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| LAX getting the bags! It's not the scary crazy airport I had conjured up in my head. |
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| Day one: started with an awesome breakfast at Jinky's, a walk through the farmer's market and a stop in the promenade. We found this hilarious little set up, took some photos and then realized we had perfect timing to catch a Santa photo in California! $30 later BAM Santa pic and back on our way! |
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| No one panic, Sam has not shrunk. This is a VERY large xmas ball. |
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| Across the street from our awesome hotel was the Santa Monica Pier. We headed down to check it out and the next thing we knew, Sam ended up covered in parrots. He obviously hated every moment of it! |
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| My little Forrest! |
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| On the ferris wheel out on the pier looking over the ocean... pretty cool! |
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| Love this little love! |
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| Sam really wanted to play a carnival game. We found whack a mole and you had to have 3 players to play but there was always a winner. We thought it would be perfect because no matter what, Sammy would win a stuffy. Perfect, right? Wrong. As soon as we paid we were surrounded by other adults wanted to get in on it. The bell rang and Shaun went into Super Dad mode, whacking more moles than I ever could have imaged... |
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| Seems a little silly, but I thought it was so awesome. Does Sam need ANOTHER stuffy - no, does winning whack-a-mole really matter - no, does Shaun beating the heck out of a carnival game to ensure that Sam thinks he won matter - sure does! My hero. |
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| Best guys chillin on the board walk. |
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| This was another awesome event... Sam was rocketed into the air for 5 minutes or so on this trampoline thing. He thought it was the coolest EVER. |
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| The original Muscle Beach. Pretty cool. And weird. But cool. |
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| Some Muscle Beach play! |
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| Supper at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Yum! |
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| Day two: started with an early morning EXPENSIVE taxi ride to Universal Studios with intention to meet the Grinch! |
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| Thought this guy was a statue, so Sammy climbed up on the bench beside him. Next thing we knew he had shuffled over and put his arm around Sam. Pretty awesome! |
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| We found the path leading to the Grinch... |
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| Turned out the Grinch was looking for us too! We waited only 30 seconds to get our turn to chat and meet this guy! Later in the day the line was upwards of an hour long! |
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| Couldn't miss out on posing with the Grinch and Max. Highlight for sure! |
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| Here we are enroute to the moment I thought Shaun was going to puke all over me on a 3D ride. Everyone survived, puke free. Phewf! |
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| Found a craft station, a Who found Sam. Sam was so focused he didn't even have time to chat with this guy... the kid loves to craft, what can I say! |
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| BIG HUG |
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| There is something I love so much about this pic... just makes my heart happy. |
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| MINIONS!!!!! |
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| Best guys! |
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| Another highlight was meeting Donkey. Sam walked up and Donkey asked him his name, but thought Sam said 'Ham'. He then said "I never met a kid named after a meat before!" It was soooo funny and even funnier to hear Sam tell the story. When we turned around to get our picture, Donkey said "Say cheese, Ham!" Hehe. Wonderful little memory! |
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| The navigator! |
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| Found Megatron... turns out that guy is a jerk. And huge and a little scary. |
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| There was a whole Sam and Spongebob performance... we were trying to get Sam to turn around for a photo and when Sam finally did turn around, this happen... |
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| ... Spongebob turned around too! So funny! |
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| Tourist pic! |
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| Night time view from our hotel room. |
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| Day three: started with a LONG (and frustrating though we won't talk about it) walk to breakfast, a disappointing trip to Nike where Shaun couldn't even bribe the girl to sell me the perfect pair of shoes because they were floor model and then a ride on this ancient Merry-go-round. Here my guys are trying not to get motion sick. |
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| Yep... I ended up on the bunny-horse. |
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| Beach boy |
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| We added another long walk to our day by heading down the beach probably 3 km to Venice Beach. It is a very out there, wild, stinky little experience. You could spend a day people watching and trying to see everything that was going on. We sat on the grass to watch a break dance performance. |
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| Spinning on their heads |
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| Diving over guys! |
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| Best looking dudes on the beach! |
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| Connolleys in Cali |
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| Shaun climbing an extremely tall rope (you can see Sam standing at the bottom). Oy! |
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| Perfect last night sunset. |
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| Tea with my boys - my favourite place to be! |
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| One last night time swim in the outdoor pool. Big hit for Shaun and Sam. Nearly an hour of swimming each night and we always had the place all to ourselves. We were those crazy Canadians! |
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| Mom prefers the hot tub! |
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| A little Venice beach art to hang on our tree. |
