The Hunt: Part Two

The house hunt continues! Our roomie joined us for a day of scouting and, unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a disappointing day. No luck with finding "the one" today, but we did get to tour a Spanish-style bungalow near uptown Whittier. The house was very unique and featured a rustic brick pathway leading up to the front, textured stucco interior walls and an AWESOME vintage industrial style light fixture with Edison light bulbs in the newly remodeled kitchen.

Staying true to the Spanish-style of the interior, the kitchen cabinets featured hand-painted floral motif knobs that were TO DIE FOR. Each pair of cupboards had a different knob style and color scheme that just added to the uniqueness of the room.

My favorite part about this house was that I could truly see our big square dining room table in the formal dining room, overlooking the living room with a stuccoed-in brick fireplace and mantle. It was truly a cozy home that, albeit a bit small, but perfect for our little family. :)

With love,

Kayla

Village Venture

Claremont hosts an amazing arts and crafts fair every year, the Village Venture. The hubs' family runs an adorable shop making succulent gardens in the outdoor patio of an old vintage shop right in the middle of downtown. The streets were shut down for the all-day event and we had so much fun perusing the different streets filled with booths.

On the walk over, we found this cute bench and decided to take a break for a family photo! Quite frankly, it's embarrassing the number of tries it took to get this ONE cute photo of all three of us. :)

Petals n Wings was all decked out and festive for Halloween. They had the cutest pumpkin gardens, and my wonderful mother-in-law saw fit to give me a mini-pumpkin for my desk at work!

Wandering the streets led us to some adorable metal working and hand-made jewelry booths. I absolutely love browsing hand-made shops, you never know what sort of treasures you may find! Brad helped me pick out a beautiful, simple initial necklace that I'm sure will be a staple in my wardrobe right along with my bar necklace he had engraved with our wedding anniversary. :)

With love,
Kayla

The Perfect Saturday

Yesterday was amazing. The last few weeks with Brad traveling have been trying, to say the least. We miss him terribly while he's away, that's for sure, but yesterday he was home, and we were all together and it was perfect. I love long walks on the beach for two reasons: 1) you get to walk with your toes in the sand and the ocean lapping at your heels, there's really nothing more relaxing than that, and 2) walking hand-in-hand with my hubs and Lady running and sniffing everything she possibly can and chasing her ball, but never going too far away because she couldn't possibly want to miss anything, is the greatest example of love I could ever imagine. The comfort and happiness we have together is unlike anything. I love our little family and being together, laughing and walking is the best kind of "perfect". :)

But then, because we can't be TOO relaxed, we met up with some friends to go see The Shining at Sunnyside Cemetery in Longbeach. Now, I'm not a big horror movie kinda girl, but it sounded like fun and I'm up to try anything once! We brought blankets, pillows, wine, snacks and, of course, Lady! She did so great at her first outdoor movie and she honestly made the movie a little more bearable for me! Anytime I was getting nervous and the suspense was killing me, I'd just scoop her up and hug her real close and she'd snuggle in and we'd sit like that together, hoping for the best.

With love,
Kayla

Five Years...

Five years ago this boy asked me to be his girlfriend and today I am his wife. He's amazing, funny, loving, incredibly gracious and I am blessed beyond measure to call him mine. And because I'm feeling nostalgic, I can't help but look through these old photos and reminisce about how late night phone calls, long distance trials, moving to another state and planning a life together all started because this boy asked a girl to go to breakfast on a Sunday morning.

With love,

Kayla

The Hunt: Part One

Let the hunt begin! The hubs and I have been in the "dreaming" phase of owning a home for a few years now and we're about to move to the part where it may finally become a reality! We turned in all of our paperwork and got our formal pre-approval letter today! I have been scouring the internet for our "someday home", perusing Pinterest for home decor ideas and just in general pining for this day to get here as quickly as possible for as long as I can remember. Now for the fun part...house shopping!

We have several open houses picked out for this weekend and we can't wait to see what's out there!

With love,

Kayla

National Dog Day 2015

It's National Dog Day! So naturally, my roomie insisted on taking a photo of Lady and I. I actually think these may be some of my favorite photos of us, so thank goodness she made me get in the picture! :)

With love,
Kayla

Grandma's Piano

Because a backyard makeover just isn't exciting enough...WE GOT A PIANO!! My mother-in-law had made a comment some time ago about wanting to get rid of the piano in their living room. The piano belonged to Brad's Grandmother on his father's side. I, of course, encouraged the idea of handing it off to us! We finally rented a Uhaul and got it into the house. I absolutely love that several of the pieces that make our house a home come from our families.

A piano tuner came and now it's good as new! We got some simple decor to top it off for now and included images from places we've visited. I'm tossing around some ideas about refinishing it, but for now I couldn't be happier with how great it feels to be playing again!

With love,
Kayla

Our Backyard Remodel

The backyard for the house we're renting leaves something to be desired. Being from Washington, I LOVE big yards. Trees, bushes, flowers, grass...the whole bit. Well, the little concrete slab we have to work with currently has been used mostly for storage and garbage cans and I've been anxious to do something different with it.

