From our visit to the Getty Center, we drove north {or something like that, I'm lost without the front range of Denver which is always west} to meet up with my paternal side of the family. My cousin's son had recently turned one and we had not yet met him face-to-face so that was a priority in California!

My dad and my cousin, Sarah:


We spent the evening in their beautiful backyard {they have an orange tree, that's a novelty to Coloradans} for a barbeque and catching up on lost time. The kids enjoyed their 2nd cousin's toys, Cameron was nice enough to share.



This is Cameron. Isn't he adorable? He looks like his mama, I had to steal him away for a selfie.



Maybe Pax was relieved to have another guy around?



Food was great! Company too.



Eventually we had to get the kids to bed, so it was back to the HoJo for us. On a whim, we planned some more family time for the next morning. After some fort building, of course.



So the next morning we met up again for a long, chatty brunch at Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles.



We like breweries in this family. This one especially, they had really yummy food and an area to entertain kids while you eat and drink. It was awesome.



The huge warm pretzel {with a pimento cheese dip & aioli} and the fried artichokes were sooo yummy.


We ordered the kids a parfait to share and had trouble getting them to eat it because they were having such fun in the play area. It's hard to get them to eat when they're having fun.



If you're in L.A. and looking for a brewery, might I suggest Golden Road? Especially if you have your family and kids with you.



#beermosa



We tried to soak up as much Cameron as we could. The next time we see the little guy he will have probably doubled in size. Kids have a way of doing that.



So then we weren't quite ready to say goodbye and my cousin suggested we drive a few minutes over to Travel Town @ Griffith Park near the L.A. zoo to see the free train museum and ride the mini-train.



Sounded good to us! And this random little girl who joined us for a photo op!



How could we not pay the extra few bucks to ride the train?



Kids love this sort of thing.



We even managed the classic family photo dash, in which dad set up his timed camera on the closest trash can and we all hoped and prayed for a framer. We did good.


Left to right: Gary & Debbie {my aunt & her wonderful husband}, Sarah {my one & only cousin} holding Cameron, her {sweetest guy ever and grillmaster} husband Corey, Sander, myself, mom, dad, and my kids in front. Dang, we look good for a timed photo.




I'm so thankful we got to do this!



Hi Cameron! ╲(｡◕‿◕｡)╱ Miss you already!


Cousins! {Family, we need to recreate this shot one day, don't you think?}



So Travel Town at Griffith park is a neat place if you're in the L.A. area with train-loving kids. {Pax is a Thomas fan.}



A Women of the Clan:



And with the cousin...



Saying goodbye is hard. We don't see these much-loved people often. But next we had to drive down {the psychotic L.A. freeway system} to Anaheim/Orange that day.



My parents--God bless them--took the girls in their rental car so the P-Town could nap on the way down. Could you ever sleep this way?



So we headed south for...




Cheers,
Heather

Part 1 - Santa Monica Pier
Part 2 - The Getty Center
To Be Continued...