Weekend in La Jolla, San Diego

This past weekend we went to La Jolla Beach (pronounced La Hoya for you anglo Spokanites) in San Diego with Allison and Ryan to celebrate my birthday since they couldn't make it to L.A. Ryan gave us a lesson in surfing 101- Jared passed the class, I swallowed a lot of salt water but had a great time.

Took a nice stroll down the beach...

Sand Sisters!

California Pizza Kitchen for dinner- definitely worked up an appetite that day and had no problem eating 3 medium pizzas.



Ryan and Alla...our private tour guides. Aren't they cute?

A day's adventure is never far away in Southern California. For any of you who hope to visit us, we'd love to take you to some of our favorites. :)

I'm Official

Birthday Weekend in L.A.

It was a birthday to remember that's for sure...probably one of the best yet! I had my family...who are my friends, and I feel like I got to do and see some of LA's best all in one day. It was a full day and somehow we didn't feel the least bit tired or worn out by midnight. We spent the weekend in LA, staying with Nate and Kim- Saturday was the Big Day...here's what we did...

Started out walking to the La Brea Bakery which is a famous and popular bakery right in the middle of West Hollywood. I had a blueberry scone and Jared had a delicous Cherry brioche mini loaf. The pastries here are out of this world and the bread is even better. Costco actually sells La Brea Bakery, so if you want a little taste of what their bread is all about- head down to Costco.
After breakfast we went to Griffith Park, which is a huge urban park in the Hollywood hills. It includes the LA Zoo and this place...The Griffith Observatory. It is a fascinating place- musuem, planitarium and it has an IMAX theatre that is state of the art. The big black dome in the middle is the IMAX theatre. Our favorite thing here was just the view of the city from up here...you can see all LA and understand why it's the largest city in the USA.
Here's a view from the backside of the Observatory...you can see downtown LA in the back.

We all met up for dinner in Santa Monica at this cool burger joint called The Counter. It's a huge hit down here...a build-your-own burger place with sweet potato fries that are sooooo yummo! It was so fun to be us siblings together. (Alla and Ryan were a 2 1/2 hour drive each way away...they are going to celebrate with us next weekend) Jared, sweet as ever, arranged for a huge chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and a candle on top to be served and even the waitress joined in to sing the birthday song. :)
Here's looking the opposite direction from up at the Griffith Observatory. Right by the infamous sign...
Later in the afternoon, we headed out to Santa Monica...walked around with Nate...grabbed a Starbucks...and caught this view of the beach. It's beautiful in Santa Monica and seeing the ocean for the first time in a long time just made me smile.
Stopped for lunch at Noah's Bagels- another popular stop down in LA. I guess Noah's Bagels are a huge deal on the East Coast and this is one of the few out here on the west coast.

Ended the night back out at the Santa Monica Pier. Nate for my birthday wanted to buy me a ride on the ferris wheel, (which by the way is the biggest ferris wheel my eyes have ever seen) and even though I was a scared at first (you all know me and rides right!?!), I did it and had a great time. We all got to ride in one "gondola" together, so while Nate and Jared soaked up the thrill of it, Kim and I sat squeezing hands together until we finally felt like we were going to survive the ride. It was an incredible experience and you feel like you're going to fall into the ocean when you come around...but the view up top was amazing!!!
Had to get a shot of all four of us out at the Pier.
Me and my babe getting ready to ride the ferris wheel. Can you see the nervousness in my face???
The boys...they thought it was so cool that although Kim and I had to pay for parking that night in her car, Jared and Nate found free parking at the Hotel California. Are you singing the song yet? :)

An Update...

We've been pretty busy these last few weeks and already we are almost into the full swing of how things will be on a normal basis down here. Thought I'd take a minute to share with you all what's going on these days and a huge blessing that happened last week.
I'll start with the huge blessing...I GOT A JOB! Praise the Lord, I found a job and in a short amount of time, which is so great. I will be an Administrative Assistant to the head of the International Dental Program for Loma Linda University. The International Dental Program is for foreign dentists who have moved to the US and in order to be licensed dentists and practice in America, they have to complete a two year program. There are 24 students each year and Loma Linda's program is one of the top ranked for this in the nation. I feel so blessed to have received the offer, especially since it was over a week long process that had me testing my patience. :) All it took was going into the Dental School, in person, talking to the right person and just praying that this is where God wanted me. The greatest part of all this is that Jared and I will be in the same building everday...all day. He will be on the first floor in lecture and clinic and I will be working up on the 3rd floor. If we want, we can have lunch together everyday and because our house is only 3 blocks from the school, most likely we will walk to work/school together everday! God is so good and we are just so thankful for His provision and guidance down here.
Jared has already begun classes, as he is out at USC and UCLA for a 3 week summer program with the post-bach. dental students from each of those schools. Then he will be back in Loma Linda in two weeks to begin his year-round program. He is loving all of his classes and studies right now and has had some amazing opportunities already with hands-on dentistry. Jared is good with his hands...and loves to work with them, so this hands-on stuff is right down his alley.
I've been going out to LA on the weekends to visit Jared and Nate and Kim, and all the siblings (Adams and Pike's) are meeting up this coming weekend in LA for my birthday which will be a first. One of the many plusses of being down here is the ease that all of us siblings can get together, since we are all so close now. We love it!
Sorry I haven't had any pictures on the last couple of blogs...I keep forgetting to take the camera with me places, but I'll put some up soon so everyone can see where we live and what we've been up to.
I posted a You Tube video on our blog of our theme song down here. It's played a lot on Christian radio, the theme song in the new Narnia Movie, but the lyrics are so cool and we wanted to share the song with all of you because we really like it...it's called This is Home.
And this is home...