My new favorite picture of the boys.

Totally them. 100%. I love, love, love this silly picture.

Graumans & Pinks

On Saturday morning we went to Grauman's Chinese theater to see Megamind. No, that movie is not new and yes, it was as hilarious as it's always been! During the summer Grauman's offers families the opportunity to come watch a movie on Saturday's in the historic theater for only 25 cents per person. Cheap and super fun--right up our alley!

After the movie we checked out the names and footprints around the theater, but Talmage really fell in love with this bench. He really wanted to sit in it.

Since we were already in Hollywood we decided to go to Pink's Hot Dogs, one of the last unchecked items from my original LA bucketlist. We got there at the perfect time because the line wasn't that bad. When we left the line wrapped around the building.

The food was really good and they had a lot of exciting options (James got the Olympic rings dog--onion rings and bbq sauce on top of a 10 inch dog). I wanted to compare it to Carney's, Pink's rival that we went to a few weeks ago, so I ordered the same meal--a chili dog with cheese. I gotta say, Carney's chili was more flavorful and the hot dog had more of a snap. Pink's fry's were better. Carney's had fountain Mug's fountain root beer--always a plus for me! Pink's had famous people all over the walls, but at Carney's you got to eat in an old train car. They were both fun experiences, but I think I like Carney's more!

Me and the grub...sweating my head off in the heat!

National Night Out in Santa Monica

The boys and I had a fun night out in Santa Monica at National Night Out--a super fun event thrown by the police and fire departments. They have them all over the country, and we definitely denjoyed our local one!

I realized once I got home that I only took one pic of me, one of Evie (both shown above) and then a million of T! Here are all of the things that T got to do:

 Pet police horses.

Dance with the octopus. 

Slide down a HUGE inflatable firetruck. 

Eat lots of cotton candy. 

High five McGruff the detective dog.

 Sit on a police motorcycle.

"Climb" a rockwall!

Today I'm feeling grateful

Today I'm feeling super grateful for this little boy.

That I'm his mom, that he's my baby.

For his heart. For his life.

Because he loves sand, loves his brother and loves his sippy and blanket

(both called nurse, or sss by him!)

His favorite place is the beach, and my favorite place is right next to him.

He's a total bonafide mama's boy.

My heart is feeling like it's going to burst with joy.

LOVE. 

Our Multicultural Chinatown

Last week we braved the heat and headed to downtown Los Angeles. Since we have a few more weeks than expected in the city, I have filled up our calendar with adventures I had previously written off because of time constraints. To be perfectly honest, I was not super impressed with any of our downtown destinations. My sister told me that the weatherman was cautioning everyone to stay inside because of the extreme heat, so maybe I wasn't impressed because it was so hot. Or maybe the attractions just weren't that cool.

Chinatown was our first stop. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE a good Chinatown, I even love a mediocre Chinatown. But LA's Chinatown, meh. I don't know what it was lacking, but there was something. I love how Chinatown can usually transport me to my days as a missionary proseletyzing in a morning market in Taiwan. But during this visit, I definitely didn't leave LA. We did consume our body weight in passion fruit slushies and honeydew boba drinks so that was a plus. And T picked out a new pair of glasses.

Our visit to Chinatown did prove to be multi-cultural. I would've loved to talk with more Chinese people, but instead...

• I parked in an Italian restaurant...in chinatown.
• I smiled at a white homeless man on the street and he proceeded to flip me off over and over again.
• An indian woman rolled down the window of her car to chastize my parenting skills because I did not have hats on the boys (who were in the stroller with the awning down, ps).
• I got lost, and ended up speaking Spanish with a Mexican man and getting directions. 

Next up was the Wells Fargo History Museum. The Yelp reviews said that it was great for kids and to plan on being there 30 minutes. I don't know how old their kids were, but we stayed there for 5 minutes and basically rode that one horse-drawn buggy the whole time.

Instead of walking down this HUGE hill, we dedided to take this cute tram called Angel's Flight. It was a little crazy getting the stroller on and off of it by myself, but Talmage was in heaven the whole "flight!" He said it was the favorite part of his day.

Our last adventure was to the Grand Central Market. By this time we were all a little tired and a LOT hot so we basically did one quick spin around the place and left. Food, fruit, fish--unfortunately nothing AMAZING that I couldn't find in our Westwood market.

Except for maybe the boba drink! We did get one more before we left!

The Zoo, The Citywalk & The Bull

A day off with dad can never be wasted! The LA Zoo was our first destination and it was way more awesome than I even expected. I'll be honest, I'm pretty easily impressed--a trait that I happily inherited from my mom--but this place was really cool, even for people a little more skeptical than me!

