Dad and Arthetta's Visit

I feel like I'm always apologizing for being so behind in my blogging....so here I go again....sorry this post is so late.

I was finally able to talk Dad and Arthetta into making a trip to visit us in California before we moved and what better timing than dad's 70th birthday weekend (Sept 8th)!!!

We were on the go from the second their plane touched down in LA until the moment they took off but it was so much fun showing them around!

We started off the weekend by driving up to Malibu for some lunch and a little beach time. Carson had a blast letting the waves roll over his feet and I think dad was starting to work up the courage to get into the cold water (stay tuned for more on that)!

 

 

On our way home from Malibu, we stopped at Venice Beach for a bit. Dad said he wanted to see some weird LA people....well, Venice is the place for that. You never know what you'll see - good news, dad got what he asked for - a lot of weird LA people!

 



On Saturday we went into Hollywood. For those that have never been, in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater, people are dressed up in different characters - sometimes Pirates of the Caribbean, Marilyn Monroe, Spiderman, etc. The first person we saw when we turned the corner was Charlie Chaplin. Charlie is one of dad's idols - it was like watching a kid in candy store. Dad walked right up to him, looking up and down from head to toe! Of course he took a picture with him (which of course wasn't free....come on, we're in Hollywood ;)) and we were on our way. Just a few steps down the road and we saw another idol....this time Carson's idol....E-L-M-O!! I think Carson was in complete shock to see a life-size Elmo!

To celebrate dad's birthday that evening, Arthetta baked her famous chocolate cake w/ cherry filling and chocolate icing. Oh...my...goodness! For those that know me well, I LOVE chocolate...it was so good! Apparently I'm not the only chocolate lover in the family - the next morning I noticed some pieces of cake were missing. Dad and Arthetta claimed the eggs were too "salty" so they had to eat some cake instead. That's a good one, I'll have to keep that one in my back pocket next time I want to eat cake for breakfast. :)

The last full day they were here, we took a trip out to Catalina. You may recall from a previous post that we LOVED Catalina so it was easy to talk us into going back out to the island. After a great lunch, the boys wanted to go swimming. And dad finally got in the water!

 

As usual, Carson pooped out on us again. I guess riding in a golf cart just does it for him!

 And here's a picture overlooking the boats....beautiful!

I think this picture pretty much sums up how much fun we had in Catalina...

Along with all of our site-seeing, were still had plenty of time to hang out in the backyard and relax. Here's a great picture of Carson telling Grandpa something really important...

 

 

Lastly, this video cracks me up....and apparently Carson too! He could not get enough of this and when Grandpa thought he could rest for a few minutes, Carson thought otherwise!

 



Thanks again to Dad and Arthetta for making the trip. I know I put a lot of pressure on you to visit. That's what us sweet little daughters are good at. :)