Love, Learn, Play: California Adventure- Day 22

After our marathon beach day yesterday in Santa Barbara, we tried our best to have a down day to recover. Jon and the boys slept in until nearly 9:00. Caleb enjoyed his oatmeal out on the patio while I drank my coffee out there, then we just let the boys play in the condo all morning. I just love watching them play here. We weren't able to bring many toys... a few stacking and counting toys, their Tech Deck skateboards, some Play-Doh and a handful of books. Along the way we've gathered two UCLA footballs, some buckets and shovels, and Jon was able to build a "mega-ramp" on the railing of the staircase. And that's all they've needed to keep busy! I love their open ended play and their creativity. I think it has also forced them to interact more. Not that they didn't at home, but they seem to be doing more actual playing together instead of just parallel playing here. So Jon and I just sat back and watched them play all morning :)

After lunch we packed them up in the car for nap and headed into Los Angeles to check out the California Science Center. While they were napping we drove around the University of Southern California which is also a very beautiful campus... its so strange that there are these two gorgeous college campuses that truly feel like college campuses right in the middle of a giant city! So as we drove, Jon and I finished our number scavenger hunt at USC. When the boys woke up we walked to the science center. It was kinda cool (and free- so I can't really complain) but definitely not comparable to CoSi or the Hands On Museum back home. There was a really cool Kelp Forest exhibit that we all enjoyed, but that was about it! After attempting to recreate the worlds best pizza experience for dinner at Johnnie's, which was an epic fail, we weren't quite sure how to finish out our evening. Jon was avoiding the freeways on our way home so we took Sunset Blvd. for awhile and saw the Hollywood sign, so we decided to see how close we could get. We tried driving through Griffith Park but the only thing we got to see there was an up close and personal view of a coyote taking a poop, which was actually pretty crazy in and of itself!! But a park ranger gave us a great spot to drive to where we could park the car and hike up... so we went for it! I love the sign at the trail entrance warning of mountain lions and rattlesnakes. Awesome. I had to threaten Jon within an inch of his life to keep him from attempting to catch a rattlesnake! The hike was a little steep, especially when we left the main path, but we got some beautiful views of the sign. It was a great little family adventure... we even spotted a few lizards along the way, but luckily no mountain lions or rattlesnakes!

Caleb eatingh is oatmeal California style :)