Comic Book Store

The nerd side came out in Kaleb and I. A few months ago we went through a comic book/super hero phase. We decided to look up a store and found a very popular store a couple blocks away from us. 

When we first saw the outside of the store it looked a little sketchy and scary. However, when we entered the store it was super Awesome!! There was a giant Ninja Turtle statue and comic books everywhere! We walked around for a little while just taking it all in. They were actually filming an interview in the middle of the store. When we asked someone what it was for he responded with a really nerdy answer that I didn't even understand so I just nodded and replied with, "Awesome"! 

In the back of the store they had a game section with some of the classics from Nintendo 64. There were also some great board games. Kaleb had been playing a card game online and thought it would be fun to buy one for us to play. We decided to purchase LEGENDARY!!

Its an awesome Super Hero Game!!

It was very complex to learn but once we played a couple rounds it got easier and easier! You have to use the super hero cards to defeat the master mind.

We got to play with Spider Man, Wolverine, Black Widow and many more! 

It is a pretty fun game to play! Luckily we can just play with two players so Kaleb and I can do something inside other than watching a movie or tv show!

Dollar Theater

We hadn't gone to a movie for a long time. All of the theaters around here are so expensive! One of the theaters down the street is $18 a person! Yikes!! In Utah we would go to movies all the time. We were a little scared to try out a dollar theater just because we weren't sure how clean and safe they were. Kaleb did a lot of research and found one with great reviews so we decided to try it out!

It ended up being a great theater. We ended up watching Captain America and it was great! It was so fun being able to be back in the theater!

After the theater we went to Ikea! I love Ikea and could stay there for hours! In Utah we lived right next to Ikea and I missed it a lot. 

This Ikea was extremely busy! We ate lunch there, Kaleb was able to snag a spot near the kids section so we could watch Cars while we ate. It made our meal taste so much better! It was fun to roam around and make a wish list for when we have money. It was exactly like the Utah Ikea, though, no difference at all.

Kaleb let me buy some chocolate before we left and we ate a whole bar before we got home! That chocolate is killer! 

It was a fun day, we realized that we don't need to be scared of California anymore. That it is just the same as Utah or anywhere else. 

August 17

Kody's Visit

Kody, Kaleb's brother, got home from his mission just a few months after we moved to California. We had already taken a trip back to Utah/Idaho for my sister's wedding so it was too much for us to take another trip. So instead Melanie, Kaleb's mom, had planned a trip for Kody to fly out and see us. We were extremely excited for him to come, mostly to see Kody but also to have our first visitor!

His flight was later in the evening and landed at LAX. It was definitely a crazy airport! I thought that the Salt Lake airport was bad! They did have awesome lights everywhere, though, so it was cool to see that.

It was kind of late to do anything that night so we went a got a small snack from McDonalds and went home to chat. 

He came Thursday night and stayed until Sunday evening. 

Friday morning we walked to Taco Bell for breakfast, YUM! We hung out for a little bit and then I had to work that evening so on my way I dropped them off at Jack in the Box for lunch. They walked to Hollywood Blvd and showed him the Hollywood scenes.

I know that they walked a long ways and were pretty tired.

When I got home, I grabbed the mail and we had received our window piece to fix our drivers side window! The window had been broken for a long time. It was a pain to have to open the door all the time. We decided we were going to go to Chick Fil A for ice cream so we fixed the window before we went! We felt like real mechanics! 

On our way out of the garage there were a few fire trucks in the front of our building. At first we were worried it was for our building, we soon realized that it was a car in fire instead! It was crazy in flames!

We made it safely to Chick Fil A, got our ice cream and headed back home to watch Taken. 

Saturday morning we went to the Observatory. It wasn't crazy busy like it normally is because it was early in the morning. It was fun to walk around in the nice weather and see the museum again.

In the basement, there are all the planets lined up on the ceiling. Kaleb wanted to take a picture with Kody, but Kody didn't catch on the first time and looks really bored.

He caught on the second time, though.

I had to work again Saturday afternoon so they just went home and played League of Legends. 

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, thanks Melanie!! It was Delicious!!

That night we watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes and laughed all night long!

Sunday morning we went to Sacrament meeting and then headed off to the beach! 

It was a chillier day so I just waded in the water. Kaleb and Kody didn't let the chilly breeze ruin their day and got all the way jumping the waves and everything.

Before we left, we headed to the showers to get the sand off. Kaleb and Kody used them first while I held our belongings. I absolutely HATE cold water! I would much rather have sand all over than stand in cold water. I asked Kaleb if the showers were cold and Kody replied that they were actually warm. Another lady washing her child in the shower looked at me and said "He's lying, it's freezing!" Its good to know that some complete stranger has my back! 

