Sam's love/hate relationship with the beach

A collection of fun things we've done in the past few months:

Sam's first time at the beach.  He hated the sand, the water, the sun...pretty much everything

Enjoyed a day at the LACMA seeing the James Turrell exhibit

Sammy and me at music class.  Watch out, budding drummer coming through

Grandma, Sam and I went out to the San Gabriel Mission (been around since 1771!)

As we were walking around the grounds, Sam found an old Asian man doing strange calisthenic exercises.  It was hilarious because Sam couldn't stop staring at him, no matter how hard we tried to distract him. 

Second time at the beach...Sam actually smiled!  Success!

Celebrated my dearest mom's birthday.  My sis and I compiled and wrapped a gift for each year...let's just say it took a little while for my mom to open all of them and model and display each gift. 

This last weekend, we took Sam on his first ever camping trip up in Malibu Creek.  Apparently the TV show MASH was filmed there and you can hike to a spot with old trucks from the set.  We set out on our hike...only to realize half way into it that it was 5 miles roundtrip in the hot sun.  With some encouragement from Sam and jello treats from a Hispanic family we met along the way, we endured to the end.

Thanks Aaron and Rachel for the cute hat!

It was worth it.  I think.

Enamored by the campfire

Sam thoroughly enjoyed his camping experience...until it was time for bed.  He slept for about 2 hours and then woke up in a panic and couldn't go back to sleep.  To spare our neighbors the whole campground, I slept in the car with Sam and woke up a zombie the next morning.  But we ended our trip with a bang by going to Point Dume beach (where Sam finally touched sand without freaking out...Huzzah!) and eating at our favorite Malibu joint Neptune's Net.  Best ceviche on the planet.  Period.