Santa Monica

Our Saturday afternoon gave us the opportunity to wiggle our toes in some SoCal sand and surf.  We went to the Santa Monica beach and pier.

What the girls loved most about this beach stop was all the exercise equipment right on the beach.  Delia has finally mastered the monkey bars this year and loved showing off her new moves while making friends with other little girls at the beach playground.

Ella, who mastered the monkey bars at age 4 and spends her recesses perfecting much more advanced monkey moves, made friends with the shirtless muscle men seriously working out on the beach.  She scaled the ropes and matched their fancy swinging on the rings.

Since it was on the way to the pizza place we were headed to for dinner, we made one more stop on this day at the La Brea Tar Pits and LACMA.  At the tar pits, the girls each held their noses while watching the bubbling methane gas and wrote their names on the wall with sticks dipped in the naturally-flowing tar.

Outside the LACMA we went crazy taking pictures in this cool, huge lamp post art installation.

Getting to know Derek better, enjoying each other's company and seeing an eclectic mix of stuff (van Gogh paintings!  Woolly mammoths in tar!  Muscle men on the beach! 100 lamp posts!), our second day in LA was another good one!