Weekend with friends/Mommy's trip to LA

One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while is that I was in Los Angeles for a conference most of last week. The conference kept us quite busy, but my colleagues and I still had a little time in the evenings to play tourist. Here are a couple pictures of our hotel, the Millenium Biltmore. It's a famous older hotel with great architecture that's been featured in many movies. I was excited to find out this hotel was where the "Slimer" scenes from Ghostbusters were filmed. I was not so excited to find out that the hotel is actually haunted (according to legend, at least).

Our hotel was right across from the U.S Bank Tower, one of the most recognizable buildings in the LA skyline. I actually didn't realize this building was there until the 2nd day since when you're right next to it you can't see the top :)

We went to Hollywood one night, and were disappointed that we couldn't see the handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater because the X Factor was filming there.

And of course we saw the stars. Here's one I took for the kids.

And one for me.

Okay, on to the other pictures. A couple weekends ago, the Johnstons and Ben and Carson Lamkin came to the lake house. Bella Lamkin also came along and got her usual exercise fetching and swimming. The kids had a great time throwing things for her.

Ben and Carson. Carson was not a big fan of the water and spent pretty much all his time in the sand. We'll get him in next year :)

Carson and Will on the boat. I think they were attempting to do a fist-bump.

Jack's getting pretty good at driving the boat. Daddy even lets him turn and steer a little!

Cute pic of Courtney and Will.

Thumbs-up from Courtney and Will on the tube!

Since DJ was there, we actually had someone else to drive the boat so Andy could get a chance to wakeboard.

I did a little kneeboarding. Thanks to Courtney for taking these and some of the other pictures!

Bella, Lou, and the boys having fun in the water.

Carson is so cute!

A couple good pictures of Carson and Ben.

The 3 Stooges

Trip to the museum

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry with Grandma and Grandpa a couple weeks ago. The kids went wild in this room.

They really went crazy running through these spinning things. Jack's going so fast it looks like his arms are missing!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

Charlotte wanted to climb into the water tank in a bad way. I got a great workout trying to hold her back. Thank goodness the museum had raincoats for the kids!

Wet hair made for a funky hairdo!

Jack was fascinated with all the gadgets.

Charlotte had fun in the little kids's area. 

Peek!

Jack in the giant tractor wheel!

Both kids thought these lights were so great, they decided to plop down right in the middle of the floor.

This screen was pretty cool. People of all ages were having a lot of fun with it. The colored bubbles run down the screen and detect where someone is standing and run around them.

Grandma demontrating that it was also good for shadow bunnies.

Tired baby.

I was surprised that Charlotte didn't really seem to like the funny mirrors. See her staring at her reflection very suspiciously.

What happened to my head??

Jack the circus clown.

Jack and Charlotte

Checking out the perpetual motion machine on the way out (actually, I think it was technically a pinball machine). Jack didn't like some of the noises it was making.

First day of school

Wow, what a difference a year makes. Compare the picture above of Jack this morning to last year's first day of school below. He's definitely looking too grown up for my taste.

Jack started his 2nd year of preschool this morning, and he was pretty excited about it. The calendar in the first picture was sent to him by his teachers, along with stickers to put on every day until school started. Today he got to put an apple on the first day of school.

In typical Jack form, this was our conversation when I picked him up from school:

Jack: "I had a great time at school, Mommy!"

Me: "Wow, that's great! What did you do in school today?

Jack: "I don't know."