One of the first things that I really wanted to do in LA was to walk around 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. They always have so much going on there, and as you can see in the pictures this time did not disappoint either. The most exciting event that was going on was this cute little monkey that would shake your hand and even let you take his picture for one dollar. What a smart and rich monkey! Of course all three of the kids wanted to shake the monkeys hand, so here they are, happy but three dollars poorer:)






After walking around for a few hours we were all hungry enough for a snack, so we stopped by the Yummy Cupcake store and got ourselves some very yummy cupcakes. Micah and I went for chocolate while Rich and the girls decided on lighter, fruit or cheesecake kinds.




That evening we went and spent several hours with the Hendrys. They invited us over for dinner at their home in Pasadena. It was so good to see them again and even though it had been years since we had seen each-other we felt like no time had passed at all. The kids had so much fun playing in the back yard and they were so sad to separate at the end of the evening.

Brooke and I.

As you can see Rich and Ty had a blast playing in the back yard as well:)

Another reason that I miss LA so much is the fact that it is the only place in the US that I know of where you can get your nails done for so very cheap, so the girls and I jumped at the opportunity to do so.



After spending a couple of fun days in Los Angeles, we headed down to the Hyatt Resort in Newport Beach. Here are the kids right before we checked into our room.

Newport Beach was so much fun! We got to spend time by the pool, and also got to explore Balboa Island which was only a 10 minute drive from our hotel. I completely fell in love with the place... the cute downtown with the amazing restaurants, the adorable little vacation homes, the beautiful beaches.
Here we are walking to Ciao's for dinner. If you are ever in that area, you have to make sure and eat there at least once.

The kids were just relaxing as we were waiting for our table at Ciao's to get ready.

Rich and the kids walking around after we visited the candy shoppe on Balboa Island.

Here is our family enjoying a beautiful evening and sunset.


While in LA we had to make sure that we hit all of our favorite restaurants. Here's Micah enjoying his "squishy beans" from Kabuki's.





Rich was so excited to get his IN-N-OUT burger.

Brooke and the kids joined us for a day at the beach, and here is Rich holding cute little Tate.

Nicki and Elle loved playing together.



This is what Tate looked like by the end of the beach day. Thanks Brooke for making the drive to Newport just to hang out with us!