Dad Meets LA

My dad came to visit us just before Christmas (well, let's be honest, he came to see Bennett. Mark and I are just collateral at this point). We had a wonderful visit and it was nice to have so much time together. I thought about it and I haven't gotten to spend that much time with my dad since probably elementary school when I had the summers off and he was a stay at home dad...here's Dad's visit in pictures:

Bennett LOVED his grandpa's mustache! He spent about half his visit pawing at grandpa's glasses and/or mustache. When I was a kid my dad always had a beard. It was so permanent that I was convinced that he had no chin underneath. My parents had me feel his chin to prove its existence and asked me, "What's that hard part you feel?" and I responded, "Oh, that's just hardened hair." Don't ask me what I meant by that because I have no idea, I think I was imagining years of hair, matted and condensed into a jaw-like shape. It made sense to 4 year old me.No one loves black licorice like Dad loves licorice. He's a veritable connoisseur of the stuff. My whole family likes it, actually. Mark hates it and cannot understand its appeal, at all. My dad was complaining about how he used to try and hide his stash from us but my brother and I always found it and "help" him eat it. Mark was like, "Ah ha! No wonder you like it - it was the only available candy! You like it by default!" It's true, we didn't keep much junk food in the house growing up, I actually thought Doritos were a birthday only food, like birthday cake until I was in junior high and realized you could buy them anytime you wanted (I'm not complaining - thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me to be so healthy, I appreciate it!).

Needless to say, he cleaned out World Market's supply of licorice and we ate our body weight in the stuff.

Friday night was the ward Christmas party that I was in charge of, so Dad got to come and meet a lot of my church family (and enjoy the best smoked turkey ever, some friends in the ward have a BBQ restaurant, Willy's in Agoura Hills. I highly recommend it. We get spoiled - they cater most of our parties and it's always delicious.)

Sitting in front of the decorations (thanks for the help Suzy and Taryn, it looks great!).
Waiting in line for grub. Bennett's having a two finger appetizer.
Unfortunately dad came just in time for monsoon season here in LA. He did get some great weather in Arizona the week before though, so I don't feel too terrible. 50 degrees and rainy is like summer weather in Valdez, so we went right ahead with all our touristy adventures. All the locals probably thought we were crazy to take a baby out in such "inclement" weather, but I think Bennett actually enjoyed it. He's a Norsky, just like his daddy and loves the cold.

Friday we went to the Ghetty Center. Museums are usually the perfect place to visit on a rainy day but half the fun of the Ghetty Center is checking out the amazing architecture and the gardens. It was kind of lame that we couldn't do much outside, but the museum itself was still cool. Here we are posing outside, in the rain, which got on my lens, grrr.


I know what you're thinking, no flash photography inside museums! The security guard, who was really cool, saw me trying to take a picture of Mark and Bennett without flash and offered to take our picture. He was like, "How do you turn off the flash?" and I showed him and said, "It's ok though, it's already off." Then he flipped the flash back on, took our picture and was like, "Oh...Oops...I can't believe I left the flash on...my bad!" Dad didn't catch the sarcasm at first and that he'd turned the flash on on purpose and just thought the guy was an idiot. We filled him in.
Dad and Bennett at the Santa Monica farmer's market Saturday morning. We got the best grass fed bison steaks and some out of sight parsnips/purple carrots for dinner. :)

You can actually SEE the rain drops in this picture. That's the pier behind us.
Playing Rambo down on the pier.
Grandpa and grandson strolling down the pier.

Why yes that is a giant Kraft macaroni noodle. It's apparently part of a new ad campaign. Some reps take your picture in front of the noodle and post it on Facebook. We're famous now, we even had to sign a waiver.

Three generations united for one purpose - watching football.

We went to the Le Brea tar pits on Monday before we dropped Dad off at the airport but I don't have any pictures of it. They were pretty cool, and stinky. Fun trip and a great way to kick off the Christmas break!