Summertime at Dodger Stadium

There’s so much more to Dodger Stadium than baseball. On our latest trip, for the June 25 game against the Colorado Rockies which turned into the “longest nine-inning game in the history of Dodger Stadium,” we took some time to enjoy the sights, explore a little, and stay even after that 4-hour, 19-minute game to the let the kids run the bases. Did you know that’s a thing?

Dodger Stadium kids watching

Obviously, you go to Dodger Stadium to watch a baseball game. But kids can get bored, and games can last a long time. Luckily, there are things to see and do there that break up the activity of just sitting and watching the game.

Things To See

There are plenty of great photo opportunities in and around Dodger Stadium. Pictures of your kids and family near the giant Dodger hand or the LA symbol will become iconic images of their childhood.

Dodger Stadium giant hand

Dodger Stadium LA symbolThis silver logo is just inside the entrance to the club level seats.

Dodger Stadium Jackie Robinson

This sculpture, unveiled in April, is the first-ever sculpture in the Stadium and marks the 70th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. It’s located on the left field reserve level plaza area (Lot B).

Dodger Stadium social media center

The social media center is fun to watch – that dude in there has a busy job! If you post a photo to social media with the tag #mlbmemorybank, it will show up on the board, and may be shown on the giant DodgerVision screen in the stadium!

Dodger Stadium DodgerVision

That’s our crew! You can see our guests, Jeff and Kevin, and my son Brady front and center in his Dodgers cap. I was too busy trying to snap a pic to make sure I was in the shot!

Dodger Stadium bullpenYou can watch the reserve pitchers warming up in the bullpen during the game. We were so close we could hear how hard the ball smacks the glove at 90 mph!

Things To Eat and Drink

Beyond the obligatory Dodger Dog, the various snack bars throughout the stadium offer a variety of salads, nachos or ice cream in a Dodger helmet, meatball subs, Vietnamese noodles, and more! I decided to dessert my way through the day, starting with this churro ice cream sundae.

Dodger Stadium churro ice cream sundae

My son preferred a cherry flavored Icee, but my choice of drink on this sweltering day was the Ketel One Watermelonade.

Dodger Stadium Ketel One Watermelonade

Things To Do

Like I said, it’s not just baseball games that happen at Dodger Stadium. They have fireworks, movie nights, kids running the bases, festivals before the games, and giveaways. At this game, they gave a cool Dodgers water bottle to every kid who came. They have themed games and special promotions for groups. This day was Girl Scout Day, and all the Girl Scouts – there were hundreds – who showed up led a parade around the field before the game.

My son and his friend got to run the bases that day. It was over pretty quickly, but there was a long line. The experience is open to kids 4-14 after select Sunday home games.

Dodger Stadium kids run bases

mom and kid at dodger stadiumHe was pretty happy with the day. So was I.

Go for the baseball, come back with a day full of memories, and maybe even a bag to put them in.

Dodger Stadium boy on club level

My son and our friends and I attended the game as guests of the Dodgers. All opinions are my own.

GiftYou: An Easy Way to Say “Here’s What You Can Get For Me”

giftYou is an easy new way to share wish lists and gift ideas – complete with sizes, color preferences, and more – with your friends and family.

giftyou socks

These socks are on my giftYou list

Now that we’re in holiday season, family and friends keep asking me for gift ideas for my kids. What sizes are they now, including shoes? What clothes do they especially need? I have the same questions about my sister’s kids and she is terrible at getting back to me. (I am also terrible at getting back to people, but it’s more fun to throw her under the bus.)

But what if there was a central place you could keep all this information? Not just for you and your own kids, but for all the people you love to shower with gifts throughout the year? This is one of those things I didn’t know I needed until it popped up in my life: giftYou!

giftyou logo

giftYou is an online tool that makes it easy to create and share gift wish lists with friends and family. Creator Richard Fields says he and his techie partners “wanted to make the gift giving process easier on ourselves (and in turn, easier for everyone else, too)!  Most of us love giving and receiving gifts… but, quite frankly, it can sometimes be a bit stressful.”

