Love, Learn, Play: California Remix- Day 20

It's crazy to think we've been here nearly three weeks! With Jon at work all last week, things are starting to feel more like real life and less like vacation. Sometimes I feel like that's a good thing and other times not so much. It's hard not to constantly analyze if we could really manage to live here for any extended period of time... and it's even harder not to believe wholeheartedly that we could after a day like yesterday!

We woke up early to head down to the Hollywood Farmers Market. I just love, love, love that place! The boys were desperately in search of some currants which we never did find, but we managed to stock up on everything from fresh strawberries to yellow carrots and beets. The boys sang Yellow Submarine with one of the street musicians and stuffed their little bellies full of fresh fruit and veggie samples, pupusas, and strawberry papaya smoothie. We bought them a bag full of sugar snap peas and they devoured those before we were done walking the market! Before we headed home, the boys wanted to find a couple of stars on the Walk of Fame so we spent a little while on Hollywood Blvd. exploring the stars and the handprints at Grauman's. It was a perfect, relaxing morning.

We came home to make some lunch and hang out at home for awhile. Jon wanted to make pizzas so he mixed up some dough and we cleaned the apartment while we waited for it to rise. The boys wanted a Hindenburg pizza so they helped daddy stretch and cut the dough... I hope some day they realize that it's not normal to have Titanic pancakes and Hindenburg pizza and they come to truly understand just how special their daddy is :) Jon and I made ourselves a white pizza with garlic olive oil, shallots, and fresh basil. Then we packed our leftovers along with some fresh fruit and éclair cake we had made a few days ago into the cooler because we were headed out to the beach!

Normally I'm too protective of my Sunday evenings to do something crazy like head to the beach. I need my Sunday evenings to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming week. But we're only here for two more weeks and we hadn't yet done an evening at the beach so I figured why the heck not! We drove over to Santa Monica, just where Santa Monica borders Will Rogers in Pacific Palisades. It was cool and breezy but the water was the warmest I've ever felt it in California... it felt more like the Gulf in Florida! Jon and the boys made a giant great white shark in the sand and chased the waves. The beach wasn't super crowded to begin with but it really started clearing out by 7:30 or so and by the time the sun set we had a whole stretch of sand to ourselves. The sunset was gorgeous and although it was getting chilly, the boys were romping around in the sand and the waves without a care in the world and it was quite arguably the most beautiful, relaxing thing I've ever experienced.

Rockin' out to Yellow Submarine at the Hollywood Farmer's Market