This is L.A.

A few weeks ago I got a call from my mom to tell me that a friend of mine's baby had an accident and had died.  He was a healthy 15 month old boy.  It was so tragic and heartbreaking.  I flew down to Los Angeles for the funeral.  It was a quick trip, but I am so glad I was able to go.  Even though it was so incredibly sad, it was also so inspiring to see how their family was handling such a horrible trial.  I have learned so much from the experience. 

I flew down with my parents and we arrived the day before the funeral.  We decided to see some sights from my childhood and my Mom's.  I grew up in sunny Southern California and my mom grew up right in Los Angeles.

The first two pictures are of a mural done by Leo Politi.  He was an artist and a children's book author that was friend's with my Grandparents.  I met him when I was really young.  We are lucky to have some of his books and art work.  These murals are on Olvera Street in Los Angeles.  It's called "Blessing of the Animals".  Every Saturday before Easter people bring their animals and a Priest will give them a blessing.  Some bring them all dressed up with sombreros on :).

 Guess who I ran into at the mall?  Remember "Saved By The Bell"?  Slater?  Yep- Mario Lopez.  I was surprised to see that he wasn't that big.  I was expecting him to be taller and more muscular than he was.

This last picture is in the "hood" of Los Angeles.  This was my Grandparents house, the one my mom grew up in.  It looks NOTHING like it.  It used to be white and it didn't have all those trees and fences.  My Grandpa had an art studio out back behind the house where he made pottery, developed his photographs and other things.  It was fun to relive some childhood memories while we were there.

Sweet Dreams

Kids are so cute when they are sleeping.  I guess Owen thought he needed a hat and gloves and a sword to sleep wiith.

Owen dressed as a dragon and on Leah's bed.

This picture is kind of creepy.  This one is of Owen after he went swimming.

Connor and Leah after a long day at Disneyland.  Notice his hand in her mouth?

The Latest

Connor really wanted to trick everyone for Thanksgiving and have an ice cream cake that looked like a turkey :).  The outside was all caramel and it tasted pretty good.  It was funny.  No, I didn't make it :)

I was in charge of our ward's Christmas party this year.  The Primary was in charge of the nativity and they asked Leah to be Mary.  She did such a cute job.  She was o.k. doing it as long as she didn't have to talk.

A tradition we have started around Christmas is to go to The Ogden Christmas Village.  It is really well done and it's free.  Can't beat that.  Here is Connor as a caroler.

Christmas was great and the kids really enjoyed it.  Santa brings way too much.  I guess the kids were good this year :).  One of the hardest parts after Christmas is figuring out where to put the new stuff in our little house. 

Connor got some stilts from his Grandpa and Grandma.  His friend and him put them together by themselves.  It was one of his favorite toys he got.

Disneyland

We had an AMAZING time at Disneyland.  It was worth every penny.  We got 3-day park hopper passes and were there from opening until closing every day.  We even went to Mickey's Halloween party on Tuesday night.  On Tuesday we were at Disneyland for 16 hours.  Over the course of 3 days we spent 38 hours at Disneyland!  The kids were troopers.  They had so much fun.  They have been begging to go back since we got home.  The other day Connor told me he wanted a toy for Christmas that cost $100.  I told him how the toy wouldn't last and would probably break and that it was expensive.  I suggested we take that amount of money and instead of spending it on a toy, we save it for our next trip to Disneyland.  He said, "REALLY?!  We can do that?!!"  :).

The Beach

I really need to get the rest of our trip blogged!  Here are a few photos of us at the beach in San Diego.  We went to La Jolla Shores and my favorite beach La Jolla Cove where there are seals and tide pools to explore.  We had a lot of fun even though it was overcast and the water was cold.

The Mormon Batallion

While in San Diego we went to the Mormon Batallion Museum.  They have totally redone it since I was a kid.  It is really nice and has a bunch of fun hands-on exhibits for the kids.  We were anxious to go there because Trent has an ancestor that was in the Mormon Batallion and we were excited to see if we could find out more about him.  We learned that he had donated ten dollars for a cannon they had displayed at the museum (the picture is below).  After the museum we walked around some of the fun shops in Old Town. 

Legoland

We weren't going to go to Legoland.  I heard that it wasn't that great and wasn't worth the money.  We know someone that lives near Legoland and she was selling some tickets she had for really cheap, so we decided we would try it out.  I am so glad we did.  We went from when it opened until closing time.  Our tickets also included the aquarium there which was pretty fun.

Below:
When we first saw this Lego family we thought they were a real family.  It was amazing to see all the things they made out of Legos.