What a fine little family day we had today.

Visiting The Page Museum, La Brea Tarpits.

Admiring the excavated bones of the Wooly Mammoth.

Gazing upon the multitude of Wolf craniums.

Feeling the weight of the tar, as we tried our hand at pulling it.

Learning about the Sabertooth Cat.

Observing the bubbling pits.

Finding random bits of tar coming up from the earth as we exited.

Running up and down the perfect grassy hill.

Driving to the Helms.

Watching the coolest water fountain.

Hoping to finally try this place for lunch.

Only to find out they were closed. But eating at a fabulous little French restaurant instead. And coming home with these lovely chocolate macarons.

Thankful for days like these.

Yesterday, we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon and evening at the Balboa Bay Yacht Club & Resort, slowing down to savor the season at the Newport Beach Boat Parade. My mom and stepdad normally charter a boat, and our whole family boards to partake in food, drinks & the boat parade. This year, we did things a little different. It was SO nice. They booked a room overlooking the bay. We arrived early. We didn't have to fight the crowds for traffic and parking. It gets a little ugly out there this time of year. We got there early and enjoyed the lovely day. The boys saw the patch of sand from the room and asked to go play.

Ezra saw a man who was a little plump, he had white hair and a beard, and was wearing a Santa hat. Ezra yelled "SANTA!" and pointed with excitement, and wonder. I on the other hand, wondered if I should quiet him down, or let the man believe he really did appear to be Santa!

The boys enjoyed moments of quietly observing the beauty around.

They also, proudly donned these Santa hats. Which they chose as their one treat at the store the other day. They actually put their toys that they had originally chosen down at the register after seeing these hats.

Gorgeous colors amazed us at sundown.

We enjoyed every minute.

The boys buried themselves in the sand. Collected shells. Dug in the wet sand. Ran freely. Simple childhood joys.

We enjoyed the final colors of sunset from our balcony.

And Silas was content to crawl freely all over the room.

We headed down to the restaurant for an incredible dinner. The boys sat wonderfully for the entire two hour meal, and we watched the beautifully decorated boats pass. We then headed back to the room and enjoyed the boat parade from the balcony. It was so much fun. And relaxing. But after lots of play and good times, Isaak asked "will somebody please make us leave." Which signaled that it was WAY passed the boys' bedtime and we had officially wore them out! A beautiful night.

Today brought a very unexpected drive out to North Malibu. It was a lovely drive.

On the way back, we needed some lunch. We drove past this pier, and it called out to me. I listened. So we turned the car around and parked. We headed to the pier and breathed in the beauty of the day.

There were birds everywhere. Which we thoroughly enjoyed.

The pier is so cool. It has really thick doors leading in, so it feels castle-ish. Fun.

I love an old wooden pier. And it is so fun to look beneath the cracks at the ocean underneath. The boys had fun exploring.

This is what brought us out on the pier. I thought it would be lovely to enjoy lunch at Ruby's with the boys. Unfortunately, when we made it all the way out, we found out that they were closed down.

But it didn't matter, we were having too much fun. We noticed this boat being lowered down to the water.

We went closer to investigate how. Look at that water. The color is gorgeous. It is so much cleaner than the oceans we are used to exploring.

We ended our time on the pier with some lovely folk at the bait and gift store. They spent quite a bit of time teaching the boys about local fishing techniques and the local fish. It was awesome.

I love when a day turns out to be a total spontaneous surprise. We had a job to do. We did it. And had fun along the way.

We visited LACMA today. It was outstanding. Our group decided to go here since we were unsure of the rain today. Only a few of us ended up going. I actually intended to opt out. I felt the need to be on a trail in nature somewhere, despite the possibility of rain. But my boys longed for their friends, and so... we ventured forth. It was our first time visiting LACMA. It is rather close to our new home, so it was great to finally get the chance to go check it out. Of course, before taking 3 boys to an art museum, there was some behavior prep. That great talk about museum manners. Rules and order. And off we went.

Our first sight was this gorgeous installation as we exited from the parking garage elevator...

With the rains yesterday, the sky was just beautiful. It really was a lovely day. We were waiting to meet a few friends, so I had the boys look at each of the animal sculptures, pick their favorite and take some time to sketch them. We brought clipboards and pencils. My boys LOVE their clipboards.

Ezra picked the horse...

Isaak picked the monkey...

They happily sketched as we awaited our friends arrival.

We then set out to discover this beauty...

This light installation is fabulous. Not only is it beautiful, but it's a very fun maze for the boys to get out their energy before they are expected to have their museum manners.

We discovered a few more sculptures...

And even found a gorgeous vegetable & herb garden. We wondered if it was a working garden for the museum restaurant, or just for viewing pleasure.

As we were getting ready to enter the museum building, a friendly staff member suggested we take a few moments to fill out a form so the boys could be NextGen members. Children are always free, but with the NextGen membership, they are free until they are 18 and they each get to bring in their favorite adult for free each time they visit. Score! Even Silas got one.

The very first exhibit we came to was this...

Now, as a parent attending an art museum, you must be prepared for different types of art. Nudity, violence, etc. I am okay with that. It is art. And beautiful. This was different. Unexpected. But the kids dug it. It was a video showing people painting themselves. And there were breasts! A few pairs of them. The children were totally well behaved and were really intrigued. But when we got home, I laughed when Isaak told me that one of his friends said there were "booties." I'm thinking behinds. And there were none. So I was confused. But then he pointed to mine... "Oh, breasts." I replied. Yep. There were breasts son.

We moved on.

We walked out to see this gorgeous garland...

And then headed in here...

Where we found friendly staff inviting us to as much paper as we wanted! What? With a table of paints and brushes, pencils and markers... our children set out to create.

The boys were thrilled to paint creation after creation.

After quite a lengthy time in the children's gallery, we headed to an exhibit where a security guard warned me on the content of the room. I was so thankful, because after a moments glance, it looked like a Friday the 13th scene inside. Yikes. Like I mentioned before, things like this must be expected when visiting an art museum. As we left, I had to answer Isaak's question of why it was not appropriate for us to go inside to view the exhibit. Every moment is an opportunity to learn.

We headed to the Art of America room instead. Which was a much safer place to be. We found awesome mid century designs like this...

When we were done there, we headed out to try to find our friends. But I became distracted by this...

HERE'S WHY.

We also stumbled upon some pretty graphic art focusing in Jesus. This art I didn't mind the kids being exposed to at all. There was nudity. There was blood. There were wounds. And very visible emotions. The boys took it in. And Isaak knew exactly what it was all about. It was a beautiful moment to see him really soaking it in.

We moved on. And spent the most time with this piece of art. I do think it was BOTH of my boys' favorite. I'm not sure why, but they were truly captivated by this piece. Taking in every detail. Every nook and cranny of the canvas. I kinda liked it too. :)

For not wanting to partake in this outing today, it turned out to be a truly magnificent day. The boys did wonderfully with museum etiquette. And we enjoyed ourselves. As always, I am truly grateful to be able to experience these moments with my children.

As we were exiting the museum I was thinking these thoughts to myself. We entered the car. And Isaak says "Hey mom... I didn't fart that whole time we were at the museum. I had to. But I just kept holding them in. But mom, I'm going to now. It feels so good. Because our bodies need to fart to live."

Oh, beautiful museum days with boys.

Go have fun at LACMA.