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!