"Wicked" trip to LA

Lame roller coaster ride at the Santa Monica pier, $5
Overpriced parking at our hotel, $25
Cupcakes at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills, $40
Watching the kids dig Wicked, Priceless

For Spring break we escaped to California to see the musical "Wicked" and to spend time with family. The play was fantastic -- it was Jacob and Anna's first big-time play experience and they really liked it. For those who have not seen it, Wicked is the story of what happened to the witches before The Wizard of Oz. Fun storyline, great music.

We also spent a couple of nights at the beach in Santa Monica. The weather was awesome -- mid 80s at the beach. The kids woke up early the first day (6AM) and asked if we could go hunt for sea shells on the beach. We did -- and we let Jacob and Anna run ahead of us because Nathan was too distracted with playing in the sand. So we eventually catch up to J&A, only to find them playing in the waves. The water was frigid -- these kids are CRAZY!

On the second day we toured Griffith Park Observatory to fuel our kids' interest in space, and then took a stroll down Rodeo Drive. The former was great, the latter lame. We got suckered into going to a "famous" cupcake store. If overpriced cupcakes makes you famous, then I am in the wrong business. :-) The picture below is from the Observatory and includes all the Dutton cousins (current count anyway -- I am sure Krista has a few more in her).

To cap off our LA experience, we spent a day at Universal Studios. The place was empty so we could walk on any ride. The highlight was the Jurassic Park ride. Anna thought the ride was "so cute" -- until the BIG, unexpected drop at the end.

We also had fun spending time with the fam. The kids were spoiled as usual, so I've made it my goal this week to make life incredibly hard for them -- shock therapy to bring them back to reality. :-)