Los Angeles

Three weekends ago (September 16), Dan and I concluded our seemingly non-stop traveling by visiting Los Angeles, where our good friends Scot and Brittany Bayles are from. I know I've driven through downtown LA as a kid, and visited Rock family in the area numerous times, but I don't remember doing anything touristy. This being the first weekend after Dan's first week of work, the trip actually proved to be a stress-reliever to "get away from it all" and just have some fun.

The start of the trip was not so peachy-fun though. We were driving Friday after work, and Aiyana refused to take a bottle and screamed for a good chunk of time. I knew eventually I'd have to just pull over and nurse her but I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. Brittany, remembering that I always sing Aiyana to sleep, encouraged all of us to sing primary songs. So we did! After one or two songs, Aiyana calmed down and eventually fell asleep for the rest of the trip. It's amazing how much she loves that music. The best part, though, is that after she fell asleep, the four of us adults just kept right on singing primary songs for an hour, laughing as we fumbled through forgotten words or tried to sing duets with "the boys" (such as A Child's Prayer). We discovered that we had to team up as couples because our husbands were almost useless without us!

Saturday morning, our tour began:

The Griffith Observatory was really cool if you like science. I'm not a super-science nerd or anything, but I am so intrigued by planets and everything about space. It's fascinating trying to wrap my head around a whole universe outside our small little planet. As for Griffith Park, we didn't have time to walk all around but that park is enormous and gorgeous! I don't love running, but I would thoroughly enjoying jogging along those trails just to see the sights.

Brittany and me. It was such a hazy morning that you can barely see the Hollywood sign in the back, and only a light sketch of downtown LA in this next photo.

 My little doll-face who loves being in the stroller.

 We completely stood out as tourists when we loaded this van for a tour through Beverly Hills. It was so relaxing though, minus a screaming episode with Aiyana. There were no seat belts in this open van, so Dan originally had Aiyana strapped to his chest in the Bijorn. In retrospect, this was not a safe idea, or even a good idea when the heavy wind blew in Aiyana's face. Poor baby couldn't breathe well because of the force of air, so we unstrapped her and I cradled her in my arms, while Dan covered me with our sweaters. Being covered up like this proved to be even more helpful when Aiyana screamed her lungs out, refusing the bottle yet again, and resulting in me nursing her on the road! She eventually went to sleep. Fortunately, the other occupants in the van was a big Hispanic family with a range of kids and they were completely understanding. (As for the two Swedish ladies in the front row, if they were upset we couldn't understand them anyway!)

This is the church used in Sister Act.

We took a mini pit-stop to check out the Hollywood sign look-out point.

This story is interesting! It used to say HOLLYWOODLAND until a land-slide brought down the last four letters, and they just never rebuilt it.

I think this belonged to Elvis? I'm not entirely sure though...

Julia Roberts' residence. Gorgeous! This was definitely my favorite house.

This one belongs to Dr. Phil

It was somewhere along these lines where Aiyana worked herself up so much that I could no longer take pictures or even focus on instructing Dan to take pictures. It was a fun drive though! We heard all sorts of tid-bits about where movie roles were filmed, or which actress drank a sip of coffee at THIS restaurant, etc. It was information that really is not important, and I get my gossip fill each week in the Wal-Mart check-out line flipping through the magazines that I never buy, but it all added to the LA atmosphere. I felt like I was on a safari, though, trying so hard to spot a "real-live celebrity!" like they were a rare species or something. "Where are they all?" I kept asking Dan. I reminded myself of the kids on Jurassic Park who are in the vans touring the park and don't see any of the dinosaurs. HOWEVER, just half a mile from David Beckham's house, this $400,000 corvette came racing up the hill past us. Our tour guide insisted the driver was David B, asking if any of us saw his tattooed arms! Dang, I missed him!

 I love this picture--not just because Aiyana looks stinkin' cute wearing my sunglasses, but because it is very obvious where Aiyana gets her habit of sticking out her tongue! Like-father-like-daughter in so many ways. Speaking of Dan, he represented Vegas well! Throughout the tour, our guide kept asking random questions about celebrities or historical events, etc. Dan was the only one that could answer almost all of them correctly, to our tour guide's suprise. He kept referring to Dan as "Vegas" and questioned why Dan knew so much random trivia. We explained that insomnia and Wikipedia go hand-in-hand.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre
"Since 1927, the Chinese Theatre has been home of the star powered red carpet movie premieres and special events, where Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars have come to watch their movies! The most famous movie theatre in the world is known for its unique forecourt of the stars, featuring cements hand and footprints of major move stars from past to present."

(Robert Downey jr)

I love Lucille Ball (I grew up watching and owning every "I Love Lucy" episode that ever aired! Sentimental times with my mom) but I couldn't find her prints. Bummer... She's hilarious, even if only in a 1950's humor.

The Santa Monica Pier! We loved walking along the pier, passing the carnival and unique restaurants, observing the beach, while also watching the fisherman and side-show acts, and being serenaded by a man playing piano. Ah...it was a good place for romance and to fall in love. Or, in our case, get over a fight we'd had that morning and fall back in love.

In fact, we were still trying to hide that we were mad at each other when Brittany instructed us to smile for a picture. In between maneuvering for the shot, I may have whispered to Dan, "Can this be our 'make-up' picture?" And that's how we got over our fight (thanks Britt!) with plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful weather and music. Of course, if that photo didn't encourage us to make-up, our meal would have. We ate in the basement of the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant and it was delicious! We had a booth with a window overlooking the beach and I ate the most yummy shrimp tacos. I've been craving them ever since and have tried mimicking them for dinner, twice now, since we've been back.

Have I mentioned that I love having Britt and Scot here in Las Vegas with us? I still can't believe our big move landed us in the same state as our fun family, and a set of "couples" friends from law school. Everyone needs at least one husband-and-wife combo for hang outs! (I miss the rest of the law school gang, but this is a good start until our reunion!)

That's the last trip Dan and I will be taking for a while, minus a quick jaunt up to Utah in the next month or so to grab some final belongings.  We close on our house this Friday, (once again SUPPOSEDLY) and have arranged for the majority of our "stuff" in Provo to be moved into our house on Monday, Oct. 10th. We decided it was going to be too stressful to try and get the entire place painted and carpeted before we move, so it'll be a more gradual process now. I'm excited though!