Santa Monica Pier

For spring break a couple weeks ago, we decided to head to California a little early this time (we always go for Easter) so we could show Maxi some sites since she's set to go home in 5 short weeks! She really wanted to see Hollywood while she was here, so we had to do it! Justin couldn't take off work to come early with us...well, the proper word is wouldn't, ha ha. That man does NOT like taking days off work. So, it was the kids and myself, my mom, Robert & Maxi. Thursday was our first official site-seeing day and we went to Santa Monica Pier. It was beautiful! A little bit of a chilly wind going on, but beautiful :)

We first ventured onto the pier. We walked to the end and back, then decided to ride some carnival rides. Well, Carter also wanted to try one of the games where you shoot the water gun to race your character to the top. Guess what? He WON!!! First try! And he got a giraffe pillow pet. He was super excited. So, we tried to win one for Kelsie too, but failed. Robert went to the basketball hoops to try and win something and they gave him the ugliest purple stuffed dog you'll ever see! But now guess what? Kelsie LOVES it!!! Ha ha...it is very unattractive, but she still is sleeping with it 2 weeks later, so thanks Uncle Robert!

We couldn't talk Grandma Kirkham into going on the ferris wheel with us, but we all squeezed in a boat-thing and had a good time on that. Kelsie would say "Wheee!" every time we went around. However, then we got stuck at the top when they were unloading, it was a little windy, and Kelsie was getting antsy sitting there. AAAH! Good thing I had secret ammo of M&M's in my purse! It lasted her until we got off :)

After riding some rides, we headed down to play on the beach for a bit. Our kids LOVE water and sand, so you can guess how much they love the beach. The water was not warm by any stretch of the imagination, but they didn't care! Kelsie's little teeth were chattering, but she didn't want to give up...yet. She eventually became too freezing and I talked them into going back to play in the sand. However, Kelsie was cold and tired and just wanted to be snuggled. Which I didn't mind one bit! So I snuggled with her while Robert buried Carter in the sand! And then they kinda buried Maxi.