Grand Park, Downtown Los Angeles

Last weekend we took a spontaneous trip to the new park in Downtown. It was a gray and rainy day but it was perfect since hardly anyone was out so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. I first saw the park on election night driving past the huge crowds celebrating Obama's win but my attempts to check it out were thwarted by downtown's ludicrous parking situation. There's absolutely no street parking and the least expensive parking lot was charging $20. Last Sunday we found a lot near the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion *the venue where we saw Björk in 2001* that was only $10 so our day at the park began. It's a unique space that spans 3 blocks down a hill. The park doesn't have any playgrounds and is mostly grassy spaces with fabulous pink tables and chairs. There is an enormous fountain and being in LA, of course there's a Starbucks. We stopped in for some pastry treats. Liv had a blast running around and even gave us a performance singing "Tomorrow" on the stage in her itty bitty voice. Oh, and she insisted on carrying her purse that was a gift from her Aunt Clinnie. Joy over at Oh Joy! had her daughter Ruby's 1st birthday at the park and it looks amazing. This is how I envision Liv's birthday party but I can't hire a party planner to help me execute such a grandiose affair. No worries, I have a magical man named Antz and I can tap into Leslie's creative blood! I am definitely hiring a photographer because I learned the hard way at our bebe shower that you can not entertain and take photos at the same time. Alright, so we brought the Nikon 3000 with us and the results made me remember why I love that camera. It's ideal for daytime outdoor shooting. I used the Nikon J4 for shots of the fountains and Liv running. I look forward to returning to Grand Park, it's a fun place and a beautiful space in LA.

Los Angeles City Hall

Trying out the remote

J'adore pink!

I may have accidentally coordinated with the neon pink palette

Freckle face

The lady holding her purse. Liv is such a girlie girl

Starbucks

Yummies!

Her Dad was cracking her up

The park staff was putting up the Christmas decorations so we were able to get up close to these lovely trees

I took a few shots using Instagram

Olivia is obsessed with Annie, which was one of my favorite movies as a kid too. She carries the dvd cover around and tells everyone, "I Annie!" I suppose the hair is too similar. She sings Tomorrow all the time.

Mean faces

The loves of my life

Liv loves playing by this fountain

This was almost a potential Holiday card photo but Liv is doing her smile for the picture face and it looks unnatural to me *plus I have some fancy new duds for us to wear in our photo* I hope we get it done by Thursday.