First 2 days in LA...

Yesterday we pretty much just drove here, checked into the hotel, and waited for Nate to get here so we could all go to dinner. My plan was to have the girls nap when we got here, because although they were good in the car, they didn't sleep at all (except a 30min nap for Emi)...well, I guess by the time we got here, they were overtired so they didn't nap! :( So, you might think, well I guess you'd just put them down early for bed then....ummmm, no! Nate didn't get back until really late, but we still hadn't ate dinner so we went out with him even though it was WAY past when the girls should've gone down...the pictures below are when we got back from dinner. They didn't even stay awake long enough for us to put them in pj's!

Today we went to the beach. The girls loved playing in the sand...and Emi enjoyed eating a little too, OF COURSE! (when do kids stop putting EVERYTHING into their mouths???) ;) A couple funny (or not so funny???) things that happened were:

1) We get to the beach, park, get all our stuff out of the car, and then put it into the stroller when I realize... that we are in parking that has a meter (I've learned today...everywhere here has metered parking, but I didn't know that before!)...ok, so that'd be fine if I had ANY change at all, but I didn't. I did have dollars though and I asked everyone in the parking lot if they had change for a dollar and they all looked at me like I was trying to scam them or something...so, up the steepest hill I think I've ever seen we go, 2 kids and a way overloaded double stroller (quite a scene I'm sure!) to try to find a store to get some change. We finally got some and headed back down the hill, put the change in, and headed towards the beach. Now, I just want to remind everyone that I DID grow up near the beach in Maine, so you'd think I'd be a little smarter than I was today, but is has been a while and I guess I'm just a little slow sometimes....like this, I don't know WHAT WAS I THINKING???? ...you can't bring a stroller through the sand! So, back we go to the car...unload everything, try to keep Emi from running around the parking lot, pick up all 4 bags (again, what was I thinking???), pick up Emi and head down the stairs to the beach (again, what a sight to see...me trying to carry a squirmy one year old and 4 bags, while trying to convince Alyssa that she really can walk by herself through the sand and doesn't need me to hold her!).

2) So we finally made it to the beach, set up all our stuff, and started playing. Well about 30 min later a huge wave makes it up to us (and we were pretty far away from where the waves were coming up...the picture below with Emily and the water in the back shows how far away we were!). So I grab the 4 bags, which had my camera, purse, etc. in them and ran...and then turned around and saw Emi sitting 1/2 way under water SCREAMING! Oops...back for the kids, and the now wet beach blanket! ;) I moved both of them and then went back for all the misc. stuff and while picking it all up I got stung by a bee! All I can do is laugh right now, it actually is pretty funny...now that I am back at the hotel that is! ;)

This was so cute...I made a little hole in the sand and Emi just wanted to sit in it the whole time (that is, until the water came and filled it in!). As you can see below, somehow she found it to be pretty comfortable! ;)

Despite everything, we had a great time at the beach...Alyssa even wants to go back tomorrow! (Oh no, hopefully I'll have my act together this time!) ;)

After naps...yes they did nap today for a little while...we headed back to the downtown/pier/beach area for dinner. We ate at Mama D's which the Angstead's suggested. It was yummy! Then we headed across the street for some ice cream...the pics below of the sunset was our view from the ice cream shop, soooo beautiful!