Cindy On Tour: Happy New Year!!!

Hello to 2018!!! Wow, a new start to another new year. Hopefully things will calm down at school after Graham's little incident. He ended up punching a girl in the eye right before the holiday break. Long story short, some kids have been calling him names and I guess he finally snapped! There was also an incident prior to that where I was watching him play by the trees with some other kids and I noticed a couple of them were not being nice. So I told him to fight back. Well, he obviously got that part down now!
Anyhow, I have seen the girl's mom a couple of times now since school has been back in session and unfortunately, it has still been a bit awkward. Oh well. Guess I just have to make some other new friends for 2018! :-P

We didn't do much on New Year's eve. I think we had spaghetti bolognese for dinner and the one thing I was actually really excited about was dessert. Chocolate fondue... YUM!!!

We recently bought a little fondue pot. I think the boys were mostly just really excited about the marshmallows rather than the strawberries:

The boys were in bed by about 8pm and Bobby was probably in bed around 9pm. Poor Bobby is not used to working the long hours after living in Abu Dhabi :-P Okay, give him some credit - he has been having to work during the weekends too. Poor fella.

I did end up staying up until midnight but mostly because I was watching random things on TV and updating my blog :-)

On New Year's Day, we decide to head out to Venice Beach to have a look-see. Well, we saw a lot for sure! The wordings on the T-shirts and undies were quite something! Thankfully the boys didn't notice:

We "smelled" a lot too! I didn't want to take a photo right in front of the "store" but there it is from the parking lot. Recreational marijuana is now officially legal in California starting Jan 1, 2018. I bet a lot of people are happy about this! The boys (including Bobby) better now drive me to one of these stores! HAHA!

Venice Beach is also known as "Muscle Beach". I forgot to actually take a photo of the area where there are a bunch of weight lifting machines. Show me some muscles! And Charlie is still "dabbing":

There is a whole section here with graffitti:

There is a bunch of people gathered in this area and we find out it's a skate park:

Bobby is not impressed. Ha ha!

We proceed to the beach area. And I spot a pretty rainbow color lifeguard house. Can you see it!?? I wanted to take some photos there with the boys but...

We were distracted by a group of people running into the ocean for a swim??!

And then, it was already too late - the boys started digging. No photo taking by the colorful lifeguard hut now!

We did convince the boys to move onto the rocks:

We spot sea anemones like a pro! What I didn't know was how these anemones can actually survive out of the water. Supposedly a mucus is produced to encase the anemone, which is why the ones out of the water are closed to stay moist. Who knew!

We also spot crabs!

Graham is enjoying the view on the other side of the rocks:

There are always a few closed calls on getting wet when we wander out to tidal pools and rocks!

Heading back inland and get to wave to the Sand Smoother/Cleaner. I think that's what they are called??!

A look at one of the murals on the building. Venice beach is "interesting" to say the least!

Of course, the boys spot the playground and we just HAVE to stop:

I was really impressed with Graham on the monkey bars!

Time for lunch! The boys are busy coloring. The Rose Bowl parade is on TV and Graham and Charlie somehow feel patriotic:

We obviously don't have all the stars and stripes but definitely an "A" for effort!

After lunch, we finally hit some of the "muscle" of the "Muscle Beach":

Charlie is determined for sure!

We try to get up on the ropes. Not easy at all!

Charlie is still trying!

Okay, we work on our push-ups instead :-)

Bobby and I thought we were done but nope, back on the beach! What else would we do anyway on New Year's Day...?

Well, how about body surfing on the sand! Graham is so not shy anymore when it comes to fun! Funny enough, this family started their tradition of coming to Venice Beach on New Year's Day. We might have to do the same now :-)