LA trip part two

Part of the tour that I told you about in Part One of the LA trip was up to this viewing area where we could see the Hollywood sign and downtown LA. I love city views. If I lived in LA I think it would be so cool to have a view like this... and the 45 million dollars that would be required for the view. :)

The famous sign... which TV always makes look closer and cooler.

The Hollywood Bowl (which also has been in a lot of movies)

I found this sign to be funny... such an odd number for a fine.

Our tour bus driver took this picture and insisted that we hold up this sign... But, hey! We're tourists so I guess it's okay. :)

We took a drive out to Santa Monica that afternoon.

We rode the ferris wheel and I was so impressed that it only cost us $6... the one at the State Fair costs more like $20 (for 2 people).

We sat on the beach for a while and just listened to the ocean and watched the crazies who were actually IN the water. It was SOOO cold! And there were parents with their little kids in there. NO thank you! But the view was awesome and there's just something about the beach that is so relaxing.

LA trip part one

Last week George & I were able to go to LA for a few days on a spur of the moment trip to see Dancing with the Stars and do a little sightseeing. We had a great time and are really thankful for family who are willing to keep the kids and who travel with their jobs to be able to give us frequent flyer miles. :)

We took a Hollywood stars homes tour on the first day we were in LA. It was a cheesy tour for sure... picture a 15 passenger van with the top cut off... and that's it! We had headphones to hear the driver point out to us all the sights. Are you curious what we saw? Here's the tour...

Lauren Conrad's house from the Hills (apparently I missed the season when she lived here. I only knew about her apartment)

The house from the ORIGINAL Father of the Bride movie (sorry it's blurry)

Jennifer Aniston's house

The Elvis door... Elvis lived in this house at one point and his fans came and carved messages and wrote notes to him on this door. The new owners have all kept it intact.

Courteney Cox Arquette & David Arquette's house

This is Greystone Park. It's been used in a lot of movies including National Treasure, Batman & American Sweethearts.

The paparrazzi hanging out outside of Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes' house.

The house in the top of the shot is David & Victoria Beckham's house

This was George Clooney's house when he was a "struggling" actor

Behind these gates is the house where Michael Jackson died.

This is the house from Fresh Prince of Bel Air

This is a 1.6 MILLION dollar car (yes, you read that right). It's owned by one of the shop owners on Rodeo drive.

This was Jennifer Aniston & Brad Pitt's house... known now as the house that Angelina broke up. ;(

Richard Gere's house (he apparently is rarely here).

Bob Barker (from The Price is Right)... this house was SO close to the street with no security gate.

We also saw the houses of Ben Stiller, Charlize Theron, Joel Madden & Nicole Richie, Christina Aguilera, Dr. Phil, Beverly Hillbillies, but most of those were either hidden or my photos turned out terribly blurry!

Miscellaneous October

Just some random pictures of the kids we (and by we, I mean George) took of the kids while the weather was so nice and we were out in the yard.

Sweet sisters....

George's artsy shots...

Pumpkin Painting!!!

This past week our playgroup got together for a pumpkin painting party. Unfortunately Hallie was sick the night before so we couldn't go. The kids were REALLY bummed since they knew about it all week and were looking forward to it. So I decided to do our own painting party that afternoon to make up for what they missed. It was so fun to watch them decorate their little pumpkins and they had a great time doing it. This is by far WAY easier and cleaner than carving them... so I think that we'll be doing this for years to come.

Dewberry Farms

At the beginning of October (I'm WAY Behind, I know!) I went with some friends and our kids to a place called Dewberry Farms. The kids had a great time playing on a fort, riding a cow train, wagon ride & seeing some animals. All in all it was a pretty neat place and we had a great time.

The kids riding the cow train...

Duck Races

A few of the friends we came with... can you believe there were actually more! :)

The real pumpkin patch... let's just say that this family prefers church parking lot pumpkin patches! :)

Our kids had a blast on this fort!

And these roller slides were a real hit with them all too!