Vacation in Cali- part 4

I love California so much! Look at the plant life growing on the side of the road! Ben and I got to see this everyday on our way to the BEACH!!! Love, love, love the beach.
Palm trees = happy. Whenever Ben and I have seen palm trees, it has always meant that the beach is near.

Here we are at the beach. Not too many pics because we were more concerned with playing than taking pictures. Here is Ben waiting for a wave.

Here is Ben riding a wave.

Here is me riding a wave.

Boogie boarding is my new favorite hobby... it ranks up there with snowboarding. Awesome good times.

Here is another pic of the beautiful ocean. We miss the beach.

Thanks for looking at our honeymoon pics.

Vacation in Cali- part 3

While Ben and I were in California for our honeymoon, of course we had to visit Disney. This year we only went to California Adventures, but it was enough for one day. We needed lots of time for the beach so we could only spare one day. It was fun.
Ben's favorite ride was California Screamin'. We went on that ride 3 times. You can see it behind us in the picture. It is the white roller coaster.

I absolutely had to have a souvenir. I saw these Mini Mouse ears in the baby section, but I thought they were so cute. And so much cheaper than buying something suited for people my own age.

The Tower of Terror was my favorite ride. We rode that one 3 times, also. Awesome!

Oh, so sad. The sun is going down and it is nearly time to go home. Oh, well. Lots more fun days to follow.

Also, while in Cali, we went to the Wild Animal Park. It was amazing. The fact that the animals have acres to roam instead of being in cages their whole lives was incredible.

You can see these animals lounging in the grass. So nice that they aren't caged.

They really did a good job with the habitats for these animals. Look at this place!

Here is a pic of a 3-hour-old baby black rhino and his mommy. Do you see him? He is so teeny. He is playing in the dirt just to the left of his mom's butt. See him? Isn't he cute!?!?!

My favorite part was the lion exhibit.

Look at this lady lion on top of a car. Why is there a car in their enclosure? No idea, but they loved it.

The best part was that they have a huge male lion. The local zoo at home doesn't have a male lion, so I was excited to see him. See, they love that car.

I really liked the lion exhibit. See me with the two kitties?

Ben's favorite part was the petting zoo. Those animals loved getting rubs and scrubs from all the visitors. Isn't Ben cute? He wanted to bring his new friend home.

I didn't want to bring him home. I settled for a pic of our new friend.

Here we are on our 2nd train ride. It was a very nice way to see the park and all the animals. Ben and I are very lazy people. We were tired of walking around.

Vacation in Cali - part 2

Okay, more pics from our honeymoon in southern Cali. We spent my birthday riding the waves at Huntington Beach. Awesome. We actually spent several days on the beach, but I will post those pics later.

Saturday we drove down to San Diego to visit the temple. Unfortunately it was under construction. It was disappointing to not be able to see it without all the scaffolding. Oh, well. That just means we will have to make another trip down. Oh, darn :)

Aren't we cute standing in front of scaffolding?

Sunday morning we found the local ward for church. It was the most amazing meeting either of us ever attended, although we didn't hear a single word that was said. Oops, we were distracted. The chapel was so crowded and hot they had to prop the doors open. The most amazing breeze and smell was coming through the doors, it was hard to pay attention. It smelled like the ocean and flowers. Awesome.

After church we headed to Dana Point Harbor where we rented a sea kayak. It was a great day for it. Overcast, which means not too hot. It was lovely. I realize that we were supposed to put the boat in the water in order for this little adventure to work, but I wasn't planning on bringing my camera because I had accumulated a million pics and I didn't want to drop it in the ocean.

So, we put the boat in the water and paddled out of the harbor. We saw some cool things and immediately turned back for the camera (which I should have just brought with us in the first place). We got some awesome pics. This is what the boat looks like in the water. Behind us you can see Dana Point.

This is the real reason we turned back for the camera. Look at those lazy seals! Aren't they so cute? They were just sleeping and sunning themselves on the buoy.

Oh, they were so cute and totally relaxed, even with a bunch of people getting really close to their resting place.

A father/son team on a similar kayak took our picture for us. I was so nervous handing my camera over to a stranger in the middle of the ocean. I was afraid he would drop it. He didn't, obviously. And we got some good shots.