We got home and showered again. It was nice to be warm again! I made Swedish meatballs for lunch. It is Kaleb and my favorite meal! We were excited to have someone else try them, except the sauce didn't turn out. We were so upset about it, but I quickly made an improv sauce and they turned out alright.

It was time to head off to the airport before long. I stocked Kody up with lots of snacks before we left. We got into the elevator to go to the garage and it decided to break down, while we were in the elevator. We were in there for a few minutes and everyone was freaking out. It was actually really funny! We were finally able to get it moving again just delaying us a couple minutes. 

We got him there in plenty of time. We were just about home when Kody texted us a said his flight was delayed until 9:00 (it was originally 5:30) we told him we could come and pick him up but he said he had plenty of snacks and would be fine. 

Later that night we got a call saying his flight was delayed until the next morning. We offered to go and get him but he got a better offer of a nice big hotel room to himself! He had stayed in our small studio apartment with us for the weekend on an air mattress that is flat by the next morning. I would have taken the hotel option as well, after that.

It was a great weekend and Kody was able to get on his flight okay the next day. We were so glad that we got to hang out with him and show him California!

Japanese Gardens

The day after we went to The Grove, we decided to keep up with the adventures so we went to the Japanese Gardens. They weren't too far away and they said that there was going to be some kind of Japanese party or something like that.

When we were checking in the employees were baffled that we had never been there before and said that we will be coming back many more times. They were so cute and nice to us! Apparently the party was making a wish and hanging it on a tree. I thought that would be fun but the tree ended up being a tiny tree in a pot that had hardly any branches so we opted out of that.

The gardens were pretty big and it was nice to walk around in the warm weather. Everything was so green!

Here is Kaleb showing off the map! 

The gorgeous flowers were in bloom!!

There was a cute waterfall that we fell in love with!

These gardens makes us super excited for when we have a house we want to have an awesome back yard! Some place that will be a little retreat for us! Hopefully we will have a good yard for it!

August 3

The Grove

This is the "Adventure" that made me decide to start blogging. One of the best nights that we had had so far!

There is a mall that is called The Grove. The best way to describe it is like City Creek or Gateway Mall.... except Way better! We had gone there once before with a couple of friends to the Cheesecake Factory and walked around for a couple minutes while we waited for our table. I instantly knew that I wanted to go back and do some more exploring!

It was a couple weeks later that we decided to go and check it out. I had just finished my first week at my new job and hadn't told Kaleb that I get tips. I was debating whether or not to tell him or to hide it from him and take him on a little trip. Well, I am terrible at keeping secrets and only lasted a week. I will never forget how happy he was when I showed him all the cash! We decided that since we had been really good with our money that we would have a little fun that night and get what we wanted.

 The Grove was even better than I had remembered! I knew that there was an American Girl Doll store there so I HAD to go to it. I grew up with a Samantha doll and had always dreamed about going to one of their stores. This was seriously a dream come true! It was absolutely AMAZING! It makes me extremely excited to buy one for my little girl, one day of course ;)

After the store we went to go eat. They had a food court that wasn't a typical mall food court. There wasn't a McDonalds or Wendy's, instead they were all locally owned with tons of different choices, I felt like we were in a movie.

 We walked all around seeing all of our choices before we got anything. Bacon cheese fries and bacon hushpuppies was our first course. 

It was SO delicious I wanted to get more! Instead, Kaleb convinced me to try something else and we decided to get sushi. 

That was just as good! So fresh and yummy! We were so full I could barely walk, but there was still so much more to check out so I waddled on.

I really wanted to check out the farmers market so we headed there next! It was amazing! It really makes me excited for when we have big kid jobs and a real fridge to start eating a little healthier and every once in a while get a grass fed organic steak for dinner, or have strawberries everyday for breakfast. I wanted to get something but had a hard time deciding! Eventually I chose a giant grapefruit! It was super big and looked delicious! (I ate it for breakfast the next morning! Super juicy!)

We checked out a few stores and walked around for a little while longer. The Grove has a nice fountain and grassy area with a stage that had a "concert" going on. The music was alright, not exactly on tune but still enjoyable. On our way out we wanted to get a Hagan Daaz shake. I really wanted one but wasn't so sure I would be able to drink more than a sip or two. Kaleb ordered a medium dulce de leche shake. I thought he was crazy for getting a big one but I went with it anyways. It was so incredibly good! We didn't care how full we were, we drank every last sip!! 

We were parked on the very top of the parking garage, and on our way up we saw the sun set! It was amazing!

 We took a few pictures and smiled all the way home! It seriously was the Best date night!!

August 2

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman!!

The Batcaves was a place that I had wanted to go for a while! We tried to go one time but took a wrong turn while finding it. This time, though, we looked up the correct directions and tried it out again. There have been many movies filmed here including the super old Batman movie.

