The Blocker Family

Our lives have been lame lately. We haven't done much over the past few weeks for various reasons: bad weather, sick kids, projects at home, other boring obligations... Sometimes life is just ordinary and we go to school and come home from school and play with friends and go to lessons and watch TV and eat dinner and read books and go to bed. We've had too many of those kind of days lately! So last Saturday we had an adventure. We packed up and headed to Griffith Park with no clear plan other than to spend the whole day there. It turned out fabulously!

We started out thinking about going to the zoo, but my lazy kids didn't want to wait in line to get tickets, so we headed over to Travel Town. It had been a few years since we've been there, and I must admit, it was a little disappointing. Many, many trains that my kids have loved and climbed and explored on in the past were now off limits! Almost every train there had a "No Climbing" sign on it! It was still a fun place, but we only spent an hour or so there.

We rode the little train that goes around the perimter of the park and that was fun.

After Travel Town, we decided to check out the Museum of Western Heritage. We had never been before and since my kids love all things "cowboy", it seemed like a good choice.

It was! They had lots of fun interactive kid exhibits, like the big horse where you could dress up and go for a ride!

And a place to pan for (fool's) gold!

And an old-fashioned country kitchen set-up complete with play food.

Marissa liked the peach pie. She cooked it over and over and over and couldn't figure out why it never got hot even though she left it in the oven for such a long time.

Enjoying a hearty dinner.

They also had an exhibit dedicated to Chinese history. I couldn't figure out how that fit in with the rest of the museum, but it was fun anyway! Brandon loved the Chinese dress-ups, especially the hat with the pony tail and all the kids loved the little Chinese restaurant they could play in.

The other cool kid area was this spot. The kids would sit on the saddle in front of the blue screen,

and then they were put into a western movie! They did this over and over. It was really cute. After this we left the museum and had a yummy lunch at their cute little cafe.

But our day still wasn't over! Whilst driving to our next destination, we happened across a parade of fabulous, old-fashioned, restored hearses. There must have been 30 or 40 of them all following each other down the road.

It was so fun to watch! I wish I had thought to get out my camera sooner because there were some really cool ones that I missed. The hearse parade fit in perfectly with our next destination: Forest Lawn, the biggest and coolest cemetery around (and also my grandpa's current home)!

We found his grave without too much trouble and the kids were really excited to get some flowers to put on it for him. Marissa played with hers a little too much and the stem didn't quite make it all the way to the grave.

This is my mom's dad. He died when I was about seven, so I don't remember him very well. It was fun to take my kids to his grave and talk about him a little bit. He was a fascinating man. He happened to be getting a new neighbor right at the time we chose to visit, so we didn't stay long. The kids wanted to check out the mausoleum, so we headed over there. It is really fascinating to look at all the names and dates and wonder about who all these people were.

After the cemetery, I was ready to head home, but the kids weren't. They wanted to try to find this fun little park that we played at by accident many years ago. I wasn't sure I would be able to find it again, but I did! It has a really cool roller slide that they all loved.

And a dry stream bed of fake boulders to explore. It was a good way to end our day of adventure at Griffith Park. It really is a cool place with lots of fabulous things to do. And we didn't even go to the Observatory or the Zoo! Next time...