Rob&Nicole . Com

We'd been wanting to visit LA again and what better time to go than smack in the middle of Pacific Northwest Winter?

Chris made the trek down with the kids, and we got an incredible deal on a hotel using Hotwire. The location was perfect, right on Sunset with immediate access to all our favorite places.

We were able to hang with some old friends, and eat at some of our dearly-missed restaurants.

But the highlight of the trip was a 12-hour visit to Disneyland!

I decided that it was finally time to buy a good point-and-shoot camera for things like "going to disneyland" or "the birthday party night at the restaurant", where I don't want to carry a full-sized SLR with lens.

The new Canon S95 is perfect. It's got full manual controls, and is small enough to fit in the front pocket of my jeans. After a full day of using this camera to shoot still and 720p high-def videos, I decided it was a good purchase.

Here's some more info and full review:

Elliot and Lia were in complete ecstasy the whole day (except for when they were sleeping in my arms or in the stroller).

They got to ride on just about everything, including:

Pirates of the Carribean, the Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn, Autotopia, Pinnochio's Adventure, Peter Pan, the Submarine, Thunder Mountain, Snow White, and the Jungle Cruise.

We also got to explore Tarzan's Tree House, and Pixie Hollow.

By the end, we were all pretty exhausted, but it was totally awesome. We'll probably go back next year.

-Rob and Nicole

The Grafton on Sunset. Pretty cool hotel with an awesome heated outdoor pool.

We can't resist checking to see if our first apartment is still there. Upstairs in this building is where we had our first place in LA.

Our pal Simon! He's working at Naughty Dog on the Uncharted games for PlayStation3. (Simon was our best buddy up in Vancouver, when Nicole and I first met.)

These strollers are pretty handy. You pick them up at the front for 10 bucks. You park it anyplace you want and nobody takes it becuase you name is on it. Then, at the end of the day, you just drop it off on your way out the gate.

"Vidia and Tinkerbell" ask lia some questions, but all she cares about is them not touching her bag of bunny crackers.

Autotopia! Check it out, you can't even escape the L.A. traffic when you're inside Disneyland.

Lia isn't sure about the Jungle Cruise.

Waiting to board the Thunder Mountain Railway.

The line for Pirates wasn't too bad, but when you have to perform a "tactical poopie diaper" change mid-line, it makes it seem a bit too long.

The castle from inside the central area. We just discovered you can go inside the castle, and walk from West to East, coming out the other side.

"Oooooh!"

"OHHHHH!"

The river boat makes its way to the dock.

Elliot tries to get Tinkerbell and Vidia to come out of their house, but they've already gone to bed.

Flying back from LA to Seattle, the sky was totally clear. I looked down and realized we were going to fly right past Yosemite National Park, so I put the little PowerShot S95 camera up to the window and filmed our fly-over. You can see Half-Dome, El Capitan, as well as a few other landmarks.

iPhone pic (car stopped at a red light) of Sunset Blvd, outside the hotel. It was kinda nice when we lived here and could walk two blocks, see a band, or eat someplace awesome without driving.

And we can't help help snapping a pic of the Hayworth Building, our biggest real estate project in LA. We bought and remodeled all the units in this 4-plex, before selling it in 2006. It looks exactly the same 5 years later.

After a few years of only talking on the phone, I finally get to meet my step-brother, Oliver (Rachael's son). He's totally awesome and I'm lucky to have him in my life.