It was a super short hike and, of course, the weather was perfect! There were a lot of other people there and some even filming. Nothing big at all, just a van and a small video camera. 
The cave was really short and had a few openings to it. It wasn't scary at all ;)

Since the Batcaves was such a short hike we decided that we would hike to the Hollywood Sign as well. I had heard that it was a must do hike and that you can get up behind the sign. Well, again we really weren't sure how to get there so we took a path and started to hike. It was so so long! We were extremely tired and kept saying, "It has to be around the next corner" but it never was. Eventually we came to a good spot to take a picture and decided that this would be the end of our journey and we would turn around. 

Even though we didn't get right up to it it felt so nice to be able to enjoy a nice hike! There were so many other turn offs and trails that we want to take one day. 

Licensed in California

Spring 2013 Kaleb and I were kind of in a slump, he was working at Property Solutions and I was working at Vivint. I had just received a promotion at my job and Kaleb got one at his as well. We both knew that if we stayed at our jobs that we would be able to move up fairly quickly and make pretty good money. But then it came down to if we really wanted to continue on this path. Kaleb took a few classes from UVU last fall for audio production but the courses weren't as great as he was hoping. I knew that I wanted to go back to college but I was always changing my mind. Did I want to go into fashion, hair, accounting or esthetics!? We even applied to an internship for Del Sol but it didn't work out. And then we applied to go to Russia to teach English but we didn't feel too great about it so we decided not to. 

One day we decided that we were going to do something about it! There is an extremely long story to how we decided and even our AHA moment, but that will come with another post.
When I toured Cameo I instantly knew it was the school I was going to go to. They explained everything to me and made it very exciting. A friend of mine had told me about a school in Los Angeles that his friend was going to so Kaleb checked it out and chose it as a school. Our plan was perfect! I would go to school first, Kaleb would work while I went, then Kaleb would go to school and I would work. 

I knew that I would have to transfer my hours over from Utah to California. I thought it would be extremely simple because Utah requires 1200 hours while California only require 600. 

I would graduate in February and Kaleb's school started in April. I figured I would worry about transferring before we moved.

 I remember the day I called California and asked them how to transfer. They told me that it wasn't easy transferring it over and I would have to retake the tests. Both the practical and the written and it could take months to do so. I cried for hours. Our plan was ruined and it was all my fault! Luckily Kaleb was very comforting and helped me get through the day. I looked up the tests and printed off everything I could that would help me. I found out that Cameo's basic practical exam was almost exactly the same as California's. The best part was that Cameo was having the training for it the next week. I was so relieved but still a little wary.

After moving to California I sent in my paperwork and a month later I had the date that I was going to take the tests. I had to take both the same day. I was extremely stressed out! 

Kaleb was so good to help me study. I printed out a word for word document on the practical exam and he made sure I did everything I was supposed to.

The last part we had to do makeup on the mannequin head. It was terrible!

It was super hard to do but I practiced a lot! 

The day came, Thursday July 10th. I had to take the written test first, early in the morning. I was the first one in line. There were so many people! The testing center was completely different from the one in Utah. In Utah they have several testing centers throughout the state. In California they had one testing center in the north and one in the south. Luckily I lived only a few miles away from the one in the south so I didn't have to get a hotel like several of the other girls.

After taking the written I felt extremely confident that I passed. There were only a few questions that I really didn't know and I took an educated guess.

Later that day I went back to take my practical. Again there were a lot of girls and this time I was toward the back of the line. Everyone had their kits in a duffle bag and I had my in a giant Tupperware. I stood out like a sore thumb. We went to a room were they gave instructions. They asked if everyone had a stand for their mannequin. I began freaking out. I didn't have the right products and I was going to fail! Luckily the instructor told me my mannequin would work just fine. I went in to the room and it was so much different then how I had practiced. We started the test and I just did exactly how I had trained. I know I forgot to do a few things because I was really nervous but I kept going on. 

By the end of the test I had no idea how I had done. My confidence was gone and I was sure that I was going to have to retake it. I talked with a few other girls about the test while we waited for the results. They came through an hour later and started reading everyone's name that passed. Finally I heard my name called and it felt like giant weights we being lifted off of my shoulders!

I decided that since I was so stressed up from the tests that I would take the weekend off to enjoy and then apply to jobs that following Monday. 

The weekend was great and I was glad to be able to rest and spend it with Kaleb. When Monday came I kept putting off job hunting and tried to get other things done. When Kaleb got home from school I felt really guilty that I didn't apply to any so I just went on Craigslist and filled out 5 of the easiest applications. Within a half hour 3 people responded to me, 2 of them wanted to interview. 

Long story short I had a job the week at Total Women Gym and Spa. I was so glad that I was able to get a job so fast! It is great too because it is all women and it is connected to a gym so it is very easy to get clients. The people are great to work with and I am making many friends.

