B is for Brad's Birthday

Brad was born at 7:11 am 27 years ago. We have had a blast today celebrating his birthday. I promise I will update tomorrow with all the fun we had, but I'll leave you with this little gem.

Happy birthday - I love you Edward Bradley Guynn!

XOXO

F is for Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

N is for Newport Beach

Tracy, Nate & Steve (Brad's BFF's from college) came to visit for the weekend and we have had so much fun!

Today Brad, Nate, Tracy and I went to a pancake breakfast at the church and then headed straight out to the beach. We spent most of the day at Balboa Peninsula. Brad had a blast having Nate around to play frisbee with, build a sand castle (more like a glorified man hole), body surfing and boogie boarding. Tracy and I had a good time soaking up the sun and laughing at the boys.

We came home and showered/changed and Steve met us to go to Laguna Beach for dinner. We went to this really great sushi joint called Mosun and then walked around LB for a little bit.

Tracy, Nate & Brad got ROASTED! Neither of these boys had tan lines before (well Brad had a little tan line)...

The evening was finished with root beer floats and a game of Settlers and Things! Fun Fun Fun!

B is for Brynn

My old BFF Brynn (also known as Bren) came into town on late Thursday night til early Tuesday morning and boy did we have a fabulous time!

Brynn's self-portrait

On my balcony

Peace


Beach day

Awkwardly splashed by the waves

Brynn getting her grove back

Dinner with Brad, Brynn, Whit and Sawyer

Whit and Soyjoy

Brynn, Whit & I

Beach Day 2 - Brad digs a massive man hole

Brynn & I lay out

And a trip to Newport Beach where Arrested Development was filmed would not be complete without going to Balboa Island for a frozen banana!

Sorry for the uber amount of pictures. We just had a really good time! Love you Bren! Come again soon!!!!

FYI - We are open to visitors - call if you want to come!!

J is for July

I've decided that this July I will try to do a post a day. Just to get reacquainted with the blogging world. What am I doing right now? Probably what every teeny bopper has done this week, watched the twilight videos in anticipation of watching the 3rd. Actually I'm not anticipating it. My good friend wanted to go see the 3rd one Friday night and I figured I'd see it sometime. I don't think I've even seen the second one. That sets me apart from the teeny boppers.

Well this counts for July 1st. New post tomorrow about Brynn coming to town!

M is for May

It's May! I love May, specifically the end of May. Most likely because it's my birthday, which also means the beginning of summer and then the holiday season - Halloween, Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS!

For my birthday, we went to a little "viet-thai" hole in the wall in CDM. I ordered the Pad Thai and it was delicious. For dessert we trekked to the other side of the back bay to get my favorite cupcakes - Susiecakes. I got two - red velvet and vanilla. I really wanted coconut, but they were all out. I would have taken pictures, but they didn't stay around long enough... so here's one from the internet.

Since we moved to California and live right off the back bay, we've been talking about getting me a road bike. Brad loves cycling and wants me to love it to - and I want to love it! So for my birthday I got this sweet baby and I couldn't be more excited!

She's a beauty. I got fitted last night and we have our first ride scheduled for 3 pm today. Still haven't figured out her name yet and definitely open to suggestions. Speaking of inanimate objects that I seem to name, I realized yesterday that I have reached an all time low and really need to make some friends out here. This occurred to me while in route to another birthday present (my mom bought me a sewing machine which came with lessons on how to use it). I was thinking about how I was going to blog about it, and this thought crossed my mind: "I'll blog about me and Camry driving to Irvine for sewing lessons." Crazy, yes. Crazy 1 because I'm taking sewing lessons. I know - weird. Crazy 2 because Camry is my car. Apparently I feel this need to talk about Camry as a special friend. We do have a lot of bonding time though.

This leads into my next special request. **If you live in or near Orange County, please, be my friend! I'm also open to hook-ups, blind friendships, etc. - friend suggestions if you do not live here but have friends that do.**

Here is my new sewing machine. Simple, but it gets the job done. I finally learned how to use it thanks to the class yesterday. Now the only problem is I forgot the reasons why I wanted it in the first place... Anyone have something cool, but easy because I'm still a beginner, to do? Brad's mom also sent me a cute basket with a WHOLE bunch of tools and pins that will be helpful once I get this whole sewing thing figured out!

Well, that's my birthday update!

***SIDE NOTE*** I started writing this post this morning. It is now 7PM - the 3 PM ride went according to plan. We rode about 15 miles and my behind and neck and back hurt worse than they have in a long time. We have another ride planned for 9 AM.

Oh, and we live on top of a very steep hill that I now loathe. A lot. The only thing that got me home was at the bottom I decided if I could make it to the top without stopping that it qualified me to go to Cafe Rio for dinner. Pathetic, but alas the motivation I needed. And Cafe Rio was delicious.

AND I know Mere is wondering, "Lauren, did you fall?" Well, Mere, this is a tricky question. You see, our complex is very large, and as I was turning in, so were other cars. So I made it the whole 15 miles with no problems (my shoes are clip-ins, but no worries I'm a natural) until some idiot %&$* decides its OK to cut me off to turn left. Luckily I noticed he would be a jerk like that and got my foot out of my clip-on so I didn't completely wipe out, but didn't grab a hold of my bike well enough and the edge of my seat got a rip from the side of the guard shack that the jerk cornered me against. My poor baby not-yet-named-bike.

Sorry this post is so long.

Love Lauren

C is for California

Yep, that's right. We moved to California. Here are some pictures.

Brad's first day of work in Newport Beach. Yes, that is a zip-up tie.

PIMCO building at Fashion Island.

View from the balcony of our apartment (that is the back bay just beyond the tennis courts).

Sunset from the balcony at our apartment.

Ad and Michon came to visit.

Celebrating AD's birthday at Duke's.

AD really wanted a picture with these balloons. Apparently she's always wanted one.

Brad and I on Balboa Island after a day at the beach.