The next leg of our trip was Sunday and included a 5 1/2 hour drive from Kingsman to Los Angeles after we attended our church meetings. I had rented us an apartment in Los Angeles for three nights so that we could see the beach, go to some museums, and enjoy some nice California rays!
Some pictures of our LA apartment we rented.
After we checked into our apartment and unpacked the car we made up some Quizno’s subs for dinner and then headed over to Adam’s Aunt Carol and Uncle Clint’s home in Torrence where we spent about an hour visiting and feeding their super old turtle (always a hightlight for the kids). Adam’s cousin Janeen’ was moving with her family to Utah that week, and so we also went over to Adam’s other cousin Bonnie’s home, where they were having a going away party! What a treat that was because we got to see almost all the Hales cousins that still live in California! How we do love them! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any pictures while we were there, darn it all!
Then on Monday we decided to have a beach day! I was super nervous about taking 5 kids out by myself in LA traffic with all the different freeways and roads, but my rock star husband was able to get the “data” working on my cell phone plan for the first time, so I could use google maps to tell me where to go. Branson ended up needing to read the directions to me as we went, but we got there A-Okay! Yay! And the kids absolutely LOVED getting to play on the beach most of the afternoon.
I was super impressed too because the three older boys seemed to have no fear of the water this time! They went straight in and for the waves and spent most of the first hour or two jumping waves!
See little Dawson in the middle of the picture?
And here is Harry and Brans. They loved playing in the waves.
Jamis on the other hand was not too fond of the cold water and instead preferred staying with me on the beach where he liked climbing on top of the ice chest, throwing sand everywhere, and getting in and out of his stroller (note to self for next time – strollers and sand down’t go too well together!)
Ady also was more of a beach girl (and didn’t love the cold water) so she joined in on the sand throwing fun!
One quick interesting story. After the kids had been out playing in the waves for about an hour, they ended up slowly being pushed by the waves down by the peer (which you can see behind Brans in the pic below). I was watching the boys closely so I knew where they were, but I wasn’t sure if they could see me. At one point I saw them talking to a life guard and I wondered if perhaps they were lost, or getting too close to the pier, but it ended up that the lifeguard was actually telling them that they had to get out of the water because they weren’t allowed to wear LIFE JACKETS! Say what? Are you kidding me? I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they would be getting in trouble for that. Life Jackets save lives people, and as a Mom of 5 kids who are running every which direction, you better believe that my kids will have one on if water is nearby. I just can’t possibly be looking at every kid, every second, to make sure they are safe. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out any common sense reasoning for telling kids NOT to wear a life saving device! In any case, I told the boys to put their life jackets back on and just stay clear of the life guard and that I would talk to him if he got after them again, (he was way down by the pier so I wasn’t too concerned), but we didn’t end up having a problem after that, but weird, huh? I still have no clue what that was all about!
The boys were mostly done playing in the water anyway, and had fun building sand castles or burying each other the rest of our time at the beach.
And they made a new friend along the way!
Jamis even eventually lost some of his fear of the water and took me down to the water to play a bit. Either that or he just wanted to be closer to his siblings. 😉
We sure had a great time at the beach and loved getting to make new memories in California!
