What Did You Do This Summer?

The summer is now officially over and Autumn has arrived.  Although with the heatwave this week it doesn't really feel like it.  We've been pretty busy this summer and have done a lot of work on the house.  

We finally got a new front door.  Our old door gave us a lot of problems.  The lock had been changed so many times it didn't fit very well, so you had to push the door in to lock and unlock it.  If it was unlocked it wouldn't stay shut and would blow open with the slightest wind and no one could figure out how to unlock it to get out.  The lock would occasionally fall off and we had to use pliers to unlock and lock the door until Jamie could super glue it back on.  I also broke two keys trying to unlock the door.  It was pretty bad.   

But now we have a beautiful front door, that stays closed, locks easily, and to our surprise keeps the house so much cooler.  We spent a few weekends painting it but it looks amazing!

We also needed to replace the wood on the back/side gate.  We would have loved to have completely replaced the gate but  it's a big gate and it would have cost a lot of money.  So we did the next best thing, replaced the wood and spray painted the metal.  It looks a hundred times better and I'm sure our neighbors are happy they don't have to look at the old, weather beaten wood.

The garden has looked great all summer.  The avocado is looking really healthy and has a lot of new leaves and branches on it.  We also got a raspberry bush (to the left of it) that we have been enjoying all summer.

The citrus plants have been growing like crazy and are now loaded with fruit.  They should be ready to pick around Christmas time.  It's been another amazing summer and we are so happy with all that we got done.  There is always something to do on the house but I think we have earned a few lazy weekends :)

The Full Monty

We had our annual concert in the park last month featuring the band, The Answer. As usual it was a lot of fun and a great evening. Along with the concert, there was also raffle prizes that they gave out throughout the night. As it turns out, my Dad won one of the raffle prizes, tickets to a theater in San Diego for The Full Monty (My Dad wasn't completely thrilled as the Home Depot gift card would have made his day). Unfortunately, (although my Dad may say luckily) he had his yearly conference to go to the same weekend the tickets were for. As my Mom always goes with my Dad for this conference (which happens to be in San Antonio, TX and where they are at right now) Jamie and I took the tickets.

The theater was about 30 miles south of Temecula so we made the day out of it and stopped in Temecula for lunch and did some Olive Oil tasting as well. Wine would have been nice but we did want to stay awake for the show and drive home safely...so maybe next time. The show was really good, it was a small theater but it meant we had great seats. It was somewhat "Americanized" taking place in Buffalo, NY but the core themes were still there. And yes they did go the full monty accompanied by a blast of bright lights and complete darkness. It was a really nice day out and it was great to spend the afternoon at the theater :)

Rancho Palos Verdes

This weekend was Labor Day weekend :) A full 3 day weekend but the unofficial end of summer :( We spent two days working on the house, we put in a new motion security light at the front and started painting our new front door. As we didn't want to spend the whole weekend at the house, Sunday we did a day trip to Rancho Palos Verdes.

Rancho Palos Verdes is north of Long Beach, on a Peninsula. It has some beautiful coastline and lots of hikes along the water. It was overcast for most of the morning, which was really nice. There were a lot of people whale watching as well. I guess with the unseasonably cool water this summer many whales were coming much further south than usual.

There is a beautiful working lighthouse on the bluffs. It's only open once a month and unfortunately it wasn't open for our visit.

There were some amazing views .

And also some pretty cool tide pools.

We also stopped to look at the Wayfarers Chapel which is perched on a hill overlooking the ocean. It was designed by Lloyd Wright and is referred to as the glass chapel. On either side are California Redwoods which gives it a nice nestled feel to it. It was a nice, relaxing day with a bit of hiking and plenty of beautiful scenery.

Girls Weekend - Temecula

Why do weekends always go by so fast? I had a great weekend out with the girls. Michelle, Amanda, Natalie and I drove out to Temecula this weekend to do some wine tasting. We visited Callaway Winery, Wilson Creek (we loved their Almond Champagne) and South Coast Winery. We even had a packed lunch picnic at Wilson Creek and the weather was perfect. We stayed the night out there and so also got to lounge by the pool, have a nice dinner and see Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. It was a pretty girly weekend and we loved it. It's definitely something we will have to do again :)

Jamie's 30th Birthday

Saturday was Jamie's 30th Birthday! To celebrate we had some of the family over and as with tradition got a pinata as well. Of course, we waited until after dinner and after a few beers...

This year we went for a parrot complete with a very trendy and matching pinata stick!

The boys had a great time and the pinata just made it so that each of them could have a go.

I think we need the rope higher next year

The parrot first lost a leg


and most of its candy

Everyone had a great time...well except for the Pinata and the neighbors behind us who must have been a bit surprised to find a parrot leg in their pool along with some chocolates...sorry about that.

Both legs eventually were lost but thanks to a sturdy wire, he was able to just keep it's head.

Happy 30th Jamie!!!

You're a pretty awesome guy and we all were happy to celebrate with you =>

San Francisco

We celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on July 30th. It's hard to believe we have been married for 5 years. We have so many amazing memories and the time has just flown by. To celebrate, we decided to take a trip to San Francisco for a long weekend getaway :)

We left Thursday morning from John Wayne Airport and we checked into our hotel around noon. Which gave us the whole afternoon to start exploring. We decided to go down to the wharf and take a cruise around the bay.

It was a really nice afternoon and the cloud cover had just lifted letting the sun come out for a while.

We didn't make it to Alcatraz this trip (I've been before with my family) but it was pretty cool to see it from the boat.

We did all the normal sight seeing...Lombard Street

and The Painted Ladies.

But we also did a few other things...like the California Academy of Sciences, this is a picture of their living roof. It was pretty cool and the indoor rain forest was definitely impressive.

Of course, we managed to sneak in a tour of the local brewery. The Anchor Brewing Company has been around since the 1850s, keeping all those gold miners happy and some how made it through earthquakes, fires, and of course prohibition.




It was pretty interesting and there is always something new to learn but the part everyone enjoys is the tasting at the end...6 tastings to be exact.

We also did a walking tour of the Pacific Heights Mansions and got to see some amazing homes and hear some local gossip. We ate at a Michelin Star Restaurant, One Market, which was unbelievable, had a martini at the View Bar on the 39th floor complete with a breathtaking view of the city, rode the cable cars and street cars and basically had an unforgettable time!

Anthony's 26th Birthday

Saturday was Anthony's 26th Birthday. It's hard to believe my little brother is 26! We're getting old. Anthony decided he wanted to go for drinks and listen to Mariachi music. So Laura and him found a place online.

We all had a great time and over 20 people showed up.

We were pretty close to the stage and although it started an hour late it was a pretty good show. The Mariachi's were good but either a bit drunk or going for the comedic side of entertainment.

As the show went on the following acts got a bit riskier and riskier. It's a night we won't be forgetting for a while...

Happy Birthday Anthony!!!