San Dimas

Why the random picture of Poly Shore and Brandon Fraser? Great question! We are currently resting our heads in San Dimas, California. For those of you who don't know, this movie was filmed in this city. It's kind of cool for me...I'm weird like that! We are in a nice trailer park (yes those words do go together) overlooking the lake and a great view of the city. We are about 40 east of LA. We decided after 2 nights in Palm Springs that it was time to move on. The weather was horrible, there was a storm coming in and the wind was crazy...and the area is more of a retirement place then it is family friendly.

So we left town, but hit the hugest outlet mall I have ever seen, it was wild. Probably about 200 stores or so. So we shopped from 9-2. Ate lunch and hit the road. We got some cool stuff, great deals, especially with the dollar right now.

So at about 7pm on Saturday we arrived in San Dimas. We woke up in the morning and loaded up the van and drove into Beverly Hills to attend church. We went to Mosaic which is a 'movement' (I don't think they like being called a church) that gathers in various locations in the LA area and is led by a guy named Erwin McManus. It was very cool. They met in Beverly Hills High School, which was an experience all on its own (brought back memories of Dylan, Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, and the crew, you 90210ers know what I am talking about). It was the polar opposite of our Saddleback experience. Mosaic was very artsy, and reflective. It was neat to see how they are obviously meeting a need in that area. If I could give you an image Saddleback would be like a shopping mall out in the suburbs, it has everything you could every want. Mosaic is more like Starbucks, only not Starbucks, more like an independent version of Starbucks, it is slow, methodical, and highly relational. It was neat to see 2 polar opposites making a difference because of they are presenting truth in a way that resonates with the culture they are in. God is good.

After church we toured Beverly Hills for a bit, people are crazy rich there. And we went to an out door mall/market thing called The Grove. If you could imagine a shopping mall inside out that was The Grove. All the stores you could want and more, but they were situated around this huge park/sitting area that had a trolley running through it, a massive Christmas train, fountains, etc...It was a little overwhelming, Beverly Hills is not super mini-van/double stroller friendly. But we just hunkered down and did our thing. Emilee stole the show. Kellee had her in a sling (www..coastalsling.com no problem Niki!) and a really cute hat on her and she was smiling at everyone! I thought everyone was going to swww.top shopping so they could announce that there was a really cute baby that everyone had to stop and admire. Well not quite, but they should have!

Then we left there and drove up the road to Hollywood. My wife has this goal of seeing a famous person before we leave. It almost happened. We drove by a movie theatre and there were tonnes of photographers around, but no famous people. Hollywood is a total dump. So we left. We got home around 8pm or so. Then we had a really nice campfire, some dinner and went to bed.

JJ woke up puking and had diarrhea. He seems better now, but who knows with him. I took took all the kids to McDonalds this morning so Kellee could get some extra sleep because she was up a lot last night. Today is just lazy reading/laundry/sterilizing the trailer day. We are going to stay one more night in San Dimas and then go back towards the coast. We will likely be staying somewhere around Malibu tonight for a couple of nights, hopefully on the beach again. We will likely be without internet for a couple of days.

Believe it or not but we are slowly working our way home. We should be home in 10 days. Then the real world hits. Poor us.