April 2016: Fitzy takes California!

In April, the family took a 10-day vacation to Los Angeles to visit friends and absorb some much needed sun.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 airport to LA _4812ABOVE & BELOW: Before and after takeoff.

Clouds April 2016 plane over LA_9250

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum smiling wall _4841The first people we visited was Ken and Susan. Ken and Matt have known each other since they were 4 years old. They played hockey and soccer together throughout their youth and went to the same middle and high schools.

Ken and Susan have two kids — their youngest is Kallum who is 3.5 and about 9 months older than Fitz. They obviously hit it off together. Above, they are all smiles because their bellies are full of ice cream. And below, you’ll see that Kallum has a deep love for Star Wars. Obsessive love.

Kallum April 2016 The Force _9044

ABOVE: Using the Force on Matt.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum Force_9057

ABOVE: Trying to use the Force on Fitz to no avail.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum Jedi _9081ABOVE & BELOW: Kallum trying to convince Fitz to look for Luke Skywalker.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum Jedi _9082

Western Pacific logo train April 2016 LA _8998

ABOVE & BELOW: After a first day of settling into the LA lifestyle, we took the kids to Travel Town, a train-themed park for kids in Griffith Park.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Carly train _8985

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum train _8992

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum train _9009

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum train town eating _9015

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA train town eating _9021

 Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA guitar _9042

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum _9030

Fitz 2 years April 2016 Kallum _9028

ABOVE: The garage has been converted into a guest house and the boys loved running in and out of it and hiding from Matt.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA park _9095

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA kallum bath _4831

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Lilah _9130

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Lilah and boys _9118

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz took a shine to Lilah, Kallum’s sister, but got upset when he realized we were about to leave for Gen and Jesse’s place.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Kallum _9104

Fitz 2 years April 2016 knees bloodied _4838

ABOVE: One of the first things Fitz did when he arrived in LA was take a few layers of skin off of both knees.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA train park _9133

ABOVE & BELOW: Once we arrived in Irvine to stay with Gen and Jesse, we had to find the nearest parks. Luckily, their neighbourhood is full of them, including one that had an old-style tram that Fitzy declared as his own (below).

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA train park _9152

BELOW: This little park proved that Fitz has very good directional skills. He had been here earlier int he day with Carly and Gen and wanted to return to it with Matt. But Matt had no idea it existed and let Fitz direct him to it. It was about 5 blocks away from where they started and it blew Matt’s mind that Fitz could point them in the right direction having only visited the park once before. Also, don’t be concerned about the how Fitz has morphed into some four legged creature.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA park panorama _4893

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Carly Venice canal_9200

ABOVE & BELOW: We visited Newport Beach/Balboa Island, the setting of Arrested Development, one of Matt’s all-time favourite TV shows.

Banana stand Balboa Island April 2016 LA _4852

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA San Clemente pier _9187

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent a morning on the pier in San Clemente. No sight of Richard Nixon.

Waves LA April 2016 _9172

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Matt dinner _4856

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent a lot of time on the balcony of Gen and Jesse’s place.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA bum _4862

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA sleeping _4860

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9205

ABOVE & BELOW: We visited Venice Beach and it’s canals one afternoon. Some amazing places. We also discovered some cool public art on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice (see pic of Gen below)

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9203

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9212

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9211

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9193

Venice canal homes April 2016 _9197

Gen years April 2016 LA Venice at wall _4898

Fitz 2 years April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9236

ABOVE & BELOW: On our last day, we visited the beach at Corona Del Mar. Fitz insisted on aking sure his hat didn’t fly off so we had to pull up the hoodie. He looked like one of those people freaked out about getting any sun on their skin. But we also saw some amazing outcrops of rocks and insanely huge homes.

April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9214

April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9216

Corona Del mar beach _9220

Fitz 2 years April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9223

Fitz 2 years April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9233

Fitz 2 years April 2016 Corona Del mar beach _9226

Irvine waffle architecture April 2016 _4934

ABOVE & BELOW: We went to a student art show for Jesse’s students and got to see a very cool waffle architecture building on campus. At sunset on our last night — we went back to Balboa Island for ice cream.

Fitz 2 years April 2016 LA Matt Carly pier Newport Beach_4918

Fitz 2 years April 2016 airplace asleep _4938

ABOVE: Of course, Fitz fell asleep on the flight home 5 minutes before the plane landed.

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