Here is the entrance from the garage. 

It is a fun place and I hope I am able to stay here a long time!

Thanks everyone that has helped me out to get this far. Kaleb and I are very grateful!

Fourth of July!

Kaleb and I had talked about the Fourth of July for a while and were deciding what we would do. We really wanted to go to the beach and watch the fireworks over the ocean. After lots of research we found out that parking was nuts and traffic was terrible if you wanted to go to the ocean, so we opted out of that. We decided to just play it by ear and we continued to look up places.

Kaleb had school that day and they were going on a field trip to another studio. He took pictures of it so I could see the stuff that he does.

The far left with the grey jacket is his teacher Mike. He really likes it when he teaches. He enjoyed the day and was glad to see other studios.

After he got home from school we continued to look up places to watch fireworks. We planned to walk down Hollywood Boulevard and get some Cold Stone ice cream. 

There was a lot of excitement on the Boulevard. One guy was dressed like Elvis (not Elvis exactly but in his style of clothes) and he was singing.... really really terrible... He literally was laying on the ground with the microphone at times and making some kind of noise. It was pretty hilarious!

We also went to the Chinese Theater to see the hand prints again. This time we walked a different way around the prints and found an organ stair case. While you walked up the stairs it played the note! It was awesome!! 

We walked around quite a bit and just enjoyed the weather. While walking back Kaleb spotted Walt Disney's star. Of course I had to take a picture with it!

On our way home we were quite tired so we decided that we wouldn't try and fight traffic to see the fireworks. At that moment I remembered in our stair way it says there is roof access. We've never been up there and didn't even know if we could. Once we got home we tried it out and the door was open. It was the perfect place to watch fireworks! We could see all around us! Once it got dark we grabbed a couple chairs and blankets and were able to watch a few different firework shows.

 It was so nice to be able to just grab our chairs and walk 2 minutes to our apartment vs the 3+ hours in the car. Once we have kids it will be a different story and we will deal with the traffic so they can enjoy the show up close. 

   

Observatory or Bust!

The first weekend in California we decided to go to the Griffith Park Observatory. When we got there the parking was nuts! The lot was full so people were parking down the hill. It was a never ending line of cars so we decided that we would just go another day.

A couple weeks later we tried again, but still there were hundreds of cars parked down the hill, so again, we decided that we were going to try another time.

It was a Wednesday afternoon, Kaleb came home early from school and we figured there wouldn't be as many people since it was in the middle of the week. 

It was actually perfect, the lot was still full but the parking was only beginning to go down the hill so we only had to walk a little ways. About 3 minutes into walking my flip flop broke. They were my Favorite flip flops!

This was the closest we had ever been, and we were thinking 3 times the charm right?!

Wrong!

I was thinking that I would be able to just slide my way up but Kaleb said it would be too hard. He was right, I had a hard time walking back to the car and I ended up just going barefoot. He was nice enough to give me a piggy back ride some of the way there too. Someone yelled out to him, "Good practice" not entirely sure what he meant... 

We were determined that we were going to make it to the Observatory. So that following Sunday we left early afternoon and we were able to park close to the same spot as Wednesday. I wore tennis shoes and had an extra pair in the car, just in case. I wasn't going to ruin this trip too.

It was actually quite the hike. Kaleb and I were almost worn out, but forgot about how tired we were once we got inside.

For being a free museum it was amazing. Actually it was probably the coolest museum I have been in for a long time (even the ones I have paid for). The top floor was a lot of star, moon and sun stuff, telescopes, the four seasons, high tide/low tide, and they had a periodic table with examples of the elements. 

Outside they had an incredible view of the city.

We could see Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Monica and you knew the ocean was out there even though you couldn't actually see the water.

Downstairs they had information about asteroids, meteorites, the planets and the universe in general.

You could weigh yourself at the moon and each planet. Jupiter we weighed the most and the least on Pluto.

Einstein was there so we had to take a picture with him.

We have no idea what he was pointing at.

 On our way down the hill there is a metal fence that lines the side walk and on the other side is tiny path and a steep drop. We passed a couple people that were on the other side of the fence trying to climb over. We thought they were crazy but just kept walking on. A little ways after that there was an Asian family doing the same thing. This time, though, there was a very old couple that were extremely wary of trying to climb over to the side walk side. Kaleb and I make jokes that they are still trying to get over the fence. We have never figured out why people are on the other side, if they climbed up the steep slope and how they even did that. There is an opening to either side of the fence clear down the hill but we don't know why people would choose to walk on the narrow path vs the sidewalk. 

We made it to the car with no broken shoes or problems. The cars were starting to line up so we are glad that we went early. It was a fun day!

June 25 and 29