traffic which we somewhat expected but its always frustrating when it takes 40 minutes to go 4 or 5 miles.

Our first stop was the USC campus. The campus has lots of museums on it. We went to the Natural History Museum because it was the first Tuesday of every month so it was free and we went to the California Science Center. The Natural History Museum was really nice but the Science Center was a bit of a disappointment so I'm glad it was free.

These purple trees were everywhere! I think they are really pretty!

We loved the Natural History Museum though! We love animals and history and we really love dinosaurs and they had a great dinosaur exhibit. Seeing all the dinosaurs made me think of Daniel but I was also kind of glad he wasn't there because he would've wanted to touch everything and the museum was crowded because it was free. The nice part of going to a museum on a free day was that we didn't feel like we had to stop and see everything or spend a certain amount of time to get our moneys worth so we just saw what we wanted and spent as much time as we wanted to be able to enjoy it.

The museum also had a T-Rex family. So we got to see a baby t-rex which I'd never seen before.

We also saw some big stuffed animals of course and I didn't feel like we needed pictures but Mike wanted one with the honey badger.

After the science museum we drove down to Hollywood Blvd. We had planned to walk the streets and find some stars on the walk of fame and visit the Chinese and Dolby Theaters before lunch.We had some interesting experiences walking around Hollywood. First of all, I never want to walk around here at night. Also, you can't use a bathroom in any of the stores or restaurants unless you are a customer, at least at the shops further from the theaters that aren't as nice. Now I am 35 weeks pregnant and sometimes I just have to go so thankfully Mike went in and explained that his pregnant wife needed the restroom and a lady in a pizza shop was kind enough to give me the key :) (Mike had to wait until later..sorry only perks for pregnant ladies). Also, apparently Mike and I look like we are from France. A couple asked us to take a picture of them and asked us if we were visiting from France???? I'm not sure if this is a compliment or why but it was funny. When we told them we were from Vegas they got excited because they thought we had lots of money so we could take a bus tour...um no. We did a lot of walking though so we got to see lots of stars.

The Chinese Theater was fun to see too. Last time we were here they were doing construction so this time we could actually see everything.

This is as close as we got to the Hollywood Sign

Then we went out for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was pretty good! It was also really nice to sit and take a break from all the walking we'd been doing.

Los Angeles part 2

After lunch we had to walk back to the car. This wouldn't have been bad except for all of the annoying bus tour people shoving pamphlets in your face. Seriously people do you really think I'm going to buy anything from you if you continue to harass me after I've said no? Although we did meet some nice people and I was told congratulations on the new baby 3 times while we were out walking around :)

Our next stop was the Los Angeles Temple. We drove through some interesting areas on the way and also Beverly Hills!It was fun to see Beverly Hills. The houses are really pretty but the nicest house in the area was the temple ;) I was blown away by the temple. I've seen pictures of it but it is so much bigger than it looks and it is beautiful! The grounds were gorgeous too and it was so relaxing to walk around. I wish we could have gone in and done a session but maybe next time. I also didn't know it is the second largest so that was interesting to learn. I always feel so peaceful at the temple. After a busy day, it was so nice to relax at the temple for a bit.

We also went to the visitors center :)

After the temple we decided to stay with our theme of relaxing so we headed to the beach. First we drove a bit along the coast but I guess you have to get out of Malibu for the coastline drive to get pretty and we didn't have time so that was a little disappointing since all we saw were houses blocking our ocean view. We did get out though in Malibu and went to the beach. It was a bit chilly so their weren't a lot of people around which was really nice. The water was freezing but we still had fun walking on the beach and sitting just looking out at the ocean. The sound of the waves is really relaxing.

After the beach we went back to Santa Monica for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! The food was so good and we also stopped for milkshakes on the way home. The drive home was long and we were exhausted but it was a wonderful trip!! Thank you to grandma for watching Daniel for the day so we could get away together :)

Grandma Kate's Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Grandma Kate's birthday! She got to go out for a romantic night out on the town for her actual birthday so we did her at home birthday celebration on Sunday. Mike and I made a homemade snickerdoodle cake! It was sooo yummy and sweet! Daniel also made grandma a special birthday card :)

Happy Birthday Mom and Grandma!! We hope you had an awesome weekend!