Perspective…

A few of our Cool Summer Days calendar ideas were flexible as we traveled down to see Grammy and Papa. After our climbing out of the crib incident, I was trying to figure out how to get in a good, solid nap so we didn't all have to combat a grumpy child all weekend. We grabbed lunch and headed to WACC, my parent's church, to watch all the construction going on, hoping to wear him out. What 19 month old boy doesn't love to watch diggers!? Within the 5 minute drive, however, he fell asleep.....so, plan B!
It seriously felt like a "Choose You Own Adventure Book". As I was looking at how the day unfolded....my mom and I both commented on how your day can either go well, or poorly, depending on your perspective. Here's a Plan A (a yucky perspective), Plan B (an upbeat perspective) method of explaining what I mean...
Plan A: Why couldn't Cooper just stay awake so we could accomplish what we had planned?! Now I have to sit in the car for an hour and a half!!
Plan B: I get an hour and a half of peace and quiet in the car while we drive up to Glendale to have lunch with my dad! AND....my son will be in a much better mood when he wakes up.
Plan A:We were stuck driving around Griffith Park looking at outdated parks and "touristy" attractions listening to my mom relive the "good 'ol days". How boooring! Why did Cooper have to take such a long nap?
Plan B: While driving through Griffith Park, I got to hear about my mom's memories of her dad bringing her there on weekends to ride the merry-go-round (which we may have to return to). It's always special to hear about things from your parent's "previous lives".
Plan A: Cooper is STILL sleeping! Guess we'll have to drive around until we can eat lunch. Gosh, I’m starving! As we pull up to drive around Forest Lawn Cemetery to kill time, we ran into all the Michael Jackson fans!! Ugh…so much media and Jackson fans clogging up the roads!
Plan B: Hooray, Cooper is taking a fantastic nap. While pulling into Forest Lawn Cemetery, we got to see the “historic” Michael Jackson one year anniversary to his death fan mob. Take a look at what we saw....on this MTV video. We actually saw the guy dressed up as Michael Jackson in the MTV video. Craziness is all I have to say. We drove to the entrance and rolled down our window for the security guard who asked, "Are you hear for Michael?" My mom and I had to giggle inside a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Jackson's music...but I'm not about to walk half a mile to go to his gravesite on his year death anniversary. What a funny memory that will be!
Plan A: Cooper is FINALLY awake…time for lunch. Grabbed some In-n-Out for Papa where Cooper saw a water fountain with spitting frogs…which he was then obsessed with, couldn’t focus on ANYTHING else. While eating at Papa’s office, Cooper spilled, sorry…splattered carrot applesauce EVERYWHERE. Then, when we went back to the frog fountain, I had to buy diapers and wipes because we ONLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN GONE FOR AN HOUR TO BEGIN WITH!!
Plan B: We picked up some lunch for my dad at an In-n-Out near the Americana (look how gorgeous it is below) in Glendale, when Cooper spied a two story water fountain with spitting frogs!! For the next hour or so...he couldn't stop talking about wanting to go back and see the frogs. So, we went back to check them out and found the beauty of the Americana was the perfect outing for the day... 
Resulting in the following fun firsts for Cooper:
First ice cream CONE (and Thrifty's at that!)

First standing escalator ride
First trolley ride (yes, I realize you can't SEE the trolley, but here he is with Papa.)

First major piece of balloon art
...and just a whole lot of fun for all of us! Talk about a cheap, amazingly fun outing! The weather was perfect and we had a blast. So, life lesson learned (again). Be flexible and go with the flow! AND...look at the bright side of things. The day COULD have been viewed as such a downer, when in reality it couldn’t have been more perfect.