Welcome to LA!

Welcome to Los Angeles! Land of sun and stars! And ALOT of happenings for the Paxton family! So here are a few high lights of 2 months worth of fun! I will try to be brief, but there are SO many good pictures there!

Let's start with the fountain on Hollywood Blvd. One of Makayla's new FAVORITE things ever! Water coming from everywhere, what could be greater?

The way Daddy has to hold her after an hour of splashing!

This is Lauren (aka "MooMoo" according to Makayla!) We went on LOTS of LONG, LONG walks together and she was so great in helping me chase after Makayla and keep an eye on her! I definitely abused her love of Makayla and used her as a traveling nanny a LOT!

THANKS LAUREN I LOVE YOU AND CAN'T WAIT FOR NEST SUMMER TOO!!!!!!!

Now let's not forget that we were only a half hour away from Disney! (barring any unforseen California traffic!) And I DO love their candy apples! Especially these special Mickey & Minnie ones! Here's Makayla after she stole Mommy's Minnie Apple! So cute!

Jordan's Mom came and visited us in LA and we had a BLAST with her! Here she is riding the Winnie the Pooh ride at DisneyLand! Makayla is wearing her new Ariel dress! :-)

We also visited Rodeo Dr! Very Posh!

And that famous song "The Hotel California", yeah...there's the hotel itself! Right off of Santa Monica Blvd!

We had to go to Graumann's Chinese Theatre of-course! I was more than slightly disappointed when I found out Katherine Hepburn doesn't even have a STAR, let alone hand prints! WHAT?

I guess I'll live, but I DID get to see Carey Grant's hands!

Back to the fountain for more fun. Told you.....Makayla's FAVORITE new thing!

We love the new Toy Story ride that's at Disney's California Adventure, (also Hollywood studios in Orlando!) It's our favorite ride!

We had an early Halloween at a Disney Halloween party! Here's Mommy & Makayla dressed as Cringer & Orko from the old 80's He-Man cartoon!

Jordan's mom joined in the fun as The Sorceress. You can barely see little Orko's hat over the back of the Heimlich "candy corn" ride!

And of course He-Man wouldn't be complete without Prince Adam! Sure he was a little bummed about wearing pink and purple, but it was HIS idea! And he looked GREAT!

See, here we all are! With Mickey and Minnie in THEIR Halloween attire. Someone should have told them it was supposed to be 80's!

Now, what would LA be without the beaches? Here is Makayla & Jordan at Venice beach. She LOVES the ocean and the waves and the birds! It was so much fun to take her!

Here's Makayla with her Grandma at Venice Beach!

And what would a Paxton vacation be without taking in a ball game?

Makayla can clap and cheer with the best of them! Here we are at Dodger's Stadium!

And more beach time! This time at Santa Monica! (Yes, that's the closest picture you will get of me, pregnant in a bikini!)

Wave jumping with Daddy! She LOVED it and when we wanted a break, she would cry and try to run back into the ocean by herself!

We are a family that LOVES Disney! SO here we are again waiting in line for Snow White's Scary Adventure. We weren't too smart about it, considering it scared the ba-jeebers out of Makayla! oops!

And her hair became long enough to braid!!!!!! How cute is that! She lets me braid one side...then gets a little cranky when I try to do the second one. But a friend said she used candy as a motivator to help her daughter sit still for hair-dos :-) Thanks for the great idea!

At the end of the day Minnie jumped into a picture with Mickey! Too bad Makayla wasn't looking!!!!!

The Red Bull Soap Box Derby was happening in LA too! So of course we had to go see that! Sorry about the lack of pictures of the derby cars, but it was fun to see, and HOT outside!

So let's stop for a juice box break.

Now for more pictures! I was getting too big and lazy to take Makayla to the pool everyday, so I filled her toy bin with water and put it out on the balcony! Then she could "swim" several times a day! All she had to do was strip down and jump in! And believe me, she definitely learned how to strip down! But this is all you get to see :-)

Near the end of the summer we made a special trip down to Mexico. We stopped in Tijuanna for a bit, then decided to go further south to the beaches. Here we are in Rosalito Mexico eating ice cream. Makayla has pistachio (yummy!) and Jordan has grape!

We got a hotel for the night, and this is how much room my 2 little bed hogs left me! and me with a belly! Oh well, they were too cute to wake anyway!

Here is the metal grate that Makayla ran into and scraped up her cheek (this is after she did it btw!) Also that morning Jordan accidentaly kicked a piece of re-bar/screw that was sticking up out of the side walk and took a chunk of skin and toe nail off of his toe! YIKES! So we decided to skip the beach and go back to the US just in case!

Here we are at the petting zoo in Disney Land. Did you know that the turkey that gets "pardoned" on Thanksgiving by the president gets sent to the Happiest Petting Zoo on Earth? That's right! You can meet the pardoned birds here at DisneyLand in Frontierland!

Here we are riding King Triton's carousel. This is her way of "smiling" when you say cheese!

The summer wouldn't be complete without Makayla meeting Aurora! Or "boos" as she calls her favorite princess Sleeping Beauty! I'm pretty sure if she COULD talk, she would be able to quote Sleeping Beauty to me. Because she watches it at least twice a day! She LOVES that movie! And I blame that movie for her lack of color knowledge. Everything is either "blue" or "pink" because of the 2 fairies fighting over Aurora's dress color :-)

Yes we were definitely VERY busy in LA this year! Lots of fun, lots of friends, lots of sun! Now it's time to be on our way home, up the Oregon coast to Washington! But first, I think it's time for a nap!