As we were getting ready to head back to the harbor, another couple paddled up in a lake canoe: a big, heavy, awkward metal boat. The boy kept paddling his girlfriend closer and closer to the seals. She was yelling and freaking out and then she stood up to back away from the seals and their whole boat tipped over, launching the couple and their junk into the ocean. So funny... until we realized that they couldn't get back into their boat.

We paddled over and collected all of their floating lunch things. Ben flipped their boat back over and we tried to bail the water out, but the ocean waves just kept filling it up again. Finally, a big boat came by with a pump and emptied their boat. We helped the couple get back into the boat, gave them their stuff that had been floating in the ocean and made sure they were settled before we hauled back to the dock where our kayak was overdue. So funny. Stupid girl. Why did she stand up? I guess she was afraid of the seals but had no problem swimming in the ocean with sharks and other scary things nibbling her toes. I wish I had gotten pics of them flipping their boat. So funny.

This pic shows how far out we were from the beach.

This is another view of Dana Point Harbor. That is where we had just been with the kayak. Gorgeous.

After another awesome day on the ocean we headed to dinner at a sushi restaurant in Laguna Beach. We had the entire balcony to ourselves because the locals thought it was too cold out with the marine layer. Wussies. It was like 65 degrees and they had the outdoor heating lamps on. Ben and I didn't mind. We had a great view of the ocean, lots of privacy, and tasty sushi. Yum.

This is the balcony at the restaurant. Aren't we cute? Ben was so patient with all the picture-taking that happened over the full 10 days. Very sweet. (In case you didn't know... Ben HATES having his picture taken. This explains the lack of smiles on his part)

The next day, Monday, we headed to San Diego's Wild Animal Park. Tons of pics to be posted later. I am wasting way too much time on the computer. Tee hee :)

New bathroom

Ben and I bought a 55 year old house back in December and since then we have found that with an old house comes lots of "character". By "character" I mean little problems that we didn't see when we first bought the house. For example, our toilet. Not only does it lean a little to the one side where the floor is collapsing, but it doesn't flush properly, and it leaks. Two months ago we bought a kit to replace the guts of the toilet as a temporary fix. We told ourselves that we would fix the leaning issue later when we had more money to replace the entire bathroom.

So, Friday after a trip to the dentist, I arrive home to find Ben trying to replace the guts of the toilet. However, the bolts are so corroded, even after yet another trip to Home Depot, we can't separate the tank from the bowl of the toilet. After literally wrestling with the tank, it breaks and we are forced to visit the Home Depot again... this time for a whole new toilet. This is very upsetting and in a split second decision, we decide that maybe now would be a good time to remodel the whole bathroom.

Here is the bathroom before we started. Old, ugly, carpeted and wallpapered. Desperately in need of a face lift.

We ripped out the 7 layers of wallpaper and the ugly, smelly blue carpet and this is what was under it all. Gross! Look at the floor around the toilet hole. Nasty!
We had a lot of garbage to take out with all the rotten flooring, carpet, wallpaper, old sink, cabinet, toilet... you get the picture. And if you don't, here is a picture :)
Here is my cute man taking out one of many loads of bathroom garbage.
Under the wallpaper is plaster over cinder block walls. Not drywall. There is no way we can paint over this mess.
Here you can see two of the several different layers of wallpaper we took down.
Here is the old sink and cabinet. Yes, it is sitting in our yard and we look like white trash. Don't worry, we'll clean it up.
Here is Ben ripping out the old rotten wood that was under the carpet. Seriously, who puts carpet in the bathroom?
To fix the leaning problem, we pulled up all the rotten layers of linoleum and subfloor to expose the crossbeams. We replaced the floor and put in a thick piece of plywood.
Then we installed a faux tile floor. Cheap, easy, and it doesn't look too bad.
Brand new toilet that flushes beautifully with only one quick touch, instead of holding the lever until everything goes down and then jiggling the handle to make sure it doesn't leak.
Since Ben did most of the demo and the plumbing, I did the drywall and mudding.
Once again, here is a pic of the bathroom before we started...
And here is a pic of our brand new, properly working, clean smelling and very adorable bathroom.
The project took 5 days, countless return trips to Home Depot, and we were without a toilet for a while, but it was worth it. We are so proud of our new bathroom. Ya'll need to come over and take a look... and try it out :)