Thursday, August 13, 2015

California Or Bust: April 2015 (Part 2)

...Continued!
We went to the Santa Anita Races on Saturday.  And while we wish we had thought to bring an umbrella for the shade, we had so much fun!  It was family day, which was a great deal.  Our price of admission included sodas, hot dogs, chips, face painting and pony rides!











 Paul is a natural horseman!

 We woke up Easter Sunday to find baskets waiting for some very excited children!

 We had an egg hunt outside!




 After that, we hiked to the Topanga Overlook. 












Grammy had given Laura tickets for the three of us ladies to see Cinderella the musical.  Around 12:30, we were slowly getting ready for our "3:00" theater tickets... when Grammy checked those tickets and realized the show started at ONE - a good 45 minutes away!!  So we rushed to the car and drove as fast as we could to downtown LA, and made it for the last five minutes of the first act.  Better to see some of the show than none of it!! 
 We did have fabulous seats for Cinderella - thank you Grammy!!  The boys got to play on some choo-choos while we were at the theater.  We all met back up for a delicious and fun dinner at Bottega Louie that evening!

 On Monday, we went on another hike at the Malibu Creek State Park. 




 To the right of this rock was a man climbing and rappelling off a rock face.  Gavin was fascinated and now wants to be a mountain climber when he grows up!  Meanwhile, this man had a lot of ropes hooked up and lying about... and one of those ropes wiggled a little... And Laura JUMPED so high and shrieked "SNAKE!!!!!!!!!"  The rest of us about died laughing.  When we got home, she told Bimpy she had seen a Rope Snake - and he starts in with "Oh yes, I was just reading about those..." I was laughing too hard to keep up the rouse.  We finally told him she actually only saw a rope!


 After our rope snake adventure, we had lunch at the Malibu Mutt and played on the playground nearby. 


 We baked and decorated cookies that evening.

 Our last day was Tuesday.  We went on one more hike - this time to Calabasas Peak!  And we had an unexpected hiker along with us - Bimpy!  My dad was able to spend our last day with us rather than at work.  What a treat!













I am so glad we were able to go to California.  Thank you, Nate, for such a wonderful Christmas present!!