Santa Monica

I know some of you have been waiting for the next day in the L.A. tour. Well, here it is. After Universal Studios Brad and Brody went to a place that I was able to find on AirBnB. If you aren't familiar with this company, it's a place where people rent out their space to complete strangers. Yes, I know. Crazy! But people do it. And this really lovely lady rented out this room.  Brad sent me pictures.  He said it was in an older building but VERY clean.   Different than a hotel but it did have a comfortable bed.   

They went to Hermosa Beach but then wanted to do some longboarding so ended up driving up to Venice Beach.  There is a video of Brody longboarding but I can't get it yet. 

 They stopped for lunch or dinner or whatever its called at that time.

 Brad sent me a few of these pictures and it made me smile.  It also made me miss both of them but I was so happy they were having a great time. 

  

One of their highlights was watching the skateboarders at the skate park. 

Their nighttime activity included a walk on the Santa Monica Pier.  It was busy and full of people.

It even had some yummy ice cream.  Someone looks happy. 

 

An artist drew this cute picture of the two of them.  

Universal Studios

On their 2nd day in L.A. Brad and Brody spent most of the day at Universal Studios. They stayed until the park closed and as you can see from the pictures they had a great time! Brody's favorite ride was the studio tour with the WaterWorld Show being a close second. 

L.A. - Day One

A while back Brad was listening to the radio when he heard an contest for a Hall & Oates concert in Las Vegas. Hall & Oates is currently Brody's favorite band. We aren't sure how this happened but love that he is discovering music on his own. He LOVES 80's music and we are thrilled. 

We thought it would be fun to take Brody to a Hall & Oates concert but the Las Vegas date didn't work.   We checked out their tour calendar and found a date in Los Angeles.   We decided we would surprise Brody and make it into a dad/son weekend.   

The Tuesday before the concert we got an e-mail that the concert was postponed due to a family emergency for the other band playing with them.  We were so bummed.   We weren't sure what to do but decided to stick with the weekend plan and figure out the Hall & Oates concert later.  

So as soon as Brad returned from cross country camp, he quickly packed and we headed to the airport.  Colt & Ollie were with us and they had just heard about the special trip but were sworn to secrecy and they did a fabulous job. 

We pulled up to the airport and told Brody to get out because he was getting on an airplane.  Our plan almost backfired.  He didn't want to get out.  And we had less than an hour until their flight left.  

After we settled him down and explained the plans we were able to get him to go.  

 

He looks happy here. 

Happy here, but tired and hungry as they are on their way to the hotel.

They stayed in a really nice hotel the first night.  It even had a robot that delivered things to your room. 

Since they had gotten in so late (and I messed up their rental car agreement) they went to get a rental car the next morning.   They ended up with this perfect southern california car. 

More of their LA trip coming.....

A few more.

In no particular order here are a few more pictures from our week at camp. 

Ollie and Brad before Fort Flagler

Falling can be Deadly

Skit Night

On the last evening of camp they have a skit night. The kids are divided into teams for the week and then their team has to come up with a skit. Brody, Colt, Ollie, & Darby were all on teams and they all performed in a skit. 

It was so fun watching them perform. 

This is Ollie's group.  He didn't say much but he did look cute standing there. 

 

Bo fell asleep. 

Brody did a great job and you can see some of it in the video. 

I didn't get a picture of Colt and here is a very blurry picture of Darby.  She was a judge.  She didn't say anything but she gave her approval by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down and it was the cutest thing.  

Table #1

Those silly high school kids have some interesting games they bring to camp. One of the ones for this year involves banging on the table and singing a silly song. It was one of Ollie's favorite things (it drove Brad and I bonkers). 

Thankfully he hasn't done it at home....yet. 

Cross Country Camp

Brad had his high school cross country camp again. (Olympic Peaks) Moclips is one of our favorite weeks of the year but this week at Camp is a very close 2nd. I mean VERY close. 

The kids had a blast and Brody, Colt & Ollie were quick to get involved with everything, well maybe not the lectures but they did sit in on some of them. 

 

Every camper is put on a team.  My kids (except Bo) were on teams too. 

Brody - Pink Ninjas

Colt - Sea Bears

Ollie - Blue Angels

Darby - Wild Watermelons

Playing some volleyball with their teams. 

I think we counted 12 deer out in this field on this foggy morning. 

 It really is just so beautiful up here.