This is a post that has no pictures so i will try my best to paint a picture of the story you are about to read. We went out last night. Kristen, Malia, Pablo and myself went to scope the nite life in santa monica. It was a Great Time!! We found ourselves at a local bar where the young professionals go. Very trendy, very yuppy, but we thought it would be a fun experience. After paying 45 dollars for 3 long island ice teas, we sat down in a back corner by the D.J. who was actually pretty good. We laughed and talked and joked about spending more money there on 3 drinks then we did at dinner where we had a pitcher of margs and food!! Anyways, there was a group of guys sitting next to us for a while. After a bit, they all got up and left. After they were gone for a while i looked at there table and noticed they left most of an awesome looking panini. I am all about dumpster diving and eating other people's leftovers and i thought i had just hit the jack pot. Sandwiches are my favorite food. So i leaned over grabbed the sandwich and ate it! it was so good! i put the crust back on the plate and carried on with the night. Soon after i went to the bathroom, and when i returned i found kristen, malia and pablo all sitting there staring at me. I also noticed that the group of guys were back at there table. They too were staring at me. Turns out, they never left at all. Rather, they collectively as a group went to the bar for drinks. Upon returning to their table, for which i was in the bathroom, they asked pablo, malia and kristen if i had enjoyed their sandwich.
I of course begged for forgiveness and offered to buy them another sandwich or round of drinks when i learned of the error of my ways. They refused, and we all had a good laugh!! Thank goodness they were your typical meat head bar guys. I will have to say, that is probably the funniest thing i have ever done on accident. I also learned that if i am going to be a "freegan" or dumpster diver, i'll need to use a little more caution, and perhaps allow for more time to pass after the food apears to be abandoned.

On the left is the afters, the right is the befores. The green room behind where Ethan is standing is now where the kitchen is. Below, the views are taken from opposite sides of the room, but you can tell that the walls are different and that all the furniture has been re-arranged. I wish the pics did it way more justice because Malia did a great job designing it, and Ryan did an amazing job putting it all together! Such a cool space :)

Hello everyone! I'm sorry its been so long since we've posted a blog. We have been having a blast in California and have gotten to do some GREAT things in the last few weeks. First, we visited a good friend who has temporarily moved to San Diego, and we fell in love with it there. She is living in Mission Bay....what a beautiful place. She took us sea kayaking to some totally sweet caves. None of us had ever done it before and realized that it was way harder than we thought, but a great workout and incredible experience! The rest of the visit consisted of bike riding all around Mission Bay, getting Ice Cream, sitting on the beach, and finding some delicious half off sushi. But I must not forget to mention, as amazing as this day was, it was severely dampened when my brand new iphone fell in the toilet at a fish taco stand on the beach. Yes, I have had it for 2 weeks, had it in my back pocket, and it went straight into the toilet. It never did come back to life (unlike so many stories I have heard) so I had to buy a new one. Luckily I still qualified for my rebate/new customer price. And 0n the way back to LA, we passed the Oscar Myer weiner mobile on I 405! I have never seen Ryan so excited!

When we returned to LA, we finished the garage appartment! We put in some hard days of work and now Malia has what feels like an Ikea showroom display! It is so sweet...a space of about 650sq ft, with a kitchen, bedroom, and living space (no bathroom). Its complete with new floor to ceiling paint and trim, all new pergo flooring, and of course an entire kitchen installed. It feels so nice not to be living in a construction zone anynmore, and to get to enjoy the fruits of our labor before we move on. We are so happy for Malia to have this space for herself. What a gift!

