You find the strangest things around the house as a mom. I pulled back my bedroom curtains this morning and found a nice little pile of
CheezIts.
Emily and I decided to carry on the Reynolds' tradition of weekly adventures. Emily drives by
Pink's Hot dogs regularly and we've heard so many people raving about it that we decided to go have a
hot dog. Pink's started as a little
hot dog stand in 1939 and this is what it looks like today. You will always see a line of people down the street waiting for a
hot dog.
Jake was fairly impressed with his chili dog and insisted that we buy another after he finished, which we did.
Dan, as usual, was only in it for the ketchup. Yes, he's licking the ketchup out of the bowl.
By far the most enthusiastic
hot dog connoisseur was Miss Libby.
The only plan we set out with was to eat
hot dogs but it seemed silly to not take advantage of being in LA. We pulled out Emily's trusty guide to LA and discovered there is no admission to La
Brea Tar Pits on the first Tuesday of each month, which happened to be today. It seemed divine and thus we headed to the tar pits. Here are Dan and Libby hugging a giant sloth statue.
I saw this bush with beautiful flowers and thought I might get a good picture of the kids. Daniel is a natural in front of the camera, Libby just smiles when you smile and Jake would have no part of it.
Jake was determined to find a dinosaur, none have ever been found at La
Brea though. We'll have to look elsewhere. A street performer was singing children's songs and playing the banjo so we had to stop and dance for a while.
Libby just had a great day being held and walking outside.
We finally headed back to the van and loaded up. It was so beautiful outside that we put the windows down and left the sunroof open. As we drove we noticed a strange clicking noise and finally pulled over to investigate. Emily found a large screw stuck in my tire and we realized that quickly heading home was not about to happen unless we felt like experiencing a tire blowout on the freeway. So of course this is the day that we ventured out without the
Garmin and were back in the Stone Age with only maps and cell phones to guide us. Since tire stores aren't on the map we just roamed until we found a
PepBoys. They informed me that I needed a new tire because of the size of the screw and its location on the outside edge of the tread. We unloaded the kids and had a party at
CVS Pharmacy for lack of something better to do. We bought Cheetos and ate until the boys were indistinguishable beneath a thick layer of powdered orange cheese.
I feel so blessed today. What a blessing to have Emily here! What a blessing from God that we heard the screw in the tire and were saved from a horrible experience on the freeway. What a blessing to have text messaging and get to "talk" to Erik all day even though he's in another country! What a blessing to get a call from Stacey tonight! What a day! God is good!
Next look for any hazardous spots that you should avoid or ride down in your truck. It is most important to protect yourself from the sun. Notice Jacob's "cowboy hat" that was purchased in Jiquilpan last week. For some reason it fits Daddy better...
By now it's probably time for a snack.
Remember never to swim on a full stomach. Libby and Daniel are demonstrating appropriate activities during digestion.
Be careful to not overexert yourself. Take naps during the hottest part of the day. Here are Daddy and Libby back at the beach after an afternoon siesta, watching the tide come in.
Jacob and the rest of the boys marvelled at the water which is covering all the tide pools they were enjoying just hours before.
Overall, we had a great camping trip. All five of us fit quite snugly in our little tent where we huddled for warmth the first night and sweated the second. We had trouble identifying little boys by the end as they all looked like dirt but I think we brought the right ones home. Note to self, camp sites charge $0.50 for 3 minutes of "warm" water during showers. Bring more than 4 quarters next time... 
