Manhattan Beach February 2009

It's hard to believe these pictures were taken in February!  I left Rexburg at an unbearable -20 degrees and flew into LA where it was 80!  

As anyone who knows me is well aware  (I can't help but talk about them all the time:) I nannied for the most amazing family September 2007-April 2008.   Not only are their boys the cutest on the planet, 

but the family became like another family of my own. Their mom, Hilke, and I are now more like sisters than anything else.  I come to her for all kinds of advice and laugh more around her than you'd think possible. We get into these giggling fits over who knows what, and Kevin(the dad) just sits there and rolls his eyes, I'm sure wondering why he ever hired me in the first place. Poor guy, his boys are too little to take his side, so he just has to put up with Hilke and I.  He gets his revenge by being like the older brother  I never had and teasing me about anything and everything.  See what I mean they're like family?! 

In fact, I just missed them all too much ! This last February they flew me out for a week (in the middle of the semester!) to help out while Kevin was in England.  Hilke and I had so much fun playing with the boys.  Oh and did i mention, they are renting a house in Manhattan Beach (LA area) for the year, so we literally had a house on the beach!  Every morning Hilke and I played "tag-team" and would take turns taking a morning run along the beach.  Then we'd take the boys out for a full day of fun (minus naps of course:) 

There was a playground on the beach that they loved, countless parks, dolphins to watch in the water (yes you could really see them!), an aquarium at the end of the Manhattan Beach Pier, and the cutest little ice cream shop.  The first day I found it, I took the boys in and let Nathan pick out a "lolly".  He was obsessed.  Notice how in almost every picture he is holding it. Multiple tantrums were produced due to the fact that he didn't want to sleep without it.  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollypop? Haha! He learned to do everything one handed so he didn't have to let go of it! 

One of my favorite memories was feeding the seagulls!  There were hundreds!