Before Ryan's birthday (which was the 18th), we got to go to the beach a few times and do some more amazing yoga in Santa Monica. Then, the kids threw Ryan a pirate party where we were all served delicious food and pirate punch, and got to do a scavenger hunt which ended in Ryan digging up 2 tickets to Disneyalnd! On Ryan's birthday, Malia and I suprised him by taking him to a tattoo parlor in Hollywood. The two of them had been talking about getting a tattoo together since we got to California, so we decided to make it happen! They were able to both get them that day, but it was a long day followed up by a birthday dinner for Ryan at a delicious Mexican restruant in Hollywood called El Compadre. Oh-and we saw Snoop Dog walk right in front of hte tattoo shop!! We were sitting in the waiting area and there he went down the sidewalk with two of his buddies! It was me and Ryan's first famous person spotting since we have been here! Then, we all got to go to Disneyland the next day and had a blast, althought it may not have been the best idea for Malia to do that since her tattoo is on her foot and she had to be on crutches the whole time! We were suprised how much smaller it is than Disneyworld, but it was still a fun day, especially to get to be there with kids.

With Ryans birthday week slowing down, we are enjoying some down time to do some bike rides and enjoy ourselves before we hit the road agian. We are planning our Europe trip and plan to buy tickets wtihin the next day or two! That finalizes things!! I cannot wait for that trip. And right at this moment we are sitting on the couch watching Planet Earth on DVD. What an amazing production and an amazing earth we live on!

Sorry about the horrible photo layout...it all got posted and then the computer was needed before I remembered to edit the photos. Next time will be better :)

Summer days in LA

Got to spend the whole day today with an amazing friend Michaelyn from Atlanta...on the beach! It was a beautiful day, but I got very badly sunburned. I put on sunscreen...but missed some spots. Woops! You would think that being a red-head I would have learned my lesson by now. :)
Then she took us to her favorite lunch spot on Main St. in Santa Monica called Panini. Deliciouso!!!

Earlier this week we got to go down to Huntington Beach to visit some of Ryan's old riding buddies. It was a blast, great to see them all, and very nostalgic for Ryan. He hadn't seen some of these guys in close to 7 years, but they picked up right where they left off. This photo includes some of the best bike riders in the world...just to throw some names out there: Jared Rando, Carter Holland, Pablo Tafoya, Kyle Strait, and of course Ryan Smith :) We hope to get to see these guys a couple more times before we head further north.

The kitchen is almost done. Its actually totally functional! There is running water and a fridge. The only thing left is a little bit of paint touch up, and Ryan is working on the tile back-splash. It looks freakin incredible...totally modern, Ikea style. Great job Malia on your design work. Its amazing how much space is in this tiny little space, thanks to some smart minds who did the design work, and Ikea for making things work in small spaces! I will post finalized pics in a few days, but here it is as of today. Next up, the living room...needs a new sliding glass door, trim, new floors, and new paint. Then we will be DONE! More time to hang out on the beach :)

Its going to be a good day! Just got home from an amazing yoga class in Santa Monica with the famous Brian Kest. I learned about yoga by trying one of his tapes about 8 years ago and fell in love. He is an amazing and well known instructor all over the world. And I didn't even get into any traffic getting there!

We had a blast in Atlanta. It was really great to see our family and friends, as always. It was very surreal to be back there, but not live there. Its so beautiful and green and lush...and springtime in the south is always so colorful. My parents are amazing cooks and love cooking for us when we are home, so we were fed so well that it felt like we were home for the holidays! So much has changed in our relationships over the last 4 years, in a really good way, and it was so special to get to spend that time with them. Got to spend lots of time with my sister and her hubby too...thanks family for all going in together to get us home!









Itwas AWESOME to be back at Elmyr again. Its our place "where everybody knows your name," its our "Cheers!" What a fun and crazy night, and after visiting many more places, they STILL make the best margarita around. Thanks to all who came to play, we had a blast with you guys. That is a night I will never forget. As expected, it was hard to leave and say goodbye to everyone...again...but we are still so excited to be on the journey that we are on. We have so much more we want to see and do on our little adventure. Like perhaps a stroll along the beach today!!!!??????!!!!!! :)




This is not a good picture of the renovation, but it gives you an idea of the style and color scheme. The before picture shows the bedroom mostly, and we tore down the wall that separated that from what is now the kitchen (the green wall.) So Ryan built a new wall and put a closet in (what you see in the new pic) and the dresser and the door to the bedroom are in the same place in the before picture as they are in the after picture. There is also a lovely new floor which you cannot see. More pics to come as things get finished. It will be soon!