We started at the giraffes, which T says is his most favoritest animal (maybe because they are yellow-ish?) The boys were already pink-cheeked from the sudden heatwave, but totally impressed by the giraffes!

We were really lucky to see every single animal in the zoo in motion. Because of the heat, we were warned that the animals might be a little sleepy, but everytime we came up to a new animal they immediately got up and started walking around. Maybe they heard through the animal grapevine how excited I got when they moved! 

 Me and the Hubs.

The muchachos all got to ride on the zoo carousel. T was thrilled each time the monkey went up and down while Evie focused on his waving skills. It was adorable!

 The closest I've ever been to a bear. This is not zoomed at all--we were RIGHT next to him.

Talmage always says that Everett is his best friend, and lately I have seen it more than ever. These two are so cute together! They loved playing at the park at the zoo.

After the zoo, we headed to the Universal Citywalk in Studio City (an outdoor super-mall in front of Universal Studios theme park). After leaving the car in Jurassic Parking, we were welcomed by a London guard and his guard-in-training! We've been Olympic junkies for the last little while so this was super exciting!

 Also at the Citywalk, the cutest little alien ever. This was the day before the ParaNorman premiere.

 Me and the King.

There was a super cute and HUGE candy store called It Sugar and we played there for a very long time! Really cute merchandise and super yummy candy--just ask the boys, they each got to pick out a treat (T: cars piez dispenser, Evie: peach hi chews).

We ended up going to the Saddle Ranch for dinner. James had gone there a few weeks back with his firm, and after tasting the leftover ribs I knew it was a place I wanted to visit. The baby back ribs are the BEST I've ever had, EVER. There is a ton of meat on the bone and the BBQ sauce is tangy and delish. Dinner was a hit!  

We were way too full for dessert, but our amazing waitress read T's mind and brought out the biggest cotton candy I've ever seen--on the house! She earned herself a big tip and the love of a 3 year old ;) 

 And as if life wasn't good enough after eating the best ribs ever and being treated to cotton candy, James was given the opportunity to ride the mechanical bull. I wish I could upload the video and you could all hear Talmage screaming, "Ride it, Daddy. Ride it!" I laughed so hard. It was awesome.

It was a fun, fun day with the fam and the boys were exhausted when we got home--score!

Random Random

James rode a mechanical bull this weekend, perfectly sober I might add. I have the picture to prove it and I can't wait to share--it was possibly the highlight of my summer!

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T's prayer: Please help me to be obedient and bless the Lamanites to be good listeners.

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Evie is weening himself right now and I have mixed emotions. I feel good about it and I know we've had a good ride on the nursing train, but I'm still a little sad that he's big enough to stop. The fact of the matter is, after finding a sippy cup that he likes, he prefers a cup full of cold cow's milk ALL DAY LONG. We're down to once a day now...we'll see how long that lasts.

***

We were singing the wheels on the bus and were putting different words into the song. We started singing the Talmage on the bus, and asked T what the T on the bus says. His answer: The Talmage on the bus says Evie loves me, Evie loves me, Evie loves me...

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Jim's firm asked him to stay for an extra two weeks. Technically, we are supposed to be in Disneyland right now, but we are definitely not. Luckily, a super nice family from church is letting us stay in their apartment for the next two weeks since they are out of town. And luckily, Coscto switched our Disneyland dates for no charge. And luckily, Jim's firm is compensating him handsomely for the extra work. I'm not complaining...except for the fact that I was supposed to be in Disneyland today, and I'm not.

***

With two grumpy boys in tow, I picked up the contents of my purse from the sandbox (Everett loves to take everything out of my purse these days) and hurried back to the car. When I got home, I realized that I had taken how someone else's unused diaper--huggies, size 5. Evie is still in size 3. I've felt rather guilty about it today and I'm considering bringing it back to the park. Ridiculous? Yes. And if I just leave it there, could I get a ticket for littering?

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Our neighbors in our old house would pound on the walls everytime our boys made a peep. They ended up filing a formal complaint against us to the managers because of "baby noises in the morning." We loved that place, but that was definitely not it's best quality. Our new pad has nice neighbors...and furniture! In fact, we've been here 24 hours and Everett has started cruising for the first time. Cute.

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We spent almost all of last week locked in the house. The boys and I were sick. It hit Evie the hardest, and we ended up in the ER. His fever was high and they couldn't bring it down. He wouldn't eat and no one could calm him down. It got scary for a while there. He has a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. Antibiotics have made a world of difference. I have everyday this week planned double busy to make up for last week ;)

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T (totally randomly and at a million mph): I went skiing down a big hill with lots of snow. LOTS of snow and it was white and I was wearing my roller skates and they were yellow.
Me: Really? When was that?
T: At six o'clock. In Paris.