California Weekend

So, this has been a very exciting weekend for Eric and I. I'll give you a run down from day to day.

Thursday

• I received a call from a job I interviewed for on Monday. He wants me to start tomorrow. This would appear to be good news, but I'm not so sure. I'm not really excited about the job and I'm not sure if I'll be happy there. However, we need the money and it's not a horrible job so I'm going to try it out for now. I think it will be fine and in this economy I'm very fortunate to have been able to find a job. It truly is a blessing regardless of my feelings for the work. I'll let you know how it goes.
• We cleaned and organized to prepare for Eric's brother's family to get here with our stuff. They left Utah in mid-afternoon. They arrived here around 1:30am. There was so much stuff packed in their truck. It was crazy, but we're so excited to have our stuff. There is more in Utah, but we'll get it eventually. Anyway, we got it all unloaded and finally went to bed between 3:30 and 4:00am.
  

Friday

• Eric and I slept in until about 11am. We were so out of it. Zach and Megan (Eric's brother and his wife) slept in as much as their baby would let them. They didn't fully get up until about 11am either. They had more interruptions than we did though.
• We all got ready and left around 2pm. We hit up an In-N-Out for lunch. As usual it was delicious. If you haven't had a Neapolitan shake you should try it. It's super delicious.
• After this we drove down the 405 to get to the beach. We thought it would be fun to go to Venice Beach, but while looking for parking Eric noticed that it looked kind of dirty. So finally, we decided to head up more toward the Santa Monica beaches. They are quite nice. We finally found a place and stopped. It was around 80-85 degrees outside. The guys got in the water first and then Megan and I went and changed. The water was so fun. It was cold at first, but it didn't last too long. We stayed until about 5:30 or 6:00. We were there when the sun went down. It was absolutely gorgeous and not crowded at all. Oh, the crazy thing that happened is that I saw a guy get totally naked changing into his bathing suit. I was just surprised that he would get naked in front of everyone. Fortunately I just saw the side of his leg and nothing else.

• Once we got home Eric and I quickly showered so we could head over to Eric's mentor's house. (I'm going to call him mentor because he's the one in the business who has really helped Eric out and put him in contact with a lot of really helpful people.) We arrived a little bit before 9:30. We had pizza and played Taboo. We didn't leave until 12:30am. We are so happy that we went even though we ended up tired.

Saturday

• We got up a little bit earlier on this day. We wanted to go down and see some Hollywood landmarks and hot spots. We took the long way though so we could drive down Mulholland Dr. to see Beverly Hills. It was cool and there are some ridiculous houses on those hills.
  
• Then we hit Hollywood Blvd. We really wanted to see Mann's Chinese Theatre. It's really cool, but not something to spend hours looking at. We did check out all the handprints and stuff. My favorite was the Harry Potter one.

• After that we walked up and down the street seeing what we could see and having lunch. We saw the Kodak theatre and Ripley's Believe It or Not! We got pretty tired though and went back to the car so that we could go see the Hollywood sign. We found a super cool look out and Zach took some good pictures of us. I'm glad we have this picture.
• After this we had them drive by Disney studios and the WB building that Eric interns at. That was cool for them to see how massive it all was.
• Once we got home Eric and I had to rush to the store to buy groceries for the chili cook-off for our ward Trunk or Treat. I didn't win. I think it was too salty, but Eric liked it. Anyway, we got back and quickly made that so we could hurry off to the Trunk or Treat.
• The activity was so much fun. Zach and Megan dressed their little girl like a lady bug. She was totally adorable. She loved our friend's dog. Megan also got excited when Bart Johnson who plays the dad in the HSM movies showed up. (He's in our ward.) She got her picture taken with him. It was super cool.
  
• Finally we came home and watched Toy Story and headed to bed.
  

Alright, so that's about it for our busy California weekend. There was never a dull moment and we are exhausted from it. We loved having them here and all that they did for us. It was nice to get out and enjoy what this great metropolis has to offer us. Anyway, we're ready for a new week to start tomorrow. I'll let you know about any other adventures that we have.