We love visitors!

It's been almost 2 months (crazy!) since we moved to California and have already had a handful of visitors! It's been so fun having friends and family come stay at our home and hang out with us.

First, my parents came out a week after we moved here. It was their spring break so they drove James' car out and helped us with a lot of projects around the house (mostly the kitchen). We really put them to work! We gave them a day off to go play too though.. they visited the Reagan Library and Hollywood, then finished the trip off with a day at the beach. We had a good time. 

Shortly after my parents left, our good friends Shannon, Laura, and Scott came out for the weekend. They spent the day at Magic Mountain, then went to a Dodgers game and the beach with us. 

Next was Tamara's turn.. she couldn't stay away long, Disneyland was calling her name! She hitched a ride with her sister and we met up with them at the beach (Yes, every time we have visitors, we go to the beach).  She spent the next day with us before heading back to Anaheim for a few days of Disneyland. 

Memorial Day weekend brought out my sister Annie and her family. I was so excited for one of my sisters to make it out to us (I might be really annoying begging them all to come out here).  We found a little waterfall out in Pasadena and decided to give it a try (Eaton Falls). It was a really nice hike, not too long or intense for the kids (or me!) The only negative was that it was SO crowded! I'm sure doing it Memorial Day weekend didn't help.. But we still had a lot of fun.

Such a girly-girl 

Of course we had a day at the beach before they headed out too. 

HAVE to have a Diet Coke and the Beach!

Her "sea salad"

Of course the only picture where we are both in the air, my arm is in front of my face... oh well

Rob dragging Brinley into the water

She wasn't too happy about it

Oil leak is killing the seals! :(

Besides going to the beach with every single one of these visitors, we've also taken them all out to eat at Stonefire. Their tri tip and bread sticks are to.die.for. Basically if you come out to visit us, you're guaranteed a trip to the beach and Stonefire.  Who's next?! :)

Kitchen Update Part TWOOO!!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! Today was such a great day.. not only because I had an excuse to eat chips and salsa all day, but because we FINISHED OUR KITCHEN!! Hallelujah!

Alright so let's go back to what we started with...

Wasn't she a beaut?? ;) 

This is where we ended with the last post.. Top was done, all the bottom to go!

I had planned on doing the bottom cabinets gray until I bought a sample of the gray I thought I wanted and I just didn't love it as much once I painted a test strip on.  I went back to home depot and went through every shade of gray they had and started to get overwhelmed. THEN I looked at the blues. 

When I had originally started to think about painting the cabinets I wanted to do white and blue. I had changed my mind to gray because I didn't want the blue to be too trendy and I end up hating it in two years. Anyways I brought home all those paper samples of the colors and James and I both decided on this color of blue! 

It was a little scary and risky choosing such a bold color but I'm glad we took the risk! (I know it's hard to tell exactly what color the blue is.. it looks different in every picture!)

Island all done!

Ginger laying in the sun in the garage while I panted cabinets :)

Aaaaaand here it is!!

I decided to leave this one open, although I'm still not sure what to put in it.. just experimenting

Here's the before and after! What do you think?! 

Was it a lot of work? YES

Did it take longer than we thought? YES

Was it worth it? YESSS

Obviously we celebrated by NOT using our kitchen and going out for dinner ;) And Cafe Rio to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. 

Happy, happy day!