California Adventure: Part II

The last part of our California vacation was spent with Michael's best friend Aaron who lives in San Francisco. He met up with us in LA and we rented an Air B&B in the West Hollywood area which was close to several things we wanted to see.

The house was amazing and had the best outdoor patio and firepit. I could have been content just staying there the entire weekend and not going anywhere. The owners lived next door and had a six year-old son Max who loved Minecraft, soccer and jumping on his trampoline (which he shared w/Gray and they became instant best buds). It was perfect.

Enjoying happy hour on the patio

We toured all kinds of things with Aaron. The first stop was a studio tour of Warner Brothers. I got sick right before the tour and had to stay behind, but the boys had fun. Luckily, I rallied the next day so I didn't have to miss out on all the fun. 

Here's Gray taking a turn in the sorting hat from Harry Potter. He got Gryffindor, of course.

Gray also saw all the Batman costumes and bat mobiles during the WB tour. Pretty sweet!

The new Minion movie opened the weekend we were there and Aaron hooked us up with a private screening on the Universal Studios lot. We got to watch it with about 40 other people and it was so great! Afterward, we headed across the lot to check out the Universal Studios theme park. Aaron's business partners hooked us up there too and we got front-of-the-line passes which allowed us to ride things in a fraction of the time. It was awesome! 

Showing the transformers who's boss

Checking out the Jurassic World playground

Gray LOVES SpongeBob SquarePants. I didn't think he was ever going to stop hugging him.

We stumbled across a storefront in Universal Studios called Grayson's Finery. If you look closely, he's holding a fart gun that Uncle Aaron purchased when Michael and I left to check out the transformers ride. Can't leave those two alone for a second! Of course there's no volume or off switch on the fart gun. Thanks, Uncle Aaron. 

A real live Minion!

Waiting our turn for the Despicable Me ride which was 3-D if you couldn't tell

On our last day together, we explored the Griffith Observatory and La Brea Tar Pits. Both were really neat and I was glad for a break from the theme parks. I'm more of a science/park kinda girl. Plus, the Griffith Observatory is housed in a beautiful art deco building and I soaked up every wonderful detail.

If you look just between Gray and me you can see the Hollywood sign. We were on the rooftop of the Observatory. 

The La Brea Tar Pits were surprisingly wonderful as well. Here's a depiction of mammoths, with the poor mama getting stuck in the tar. It's pretty interesting all the fossils they've discovered in the tar over the decades and still are uncovering even today. 

 This was one of my favorite exhibits. It was a simulation so you could see how difficult it is to pull something up out of the tar. 

Buddies for life

Also buddies for life

California Adventure: Part 1

We took an awesome trip to Los Angeles in July, cramming a bunch of fun into 10 days. We flew to Orange County on Independence Day and met up with Pappa, Susu, Amy, Ben and Holten. We stayed in Newport Beach most of the time, but also visited Disney, California Adventure Park and rounded out the trip visiting with Michael's BFF Aaron.

We had an incredible time and made so many wonderful memories. It's impossible to capture everything here, but I pulled together some photos of the first part of our trip:

Excited for an airplane ride!

An impromptu picnic before the July 4th fireworks (aka one of the craziest nights of our life...we ended up dodging amateur fireworks all around us before the night was over. Insane!)

Holt, Gray, Uncle Ben and Michael on the tram headed to Disneyland

The most magical place on earth

Chillin with Goofy

Gray could ride pretty much everything since he's so tall, and was super excited to be able to drive me on several of them

Trying their hand at the Sword in the Stone

Both boys ended up loving the carousel. We rode it twice during the day and again when it was lit up at night on our second visit

One day we headed over to Laguna Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean

Pappa and his boys

My beach babe

Holten and his Pappa

Gray and Momma

Day two of Disney we headed to the California Adventure park where there's a full scale replica of Radiator Springs. The boys were in heaven! 

The tower of tires

Gray posed about five times and kept asking me to take his picture like he was on a photo shoot. Too funny!

The entrance to the Cars ride. We waited 90 minutes, but it was one of their favorites.

A trip to Disney isn't complete without some mouse ears!

SuSu got her ears pierced for the first time in her life. Scandalous! 

We stayed right by Crystal Cove State Park and I loved watching Michael and Gray explore the beach, chase the waves and discover driftwood and seashell treasures. 

Gray took this picture of us. Not bad!

My loves

So July happened...

It's safe to say that this summer has gotten away from me. You probably picked up on that given I haven't posted anything in a long while.

A few things have happened over the past month -- Nana and Popper moved from Houston to Oklahoma, we finished t-ball season, went on a 10-day vacation to California, Gray attended two summer camps, my grandmother and uncle have been in the hospital, we took a weekend trip to Lake Tenkiller, celebrated a handful of family birthdays, threw a baby shower for my sister and somehow in there we managed to work and do basic life necessities like laundry.

I'm never one to wish away summer, but I will admit that the start of school and the structured schedule it brings will be welcomed this year. We've had a really fun summer and Gray has experienced a ton of new things at camps, in addition to making memories with all of his grandparents, but man, I'm worn out.

So let's hit the reset button for August and I promise I'll try to get back on the blogging bandwagon.