Los Angeles

So I decided to take a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles...flew down on Friday, came home on Sunday.  Why?  Well my host Mum (from Australia) was in LA with her daughter and 3 of her grandchildren.  I decided it was a lot cheaper to fly to LA to say hello to my Australian family than it would be to actually fly to Australia.  We spent a lot of time in the shops but we also went to Hollywood and hung out in Downtown Disney for an evening.  It was a fun (if very quick) time.

The fabulous view as I exited the airport...see you later cloudy Oregon, hello sunny California

True Story:  As we were coming into LA to land the pilot announced we may experience some delays due to the fact there was a shooting in Terminal 2.  When I landed it had been an hour since a gunman opened fire in Terminal 2 but the airport was still completely shut down, no traffic was allowed in or out.  My car rental company was 3 miles from the airport but no shuttle would be arriving anytime soon to get me there.  So I walked.  This is a picture of the hordes of people walking away from the terminal.

So I finally got to the car rental and was on my way to the hotel when about a mile ahead of me there was a car accident involving probably 6 cars.  Glass and oil spilled all over the road and everyone trying to avoid becoming part of the accident.  What's up LA...trying to kill me?

I did finally make it to Anaheim and hooked up with my Mum and my sister Leah and her 3 boys.  This is a shot of Joshuwah, he got called up by some street performers to help out in their show.  It was pretty cute and he was super happy to be part of this.

The boys petting a real snake this guy had wrapped around himself.  I swear, every 2 feet someone was trying to convince you to get a picture with them...for a price, of course!

Zachary, Joshuwah and Matthew hanging out with shrek

I had to get a photo with the Beatles star:)

Mum was being silly and got down to pretend kiss the Johnny Depp star:)

It was fun walking around Hollywood, we kept our eyes peeled for some stars.

Apparently this group of people thought this guy was a star (the one signing someones shirt) but I didn't know who it was so he couldn't have been that famous!

We went to the El Capitan theater and watched Nightmare Before Christmas in 4D.  It was lots of fun and in the end of the film real snow fell from the ceiling:)

Back in Anaheim we spent an evening strolling around "Downtown Disney"  This is Buzz and Woody made out of legos...pretty cool

Mum and I showing off our Mickey ears:)

Joshuwah, Leah, Mum, Zachary (in a bad mood) and Matthew (in a silly mood)  all together as they were heading out Sunday morning for Universal Studios.  I wasn't able to go with them because I had a plane to catch but I am really glad I got the chance to see these guys and hang out for a few days.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun filled, sunny Halloween season this year.  We went to 3 different pumpkin patches, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating and enjoyed lots of candy:)  There are a lot of photos in this post but I couldn't resist...the boys were so cute!

Julian at the Plumper Pumpkin patch with his preschool class.  We all went for a hay ride:)

Julian liked feeding the farm animals

Julian with his pumpkins

Mommy and Julian.  I love spending one on one time with this little guy.

Here we all are in the Sauvie Island pumpkin patch corn maze.  This place was crazy busy!  I guess we should have known better than to head to a pumpkin patch on a sunny Saturday.

After the pumpkin patch we drove into the town of St. Helens.  Their little downtown square was all decorated for Halloween.

This town was sponsoring a "spooky car" contest.  There were lots of old cars all decorated for Halloween.  This was my favorite:)

Our final pumpkin patch was the Lakeview Pumpkin Patch.  Of course we had to take a ride on the train.

The boys working together to lift a heavy pumpkin

Julian is more than 4 pumpkins tall!

So, you take a train out to the pumpkin patch and then a boat takes you back after you pick out your pumpkins.  Once again, a beautiful sunny day!

Instead of raking the leaves in the front yard Hyrum decided to mow them up.  I had to get a picture of these two.  Whenever Hyrum is out working in the yard or mowing the grass, Julian is always 2 steps behind him, following him around.  He is such  good little helper.

Julian working hard clearing the leaves from our sidewalk

The Monday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins for Family Home Evening.  This is Emerson working on his design

Daddy helping Julian with his pumpkin

Townsend concentrating on making his pumpkin face

The final results.  Townsend, Julian and Emerson's pumpkins.  I think they all turned out really cute.

Julian with his preschool class all dressed up for Halloween.  I'm not sure why he wasn't smiling, but he is still pretty cute:)

Trick or Treat!!!!  Julian was Lightning McQueen again this year.  Townsend is Jake and Emerson is Finn from a cartoon called "Adventure Time"

Julian tired of trick or treating before the boys so Daddy took him home while I stayed out with the twins.  Julian had so much fun passing out candy to all the kids that came to our door.

And finally, the loot!  That's a lot of candy:)