And here's the rest of the story . . .

Here's what else we did while we were vacationing in California . . . just thought you would want to know.

 We went to the La Brea Tar Pits where we learned how hard it was for the prehistoric creatures to get out of tar - and the reason why there are so many bones in the tar pits (that's a picture of Annie trying to get the bar out of the tar).

 We also learned that there are no dinosaurs at the Tar Pits (they are Ice Age fossils, silly). We also were scolded to never say Saber Toothed Tiger - they are merely cats. It was very impressive - and very instructional. We had a great little tour guide and she made a Harry Potter reference during our tour - major points in my book. Yes, we are nerds - but we are very nice nerds.

 We held a very sweet baby. Kirk was born a mere four weeks before we came up and we met him for the first time during this trip. I got to snuggle him every morning while he was happy and alert - and then give him back to his mama. I simply fell in love - and Annie fell in love with him, too.

We went to see the Rose Parade floats before they headed down Colorado boulevard. We had never done it before and we were pretty happy with what we saw. We only saw one warehouse full of floats - and there were two other warehouses where they were in construction. It smelled like heaven in there (my heaven smells like sweet peas and lillies - what does yours smell like?). Next time (if there ever is a next time), I think we'll try to make it down there a little earlier in the day. We chose not to stand in line for 2 hours to see the other floats - and with a six year old in tow, I think we made the best decision ever.

We spent a lot of time with family - and didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see, but we had a wonderful time.