The Broad Art Museum, Los Angeles

During our recent trip to Los Angeles over the Winter break we took the kids to the most amazing art gallery. I know what you're probably thinking... An art gallery with kids? That sounds like a sure fire recipe for bored, whiny kids, right? But no, not at this gallery. This gallery is full of such fun and whimsical modern art that kids of all ages will enjoy it.

Tulips (1995 - 2004) Jeff Koons

The Queen Mary

During our visit to Los Angeles over the Christmas Break we spent a day in Long Beach where we visited the Queen Mary. Our main reason for visiting was the Winter wonderland Queen Mary Chill event (which I shared here) but as both Kim and I have always wanted to tour the Queen Mary we were pretty pleased to discover that our tickets to the event gave us access to the ship as well.

Queen Mary Chill

During our time in Los Angeles over the Winter break we headed to Long Beach to visit the Queen Mary. I'll have a post about the actual ship coming soon, but today I want to share with you a winter wonderland we found in sunny old LA.

Queen Mary Chill is an annual Christmas attraction held right next to, you guessed it, the Queen Mary. The name comes from the main attraction - The Ice Kingdom, a 13,000sf walk through exhibit made from over two million pounds of ice. That's a lot of ice. And an awful lot of chilly air! Before entering The Ice Kingdom we donned long blue parkas which, as you can see in the photo below, were just a little big for us! How hilarious does Mathilde look?!

52 Weeks: Week 51

Week 51: Los Angeles

We're almost to the end of the year. Can you believe that there are only a few days left of 2015?

We've been away on vacation in Southern California since the girl's Winter break started last week and I've gotten a little behind with blogging. Time to catch up starting with last week's installment of my 52 week project.

We started our vacation with a few days in Los Angeles. I'll have a few dedicated posts coming soon about places we visited, but for week 51 I'm sharing our stay at the Ace Hotel in Downtown LA.

A Few Days in Los Angeles

On our recent trip to Southern California we spent a couple of days in Los Angeles.

I'll be honest. LA isn't my favourite place but I figured we couldn't travel all the way down there and not see any of the city. Ava and Lola had only briefly visited Los Angeles in the past (a quick breakfast in Hollywood with my sister on the way to Disneyland and a transfer at LAX when we first arrived from Australia) and there were a few things they were pretty keen to see.

Ava and Lola couldn't wait to visit Santa Monica Pier, the stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame, the handprints and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and La Brea Tar Pit. But most of all, they couldn't wait to buy cupcakes from the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM! Ok, I was pretty excited about the cupcakes too!

The girls enjoyed Los Angeles and I must admit that I actually kind of warmed to it a little too. You won't be seeing us moving there any time soon but my opinion of the city has improved a little!

Here's a look at our time in Los Angeles...

Flashback Fridays: Los Angeles 2005

In just one week's time my parents will be coming to visit us from Australia. How exciting!

The big girls can't wait for Mama and Papa to arrive. Mathilde has no idea, of course, but I'm so excited that my parents will finally get to meet her.

My parents have already left Australia and are making their way to the Bay Area via Los Angeles, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Right now they're in Los Angeles which got me thinking about our first visit to the City of Angels back in 2005.

Countdown to Disneyland!

In just under two weeks' time we'll be in the happiest place on earth! That's right, we're going to Disneyland!

We'll be meeting up with my little sister in Los Angeles and spending the weekend in Disneyland before road-tripping back to the Bay Area.

To help get into "Disney mode" I've been looking back on photos from our 2005 trip to Disneyland. I thought I'd share some of them with you here on Little Hiccups.

I'm sure this Disney adventure will be much different to our first - no kids first time around.

Expect to see many more Disney photos here come mid September!

Mickey Mouse ears? Check. Mickey Mouse t-shirt? Check.