Remember long long ago, when I went away on vacation for 2 weeks and said I’d post up my pictures “real soon”? Well, that day is today - 4 months later. Though this is only some of the pictures - I think I have about 200 more to post in the next couple weeks.

During our stay in Los Angeles, we were going to meet up with Dave’s uncle. While we were waiting for him to finish up with work, we decided to head out to Santa Monica beach. I’d been there a couple times when we lived out there, but usually we were at the 3rd St. Promenade. We took Ben out to the promenade for some shopping (and dancing - he loved the street musicians), then later to the Santa Monica pier. He had a ball at the pier, first at the arcade that had a bunch of kid-rides. He had so much fun we didn’t even have to stick a quarter in to turn them on. A little bit down the pier we went to the Pacific Park. Since it was the middle of October, there weren’t too many people there, so Ben pretty much ran around the whole place on his own. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, and although I was nervous that Ben would freak, he actually loved it.

Since we had some time left over, we decided to let Ben hit the beach for the first time. At first, he was a little freaked by the feel of sand on his feet, but as you can see from the pictures, after a couple minutes the kid was having a ball! He was running around the beach as far as he could run, picking up sand and throwing it around, trying to bury his papa in it, and even tried eating it - which he soon found out was NOT a good idea.

That hour or so we spent at Santa Monica beach as a family was one of the highlights of my trip. When I think of Benjamin as a baby, I will always remember that day, my little boy running barefoot on the beach, not having a care in the world.

Here’s some of my pictures - more can be seen here.

For some reason, the photogallery has made my formatting all whack - i’m working on it!

Tags: Photography, Ben, Travel, Memories, Pictures //