So earlier this week we got a MAJOR steal on craigslist and I am SO excited about it! I found this amazing patio set and went to town on cute lighting for the fence. After all the work was done, we ordered pizza with the roomies and sat around the fire pit. I would be content to eat every meal from here on out in this backyard. :)

With love,
Kayla

RV Weekend in Newport!

It's one of our roomies' birthday weekend and we decided to celebrate with our first ever RV trip (without the hubs' family). The weekend was so fun and everyone had a great time. It was wonderful to spend time together outside of the house and to just get away for a while.

On Saturday, we thought we'd go paddle boarding in the afternoon. Kelly and I started out with Lady and paddled to the middle of the inlet to wait for Brad to rent a third paddle board. Lady was doing great! It was the first time I had ever taken her, but she has gone before with her Auntie Megan. We were relaxing, talking and floating in the water and took a few pictures to pass the time.

Brad finally paddled out to meet us and that's when the craziness started. Lady was so upset that we weren't all on the same board and was VERY distressed that she could not get to her daddy. I had her all strapped up with her harness and leash attached to my paddle board, but the others were worried that if she tried to jump off and swim she would get tangled in her leash. I was really nervous to take her off of the leash, but I eventually let them convince me it was for the best. And this is where lesson number one came in: "Always follow your gut!"

We all started paddling further out the inlet when Brad got "too far away" for Lady's comfort, she started wimpering and jumped off of the paddle board. This girl DOES NOT like water and is not a particularly strong swimmer. I bent down to grab her but the wind had pushed the board and she was already too far away for me to reach her. Trying to turn the board around to paddle over to her, I looked over my shoulder and realized I could not see her head! Her little red flower was visible just below the surface, but I could not see her at all! I dropped the paddle and jumped into the water and started swimming over to her. By the time I got to her, she was completely under water and her little body was vertical. As soon as I reached down and lifted her little bum so she was above water she sputtering, sneezing, shaking and clinging to me.

I swam back to the paddle board using one arm to hold my phone above water (yes, it was in my swimsuit when I jumped in) and one arm to hold Lady above water. Kelly and Brad had paddled back by then and got my paddle for me. Once back on the board, I immediately strapped Lady back in and said "I knew this was a bad idea!"

We went on and paddled for quite a while, taking a break on a little sandy beach half way out before heading back. Lady jumped off a few more times and swam to her heart's content alongside the board with her leash attached. The good news: Lady didn't drown and we now have this adorable picture together. :)

With love,
Kayla

Road Trip to San Diego

My brother has been in SD all summer with a program through his college church and today we finally road tripped down to see him! Our plan: beach day and kayaking. Our reality: torrential downpour! I absolutely LOVE the rain so it was a much welcomed occasion, although I wish we had been better prepared for it! We packed and dressed for a fun day at the beach (towels, swimsuits, shorts and t-shirts) and were not at all prepared for the debauchery that ensued!

The rain started when we were about 10 minutes away from the hotel so we had to change plans and decided to do lunch at the mall instead. After looking for parking for quite a while, we finally found a spot and decided it would be ok to walk to the restaurant. Boy were we wrong! Within 2 minutes of being out of the car we were DRENCHED. Poor Lady was splashing through puddles so the hubs decided to carry her to keep her from getting soaked. It didn't help.

We were running between awnings of the, of course, outdoor mall (we're in Southern California after all) when it became clear that none of our efforts to stay dry would help. We were all soaked to the bone and laughing. There are few things better than rain and laughter and to me it's pure magic when the two are combined.

We finally made it to the restaurant and enjoyed a long lunch together while we waited out the storm. After lunch, we were all still wet so we stopped in a few stores to buy new clothes for the drive home. All in all, it was a wonderful day well spent with family. :)

With love,
Kayla

Birthday Dinner

I'm not big into birthdays and large celebrations. Brad had planned to take Lady and I to Lazy Dog for a quiet family dinner that somehow turned into a big birthday dinner with some of my closest friends. I have the best friends a girl could ask for, and to have most (not all) of my friends in one picture is a memory worth keeping. :)

28 is putting it's best foot forward so far!


With love,
Kayla

Home again

This last two weeks has been amazing. I got a new job, went home for the family reunion and celebrated 2 years of marriage to the best guy I know. I'm content and excited for what's coming ahead and couldn't be surrounded by better people to share it with!

On our anniversary, we took a walk down to where we said "I do" two years ago. We were older, maybe wiser and a whole lot less glamorous, but it was wonderful.

With love,
Kayla

Clean Puppy

We went to the beach this morning, which Lady LOVES, although it's the "after beach time" that she is not particularly fond of. Bath time has always been a traumatizing event for her as she's not too fond of water. Then, because I just HAVE to make matters worse....I BRUSH her. You'd think I was killing her sweet little soul by the size of the puppy-dog eyes she gives me. *Sigh*

After all is said and done, she's very sad and typically just wants to take a nap. I just wonder what she dreams of.




With love,
Kayla

Beach Days!

A "pro" of unemployment: unlimited beach days! The roomie and I decided to take Lady to the dog beach this morning and, oh boy, did we have fun! Lady was ALL ABOUT the ocean! She kept following us into the water in the beginning, but then when we went back to the water later she wanted nothing to do with it, haha.

We had the best day together and I can't wait for the many more that are sure to follow. :)

With love,

Kayla