Three Years

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary this week!  Ian had an extra two days off of work which meant we got to spend three days together!  With work, travel, school, and other responsibilities

this was a welcomed treat.  With so many fun things to do in Los Angeles, we decided to have a staycation and explore the city.  Here are some highlights from the week....

Monday we went to the beach with the Finlay family.  Ian had a great time with Steve and Evan playing in the waves.

The Getty Museum.  Very impressive art collection.  I especially enjoyed the garden and an exhibit on the building and expansion of Los Angeles.  The views of the city from the museum are always great too. 

The Hollywood Walk of Fame.  I couldn't stand more than about 10 minutes there because it was so dirty, but we did get a picture in front of the famous Chinese theatre and found a few famous stars' names.

Lunch at Umami burger.  Two big thumbs up for this restaurant.  Their truffle fries were delish.       

The Griffith Observatory.  We watched a show in the planetarium and toured the museum.  

We took a hike in the hills nearby.  More great views from the top of Mt. Hollywood.

From the Griffith Observatory there is a great view of the Hollywood sign.  We ate our picnic dinner out on the lawn and watched the sun set.  The Hollywood sign is the small white blob in the backgound. 

 

Once dark, we got to see Saturn through their telescope.  

 

On our actual anniversary we went to the Newport Beach Temple.  The grounds were so beautiful. 

Ian surprised me and we got pedicures.  I had to document that Ian got one as well.  

We finished off the night with a nice dinner at Roy's.  They even had gluten free dessert that was heavenly!  

Happy third anniversary!

Home Improvements

I have had a fun time slowly fixing up our home.  We have a long porch that spans the length of the house.  It was so long and empty.  For next to nothing, I was able to score this old wood bench from Craigslist.  Here are the before and after pictures of my DIY project.

Our home also came with a huge garden plot.  Ian and I have been trying our hand at gardening as well.  It's hard to believe our little garden went from this...

...to this the last few months.

While we are still novice gardeners, it has been fun to grow something in our backyard!  With the warm Southern California weather, we were able to start planting our crops at the end of March.  We just enjoyed our first meal from our garden the other night - fresh basil pesto pasta and green beans. Yumm!!   

April Happenings

April was a busy month for us.  I flew to Colorado for a day to see my brother perform in the high school play Brigadoon.  He was such a great actor!

I met Ian the next day in Utah for Brea and Mike's wedding.  This is Ian's group of friends from college that still stay in touch.

April also brought two showers.  A wedding shower for Valerie (my brother-in-law's fiance).  They will be married in July and we are so excited she will be joining the family.  Sadly, I did not take a picture of a single thing!  We also had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Megan.  We decorated onesies for her baby boy.  Again, no pictures sadly.      

The NCAA Volleyball Championships were held at UCLA this year.  I met Ian after school on Saturday and we went to the championship game of BYU vs. UCI.  BYU lost the game, but it was nice to see so many cougar fans.    

An Escape to Portland

Between work and school, Ian is gone a lot.  We had a very rare weekend when he could take off work for a few days and he didn't have school.  Because he currently works in Portland, we decided to spend the weekend there.  It was heavenly.  Hiking, waterfalls, good food, sleeping in, time to talk and be together made the long weekend heaven.  Admittedly, the following post is a photo dump of some of the trip highlights.

A kind friend let us stay in her beach house for a few nights in Netarts.

It was beautiful.

We toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Walking along the beach.

Eating clam chowder at Mo's.  A staple here.

Looking at tide pools.

I love this picture of Ian.  He loves the outdoors and anything adventurous.  It was his idea to jump to this rock as the tide was coming in.    

We visited Fort Clatsop where Louis and Clark and their team waiting the winter out before returning home. 

Along the Washington border are many, many waterfalls.  We hiked to several waterfalls with wonderful vistas.

I am so lucky to be married to this guy.  He is so good to me.  Life is good. 

A Visit From The Lintons

The Lintons came to visit!  My sister Jennie, her husband, and three darling girls came to visit for a week.  We got to do some fun things together.  

We spent some time at the beach.

We visited the Space Shuttle Endeavor in its new home.

We watched the horses warm up at the Santa Anita race track while we enjoyed breakfast.

This is also the home of the famous Seabiscuit.  

We loved having visitors.  Please come again.