I feel like I’m in a time warp or something. As I began to type this I literally couldn’t even remember the month! But Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We probably should have gone to church…we held our own little “primary” in the hotel. Sang a few songs- read from the Book of Mormon- looked at pictures from the Ensign and talked about them. It was actually a very good little hour that we spent together. Probably got more out of that then they would have if we’d forced them to go to a new primary. But we slept in that morning and just hung out until we were ready to go.
There had to be a few mishaps in our vacation and my idea to go see where all the stars live was one of them!!! We drove to Hollywood and got completely lost. It was amazing to me that as soon as we got off the freeway into Hollywood- which is a dump- the spirit literally left. There is no goodness in that town what-so-ever. It was creepy and I wanted to leave as quickly as possible. We were definitely not where all the stars hung out- I think it must have been star wannabees. And the great side walk of stars- Ted said, “Okay kids, look out the window…see those stars on the side walk? They have famous people’s names on them. That’s as close as you’re going to get.” Oh- I had the hibee-gibee’s the whole time! And then we really were lost! Ted was trying to use his trustee Google maps ap- and it wasn’t so trustee this time.
Eventually we found my grandparents house. My sister Michelle told me a few weeks ago that ‘s it’s amazing to her how it gets smaller every time she sees it- and I agree. I can’t believe they have lived there for over 60 years! It is so impressive that my grandpa has a huge garden in their backyard- in the middle of LA- 1 mile from LAX!!!! He has raspberries, orange trees, lemon trees, passion fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, all sorts of peppers, artichokes, and more!
I was so glad to be able to visit with them and let my kids see their home- the home that I grew up visiting every summer when I got to go to Disneyland for 1 day- and come home and crash on the floor. Man, my kids are spoiled! But they didn’t know that my Mom- Nana- is an artist! Her pictures- which are quite stunning- are hanging all over the house and after we’d been there for a couple of hours I asked James and Emma whom they thought painted the pictures and they both gave me a blank look. When I told them it was Nana they were amazed!
My grandparents always humble me and remind me of true frugality and loyalty. They’ve been happily married for 65 years and lived and retired off two teachers salaries- and traveled the globe too! They were just smart and happy with what they had. A very different mind set and generation. I was glad that Emma and James got to listen to my Grandpa’s war stories- he is a WWII veteran. He was in the Navy and has some amazing stories. He also loves to tell the stories he knows about Disneyland. He says that when they started to build it- they took a bus load of teachers out to watch it be built- it was amazing. Walt Disney was an amazing man.
And I was so grateful that they actually ate all their dinner. I was so worried that they would complain it was yucky or something. And I know my Grandma has a hard enough time cooking dinner without a bunch of whiners. But we’d actually talked about it a lot with the older three- and Kyle must have tuned in to because they all ate everything on their plate and gave their compliments to the chef and said please and thank you. We should eat there more often! I do have good kids! And there were even olives in the casserole- they hate olives!
When I could tell emotions were starting to strain- I mean no good behavior left in the little two- we took off. Ted really wanted to watch airplanes land- because he hadn’t gotten to hear Kyle swear at the rental car place- so we went in search of somewhere to watch. We found a small- seriously very very small- patch of grass near the entrance to the airport and sat and watched the airplanes land. Then Ted wanted to watch the airplanes take off. So we thought we’d head down to the beach…2nd bad idea of the day. Last day of spring break for them, 88 degrees and gorgeous, millions of people in LA- and they were all at the beach. All the African American’s that is- I told Ted to please go back- after we had looked for a parking spot for an hour without seeing one white person get out of a car, seriously! Wrong beach.
Mistake #3…I got on the phone to chat with my Mom and let Ted try to make it back to the hotel. If the following scene had not made my kids cry it would have been hilarious. Ted decided to put way too much trust in his GPS- it was almost like that episode of the office where Michael ends up in the pond—anyways. I was boiling mad that he just didn’t take the normal freeway down- he had to follow the GPS directions. I have no idea where we ended up or how we finally got back on route but the kids were crying and Ted and I were yelling at eachother. It was very funny now that I look back.
We threw the kids in the pool for a few minutes and headed to IHOP when we got back. Kids eat free every night! Yippeee!!! A nice gentleman was sitting behind us and I turned to him half way through our meal and said, “We must be very entertaining to watch.” He laughed- and on his way out leaned over to us and said, “You may think your kids are a handful- but I can tell that you have four great kids.” Man, another nice compliment- it’s better then report card week. I am a lucky Mommy. The kids went to bed anticipating an amazing Disney Day…which it turned out to be!
Adam got a hold of the camera at one point and desperate to keep him occupied he got free reign- I've included a few of his portraits.
you do have 4 great kids!!!
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