Wish Lists For Everyone!

giftYou goes beyond Amazon’s wish lists (although it uses Amazon links to populate your list easily) by allowing you to easily share wish lists among groups of family and friends. “At giftYou, you simply create a group, invite everyone you want to join, and that’s it,” says Fields.  “Everyone in the group will have their wish lists shared with each other automatically, instead of each person having to manually share each separate wish list with one another.”

giftyou wish list

Plus, giftYou can add links to any online retailer, AND indicate your general preferences and the kinds of things you like, so that people can choose their own gifts for you instead of picking something directly off your wish list. You can use it for this season’s gifting holidays and keep it around for birthdays and other occasions.

When you log in (for free!) and create you own account, you are prompted to start a wish list for yourself. You can also create a wish list and preferences for a dependent or someone else in your family. giftYou is easy to use on your mobile phone too – it’s optimized for that format so you don’t have to download a separate app to use it.

Other cool functions: when someone wants to buy something for you from the wish list, they can “claim” it, but you won’t see who it is! And, the site makes sure gifts aren’t claimed more than once. It’s kind of like an awesome group gift registry.

There’s Still Time

So if you’ve been meaning to gather some ideas for your family to send presents for the kids that you know they would love, instead of blindly ordering the latest hot toy from the internet, try out giftYou.com. And make a wish list for yourself while you’re at it!

I promise you this post is not just a giant hint for you to click through and send me presents. The wish list I posted above is just for an example. (I already asked Santa for these things, so since I’ve been a good girl this year, I think I’m all set.) What I really want is a shiny new car. I wonder if that can go on a wish list? Hmm…

Many thanks to giftYou.com for partnering with me on this post. Shout out to Fairy Season for the photo and the existence of the awesome socks. Happy holidays!

Hansen Dam Aquatic Center

Hansen Dam Aquatic Center is an oasis in the San Fernando Valley.

hansen dam aquatic center water slide

While there is still a bit of summer left, I want to recommend the pool at Hansen Dam Aquatic Center. To get there we took the 101 to the 405 to the 118 to the 210 and exited on Foothill Blvd. That may seem like a long way to go for a swim, especially when we have Lindero Country Club right around the corner, but I took my kids to Discovery Cube Los Angeles for a day trip to check out the newest exhibits. It was a Tuesday when LAUSD was back in school and LVUSD wasn’t yet, so the center was not crowded and the kids blew through everything in 2 hours. Since we had time and I had packed our swim suits just in case, we went over to the pool.

hansen dam aquatic center pool

We haven’t explored the Hansen Dam Recreation Area at all, before or since having children, so our visit to the Hansen Dam Aquatic Center was a delightful surprise. The center is a giant – like enormous, endless – pool with 2 waterslides next to a big manmade lake. Admission for swimming is $1 per child and $3.50 for adults (which is actually kind of backwards in my opinion since I went in the water for all of 5 minutes and the kids spent an hour in it!).

hansen dam aquatic center child

There is a food truck on site for snacks and at that time there was also a nice lady with a little ice cream cart. There are plenty of restrooms, showers, and changing rooms, and you can even rent a shade tent to stay out of the sun. We got there at 4pm so I was able to set up my chair in the shade of a tree.

Swimming Lake

The pool is referred to as a “swimming lake” as opposed to the larger recreational lake behind it. It is surrounded by a sandy beach, and you walk into the pool just like into a lake, except the bottom is concrete like a pool. At one end are the two waterslides, which you access by walking through a giant curtain of water (I guess to rinse you off whether you like it or not). One waterslide is closed, and that’s the one I went on because the open one was not operational that day. The closed waterslide was rather terrifying for a second, since you can’t see which way you’re going. But the kids didn’t seem to mind and they went on it over and over again. You can’t wear a rash guard on the slide – the lifeguards made my boys take theirs off.

hansen dam aquatic center shade tents

Visit Soon!

The pool and waterslide are both open every day in the summer from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Starting September 6, they are only open Saturday and Sunday through September 25, and then they close for the season. But there are lots of other things to do at the recreation area so we will report back when we explore it some more!