We had a great time in LA. When we went to Cape Cod it was great too but also hard! This trip we took my mother in law with us and that gave Lonnie and I a few breaks!
Lonnie lived in LA until he was 11. He loves it there and he feels at home. He still has family out there (his moms side) so we did some visiting with them as well as some touristy things.
B did great on the flights. The first flight was 45 minutes and she just played in our laps the whole time. I didn't give her any snacks or toys on this one because I wanted to wait until the longer flight to pull out my bag of tricks. I also didn't nurse her on this one either. It is so short that you don't really get up too high so her ears didn't bother her at all. The second flight was 2 hours and 45 minutes. I nursed her on takeoff but she didn't go immediately to sleep. She fussed for a bit because she couldn't get comfortable. Finally I got her to sleep and she slept for the first half of the trip. She woke up happy and just played and ate a ton of snacks the rest of the time.
We got there on Saturday. That evening we went to Lonnie's aunt and uncle's apartment (Izzy and Lampy). Well I guess it is Bob's (that is what we call Lonnie's mom!) aunt and uncle but whatever. They are 94 and 92. They are not in good health but we had a great dinner and visit. Blakely did good considering it was over 2 hours past her bedtime. The time change was a bit difficult at first but we did get her back on schedule. I didn't get any pictures of the family with my camera. Someone else did take some but they haven't been emailed to me. This is a picture from a couple of years ago when we went out there to see them.
Sunday morning B woke up at 5...awesome. In her defense that was actually 7 our normal time :) Lonnie and I decided to walk to the beach and let his mom sleep. It was early people!
We were trying to keep B up a little longer that morning before her first nap to try and get back on track. It worked but she was sleepy...
We had a big family lunch on Sunday afternoon. Instead of going to Izzy and Lampy's apartment we went to Lonnie's cousins condo. Small backstory here. Izzy and Lampy don't have air conditioning, which is never really a problem in southern California. Except those 2 days...it was like 100 degrees there! That is totally unheard of so their place was pretty hot. We knew we were going to BJ and Kimberley's condo and we just knew they would have AC... Well they didn't. It was so hot people. I mean, I live in Arkansas so I am used to it being 100...it has been 105 here for like 3 months! But for it to be 100 with no ac....I am NOT used to that! But even though it was super hot and we were all super sweaty we had a great time visiting with everyone. They have a son that it a year older than B so I was able to let her crawl around and play with all of his toys and she was very happy. I let her nap in his crib upstairs. She was hot too!!
She wanted to play around in the crib for a while so I sat outside of her room to watch her until she fell asleep...here I am...wet washcloth and all!
On Monday Lonnie and I went to Disneyland. He used to go there all the time as a kid but I have never been. He has been telling me about it for years and I was excited to go but we didn't want to take B. We left her at the hotel with Bob and her cousin, Sherry. We stayed gone all day long and it was seriously one of the best days ever. We had so much fun spending time with each other and doing something we haven't done together before. We needed that date!
This was my favorite!
worn out!
When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk down to the San.ta Moni.ca Pier and eat dinner.
I didn't really plan ahead because we just kind of ran out the door but I forgot B's jacket. Well she got cold. We bought the smallest sweatshirt we could find and I put some socks on her. I took about 100 pics of this because it was just too cute!
Sherry, Pat, Bob, and me
Her Minn.ie Mo.use ears I got her from D-land. I may have gotten her too much Dis.ney stuff ;)
The next day we rented bikes and rode to Ven.ice Beach. They have the most amazing bike path there. It stretches for miles and is beautiful.
Her first taste of ice cream
We wore her out
That night Lonnie took me out to dinner. We went to a GREAT sushi place.
On Wednesday we went to Hollywood to walk around. We went to the Chin.ese Theater and after that we drove along Mulholla.nd Drive...sooo scenic!
On Thursday Lonnie and I had another day date. This time we went to Malibu. In the morning we rode horses and in the afternoon we went to the beach. And yes, you read that right, I rode a horse! I had only ridden twice before. Once at summer camp when I was like 11 and a few years ago we rode on the beach in Grand Cay.man. I was nervous for sure! But after a few minutes I got over it and it was so fun!
driving in to Malibu
The beach was so great. The weather was perfect and I could have stayed out there all day long.
yes, she's one
This is her "if you don't hurry with the Puffs I am going to freak!" face
What? I'm sweet...
She loves all of the attention
On our last day we decided to rent bikes again because it was so much fun the first time. We rode for hours! We got to see the space shuttle fly over twice also...super neat!
toes in the Pacif.ic She wasn't too thrilled about it because it was cold.
seriously..how cute is she?
She did pretty well on the flight home. By then end of it she was pretty done. She just wanted to be home and able to crawl around. We ended up giving her the phone that was playing music and she chilled out quite a bit.
Sorry this got so long! There were so many pictures! We had a great time and I know we will go back soon. Well not too soon. I'm ready to stay home for a bit. 2 big vacations with the baby while trying to wean has worn me out!
