Two Years Already?!

Whew! So much to catch up on, but I'll start with the most important. Paul and I celebrated our SECOND anniversary a couple weeks ago. I thought our first year celebration was good (we went to Red Robin for dinner and splurged on a strawberry lemonade), but this year's is beyond compare. We slept in and Paul made me breakfast- pancakes with homemade strawberry jam (which he had made the day before). We took our time getting ready so we'd miss traffic and then headed down to San Diego where we spent the day at Sea World. Yes, SEA WORLD! I've been wanting to go since we moved here and our anniversary was the perfect excuse. When my family lived near San Diego when I was younger, we'd go pretty often, and it was just as good as I remembered! We braved the Splash Zone at the Shamu show and got drenched, we nearly lost our voices cheering at the dolphin show, and we were awe struck by the trained pigs, cats, and jump-roping dogs. With the purchase of our day pass, we get to return for free any day in 2009- I can't wait to go back!

Take me out to the baaaaaaall game!

We took another step towards experiencing LA in its fullness by going to a Dodgers game this week. Our attendance was perfectly timed to ensure that our dear friend Manny Ramirez would be playing- and boy did he play! The Braves got an early lead, and were up by one run until the bottom of the ninth when Ethier hit a homer to score two runs! Go Dodgers!

The view from our sweet $8 seats.

With our camera zoomed in as far as it could go, we were able to see Manny.

Downtown Cooking

If you live in LA and need/want to learn how to cook an amazing meal, you MUST take a cooking class from my friend Sara. She is an extremely talented chef and so fun to be around! Check out her website: www.downtowncooking.com.

Last Night, The Next Two Years, and the Next Three Years

Where I was last night:

That's right- my friend Cathryn and I went to the live taping. I'm completely star struck.

Where the lil' bro will spend the next two years of his life:

Matt got his mission call. He leaves in September for the Brazil Recife Mission.

Where Paul and I will be spending the next three years of our lives:

We've moved to downtown LA where we're managers of an apartment building.

My husband, the genius

Paul made the Dean's List!!! Maybe those silly glasses are making him smarter...

LA Anniversary

We have hit our one year mark of living in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if I'll ever consider myself to be an Angelino... mostly because that's a weird word. People often ask us where we'll end up after dental school. Good question! We're open to several possibilities, but I think we've crossed LA off that list. In refernce to the overall high cost of living in Los Angeles, our good friend Tupac Shakur stated that he would almost rather "live life in the pen[itentiary]."
Anyway, here's what we've been up to lately:

1. Paul finished his second semester of dental school. Two down, nine to go.
2. These sweet babies nearly caused us to take out an additional loan. But honestly, who wouldn't sacrifice to look this good? Incidentally, we soon realized that the camera's flash is magnified too... Paul was seeing stars for several minutes.



3. We visited friends and family in the Bay Area. We took a quick tour of San Francisco and hit up the great culinary spots: The Ferry Building, Fisherman's Warf, and Ghiradelli Square.
Nate and Nate's girlfriend, Miho:

I know it looks like I'm forcing the smile, but I really did have fun!

We saw Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. Suh-weet!

4. I've been working overtime the last month and a half keeping the flies happy. As they keep reminding me, science never sleeps.
5. We've started training for a half marathon... sort of. The race is in September, so we figure we'll train for a couple months and see if we can handle it. By the way, if anyone has any running tips, I'll gladly accept them. This running thing has been harder on my body than I expected. I'm hoping that they're just issues of being a novice and that they'll subside as I run more.
5. We went to Grammy's wedding in Utah- she was the most beautiful 40-ish (wink, wink) bride you've ever seen!
6. Peter and Amber came to visit along with Amber's sister and brother-in-law. They got very cozy in our family where we stuffed two air mattresses side by side. We love sleepovers and will gladly accommodate anyone who wants to escape to LA.
7. Paul got a new wetsuit for his birthday and has sadly not had time to try it out yet. He was warned about the intensiveness of the third semester, and for good reason. He's said that compared to last semester, the work load is a night and day difference, but he actually enjoys what he's learning. And it's good for me- while he studies I get to read! Win-Win!

Here's to another great year!

The Birthday Boy

We've celebrated another year of Paul getting old. He's manifested his oldness with the following:
1. He has at least a dozen white hairs. About 7 of them are all clumped together above his right ear. I've offered several times... daily... to pull them out for him, but he hasn't taken me up on it. Yet. Don't worry, I'll keep trying.
2. He's taken to eating wheat bread and other veggies high in fiber. You know, to keep him regular.
3. In a major change since last semester, he's now going to bed around 11:00 rather than midnight. He tries to justify this by the fact that his classes start earilier now, but I know the truth. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of our stint in LA he's requesting dinner at 3:30.
4. Let's just say, the next time you see Paul in scrubs, lift up his shirt slightly. I'm not kidding, I didn't know pants could be hiked up that high.

We celebrated his birth by going to Disneyland (he's trying to stay young) with our friends Ryan and Cathryn. Ryan has the same birthday as Paul so it worked out perfectly. We hit up some of the best rides and treated ourselves to way too much candy with the Disney Dollars the boys got as birthday gifts from Disneyland.
The day after their birthdays, Cathryn and I threw Ryan and Paul a suprise party complete with donuts and funfetti cake- two of Paul's most favorite things.

Huh-huh-huh-happy birthday!!!