Next stop...LA

After being home for about five days, we took off again.  This time we headed to Los Angeles to see where Andy and Chelsea live and to attend the BYU football game.  We packed a lot into the three and a half days we were there.  We started off attending the beautiful LA temple.  Andy and Chelsea were married there over two years ago.  We had all attended sealing ceremonies in the LA temple, but none of us had ever gone to a session there.  Wow!  It is a HUGE temple!  The murals are beautiful in all the rooms and we even got a tour of some other areas from one of the temple workers afterwards.

These two live down this street a few miles.
 How convenient!

Beautiful temple grounds

That evening we met up with Chelsea's dad and his wife and they hosted us all at a dinner in Santa Monica.  We ate outside on a beautiful evening and enjoyed celebrating these two great children. They brought this beautiful birthday cake that we all enjoyed.

We walked around the Santa Monica
pier on a lovely evening.

The next day we headed to UCLA to look around.  Chelsea is pursuing her PhD there.  I had never been on campus before and we enjoyed a campus tour, lunch and looked at the office and building where Chelsea is going to spend her life for the next many years.  The campus if beautiful! It was such a fun morning to hang out with Chelsea.

Next we moved on to visit the Getty Museum.  Seriously, I was unprepared for how amazing it was.

Besides being an architectural wonder itself, the contents of the museum contain some of the most priceless and famous pieces of art work in the world.  Like these:

Piere Augustus Renoir

Pablo Picasso

Edouard Manet valued at $65.1 million

Vincent van Gogh valued at $111.9 million

Degas and many more.  I was spellbound and in awe of all we saw.  Plus as an added bonus, the museum is situated on top of a hill just west of Beverly Hills and the view is spectacular!  A person can see from the ocean on the right all the way around to Beverly Hills and Bel Air on the left with the entire city of LA in-between. Oh, and did I mention that admission to the museum is FREE?

The guys went to attend a Dodger game that evening while Chelsea and I watched a Nicholas Sparks movie.  I love this dear DIL of mine.  We are great friends and I love to spend time with her.  I'm so proud of the good person that she is and look forward to seeing her achieve her goals.  She and Andy make a great pair and they complement each other so well.  I'm so happy that she is a member of our family.

Saturday was Chelsea's birthday.  Her mother Laura and her sister Audrey arrived the night before and we got going and headed to Venice beach.  It was hopping with people and we did some people watching and saw a lot of homeless people as well.  It was a beautiful day at the beach and Rick, A&C enjoyed the water.  I was content to sit on the beach and get some sun.  Afterwards, Chelsea requested sushi for dinner, so we headed to a little restaurant close to their home.  Then, it was on to the game in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl.

It was a great game and BYU played well, even though they lost by one point.  We met up with our B-I-L Bob and his son Rom and his girlfriend.  It was such a fun night and the weather was perfect. The parking and the crowds were not, but it is the price you pay to attend a game at the Rose Bowl.

Sunday was Andy's 27th birthday.  Happy birthday dear son of mine!  I love the great man he has become.  I love his drive and his independence.  I love his kind heart and his good spirit.  I love how supportive he is of other people and how fun he is to be around.  I love that he is grounded and knows what matters in life.  I just love all 6' 5" of him and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes next. What ever he puts his mind to, he achieves.

We took a late morning flight home and returned to our own beds and our own routine.  At least for awhile.  It was a very fun trip and I loved seeing where our children are and how they are situated.  It will be a great place to visit in the future.