Los Angeles, California

California has had a wet and cold Spring like Utah, and it has made for amazing swathes of yellow and purple along hillsides, roadsides and just about anywhere else there is wild space. It was the same way through Nevada and the usually brown sections of the drive. Amazing. That also means that some of our days are a bit on the cooler side. Yesterday was one of those days, so we took off for a day trip to L.A., which is a two-hour drive from Carlsbad.

Our first stop was Paramount Pictures where we took a 2+ hour studio tour that was really fun and interesting. What history!

We drove through beautiful Beverly Hills neighborhoods, down Rodeo Drive with its fancy shops and on to the Santa Monica Pier.

We rode the roller coaster and laughed ourselves to tears. This was Tennie's first roller coaster about ten years ago and I'm pretty sure we scarred her for life! That thing seems so harmless but it lurches and lunges and I was pretty sure we were going to fly off the tracks at some places. Oh it was fun!

As pure luck would have it, it was little Cam's 2nd birthday party that afternoon and we made our way to Balboa Park, tasting L.A. traffic at rush hour. My sister-in-law Heather will have her baby this Sunday, Easter Day. That woman is a work horse, I tell you!

She and Geoff's brother Christian know how to throw a party! There was so much food and an Easter egg hunt throughout the area. It was great to meet their L.A. "family" of friends. They always make us feel like a million bucks, those two. It was great to be there.

And that cute little Cam sure connected to Ceci. As soon as he saw her he held out his arms and then clung to her in a full bear hug for several minutes. So cute!

And then we made the drive down the coast to our little beach bungalow ready for some more beach days!