Monster Jam!

It's the weekend before school starts (last weekend - Sat, Aug 18) and we decided to surprise the boys with Monster Truck/Monster Jam tickets! Charlie wanted to wear his new birthday socks but we told him it would be too warm.  How cute are these macaroon socks!!!

We are on our way to the Staple Center.  I have never been to this side of the city center before:

Here it is!  This is where the LA Lakers play basketball and I believe the LA Kings also use this for their ice rink:

Pretty cool sculptures around here:

Charlie just woke up from his nap in the car.  Cranky pants!

I like how the city shut off this part of the street for pedestrians.  We are obviously very early since there is no one on the streets yet.  We are actually meeting another family at a restaurant nearby for lunch:

There is a street soccer promotion going on across the street from the Staples Center:

After lunch, we head inside.  Woah... who knew Mommy had bought "Premier" seats at the Suite level!

There they are!  The Monster Trucks!!!

I brought the boys' monster truck toys.  Charlie had the "Grave Digger":

This truck is a rather interesting one - Zombie.  Can you see the zombie arms??!  Ha Ha!

The Jam actually started out quite slow.  The trucks are competing against each other to see who can go around twice the fastest:

There are actually a couple women drivers (or "athletes" as the announcer puts it) - although this gal is only 24 years old.  She is actually from California and driving the "Wonder Woman" truck:

Family we-fie! Notice Charlie has ear-plugs on.  It's a good thing I bought some. It is quite loud!

This one was Graham's favorite - Max D (for Maximum Demoliton).  Pretty neat trick!

The crowd is loving it when the trucks get some air!

The other woman driver is in this puppy truck.  Hmmm... doesn't seem very intimidating:

Grave Digger in action!

Oops!!! Grave Digger has turned over!!!

This tractor was really busy tonight!

In between the Monster Truck actions, the drivers, I mean athletes, also have other things going on like the ATV race:

It's half time... Momma is busy taking more photos. There is so much history in here:

Yes, quite the history!

Okay, back to the action.  Here is Wonder Woman performing spins:

Not too shabby!  I think the Zombie stole the show though during free-style when it caught fire!!!

And yes, that little spray of a fire extinguisher actually worked!!!

WOAH is right, Daddy!!!

Here is some of the action from Grave Digger:

But in the end, El Toro Loco wins!

I still can't believe we went to a Monster Jam show.  Graham and Charlie LOVED it!

I do wish it was in a bigger stadium though.  There were some videos on the jumbotron that looked very impressive. Maybe next time!

We browse around the Team Shop after.  Check out these two caps:

Can you believe the price on it!??  This one is for the purple Lakers cap to the left:

And this one is for the black one to the right:

That is just super ridiculous!!!

Okay, moving on.  Did I mention how cool some of these sculptures are:

Looks like we are stuck in this area for a bit.  The freeway going home is closed because of some lady on the freeway??! Never a dull moment in LA!

At least the boys are happy with dessert:

Looks like we can check "Monster Jam" off the list!  :-D