Day 16

Knotts Berry Farm

Day 15

We woke up to a cold & rainy morning. Mike had work to do so the kiddos & I just stayed in & played for the morning. After lunch we finally were home to speak to the animal control person to report the pit bull that attacked Sammy. We have been missing them for days now! Don't think anything is going to come of it, but we wanted to make sure it was on file so if the pit bull attacked again they would know it wasn't the first time. Then I headed to a used book store & found that the weather had improved greatly!! So we headed to the beach!! We were there for 2 1/2 hours!! It was a little chilly in the shade but felt great in the sun. Kate had fun chasing birds again & also running down hills of sand. Alex was fussy but was finally happy sitting & playing with Kate's sand toys & well eating sand. He seems to really like sand!
Now it's time for bed!

Kate can TALK

It's hard for me to believe that Kate has only been talking for a year. It was May of last year while we were at the beach with my family that she said apple & then said Help when we got home. I can't believe that until she was 20 months we only communicated by sign language since all she said was mama & dada. Now she can sing full songs & say full sentences. I love how southern she sounds & the way she says please! She now tells us when she is hungry,( which is ALL the time!) what she can see & asks what noise she is hearing. She loves to tell us she loves us & baby Alex. I now think it was worth the wait!!

But now I wonder if I am going to have to wait as long as I did with Kate to hear Alex talk!

Day 14

Donuts!

Prince of Bel Air house

awesome views in Bevelry Hills

Beverly Hills view

I love the palm trees lining the streets!

Reagan has a nice view huh?

Mike and Kate in front of President Reagan's grave

We headed back to LA this morning. First we stopped at Randy's Donuts in Inglewood for some yummy donuts. We had seen something on TV that featured this place so we checked it out! Then we headed to Beverly Hills & drove down Rodeo drive again. I am still surprised by what a short street it is! It was about 8:30 so we decided to look at star homes again. We brought a Map of Stars home off the side of the road & then spend like almost 3 hours driving around Bevelry Hills & Bel Air looking at houses! It was really beautiful & we saw tons of construction going on. Lots of wealth around here & Mike is loving all the nice cars! It was lunch time so we headed to Santa Monica Pier. We walked the pier & took some pictures, we weren't all that impressed. Then we drove by Venice beach & took the Pacific coast Highway to Malibu. Malibu was very calm & beautiful, I understand why stars live there! Then we headed to Reagan's library so Mike could see his grave. It was at a beautiful location with such a great view! And now it's 4pm & we are heading home & hope not to hit too much traffic!!
It's sad that our vacation is halfway over!

Breakfast day 14

Alex's new face he keeps making!

Day 13

Another cold & rainy day when we woke up this morning. We stayed in & then the sun came out so we headed for the beach around 3. When we got there it looked like everyone that had been on the beach was leaving! Mike & I looked at each other, like what is going on?? Well it was very WINDY!! We lasted about 30 minutes & then came back home! There wasn't anyone surfing & there were tons of sail boats. For the first time we could see the Santa Cantaline island, which due to the smog I guess we have never been able to see before. It's funny, down the street there is car place called "Smog & Lube."

That is pretty much it for today. Except Alex started making this new face that is too funny! He sticks out his lips like he is going to give you a big kiss, really funny! Another thing that happened, I made Alex some sweet potato cubes to eat, but he didn't really care for them, so I gave some for Kate! She used to eat them all the time, but stopped eating them about I don't know a year or so ago, but not today--she ate what I gave her & asked for more & she called them cantaloupe! Whatever works I guess!!

Oh and there has been this cat that keeps walking on our back fence that freaks the dogs out. Well today the cat jumped on our roof!!! We were all looking at it & then it jumped onto our neighbors roof-crazy cat!!

Day 12

The weather was cold & yucky today so we tried to find some where to play indoors, but we weren't successful so we just played at a park for a while. Then we did something that is really "against my religion"and went grocery shopping on a Saturday! Actually it really wasn't that bad. Then we had lunch & then the kids took a nap. After nap time, it appeared that the sun was out so we headed to the beach!! Kate enjoyed chasing birds & playing in the sand, while we froze! It was cold!! We headed home to warm up & watch a movie called Megamind.

No TV

Mike has decided that Kate needs a break from watching TV for this month we are in California. So no Dora or Mickey Mouse. Pretty much everyday at home she watches TV in the morning, usually while I am getting dressed/dealing with Alex. A long time ago I put one of her toddler CDs on my iPhone. We will listen to it at home usually when we are up in the playroom. She refers to listening to her music by saying "Elephant" since the album cover that shows on my iPhone which is really a tea pot, looks like a elephant to her. So every day while we have been here in California. Kate asks me for "Elephant, Mommy, please!". So we have been listening to a ton of toddler music ALL the time!! Fun times! Kate will dance around & can almost sing every song! It's so cute!

Day 11

Today has been very low key. We even got to sleep until almost 7 this morning, yesterday really wore us all out!! Mike had work to do this morning & then we headed to this Scape booking place that I have had my eye on all week. I went in for like 10 minutes & got my fill & then we headed to the mall. Mike finally found some shoes that had the "green" on them that he wanted & I even treated myself to some new shoes! We also got Kate more figures from the Disney store. She now has 5 sets of them: Bambi, Little Mermaid, Snow White, The classic Mickey mouse characters & Aladdin. Next we had lunch at Five Guys which we really enjoyed. The rest of the day we have all just napped & recovered from yesterday!