LA weekend...a wedding, a birthday, and some ridiculous tooth pain.

A couple weeks ago Brad and I headed down to LA for the wedding of his cousin Justin. What a lovely wedding it was! Though dealing with some intense tooth pain, I tried to drink my way through the evening :)

Brad and I before the ceremony

The Bride & Groom, Justin & Cassidy

Cassidy is a math teacher, so all the tables were named after mathematicians.

Very cute & clever!

We headed to Redondo on Saturday for a little bit of beach time...

Visited with Grandma & Grandpa Zito (aka Grammie & Pa) on the way out of town. Such a cute little Italian couple, they are so funny! Then we headed out on our roadtrip up the coast!

Destination: Pismo Beach

Brad had this secret surprise planned, and I had no idea where we were going until Friday morning when his uncle accidentally slipped, oops. I love PB though, so adorable! This was the view from our deck.

Looking out to the pool/hot tubs from our balcony.

The rooftop deck with an awesome panoramic view of the ocean.

We walked down the beach to the town to go get dinner. I made Brad jump...but I did not make him do this cool face...

Under the Pismo Beach Pier

We saw a restaurant called Brad's.....

And what do you think was across the street? Well, Chele's of course.

Chele's (pronounced Shelly's by the locals) and Brad's were rival restaurants. Though we didn't eat at either of them, I'm sure Chele's was way better than Brad's!

Beautiful sunset on the eve of my 30th birthday....

While I was sleeping, Brad went all over the grounds of the hotel gathering random flowers to make me a bouquet, so I would wake up to this. So cute. He also wrote me an AWESOME birthday poem on the hotel stationary that made me laugh so hard...I should have taken a pic. It's at home in drawer, it totally makes me smile.

Happy 30th Birthday self timer pic in the hotel room!

Off to go check out San Luis Obispo, which is SUCH a cute little town, btw.

After lunch Brad took me here, for a little spa afternoon. We went in the mineral hot springs, which are totally private and line the hillside, so cool! And then we each had a massage, it was so wonderful and relaxing...especially when what came next was a gradual feeling of the most miserable pain I have ever felt in my life! :(

Depsite the progressing tooth pain, I tried to power through my birthday with some boozing on the rooftop, though I was in constant pain and unable to eat solid food at this point :( I knew soup was the only option...and luckily for us, we were able to have the BEST clam chowder bread bowls of our lives that night!!! Literally this place was said to be world famous, and I can honestly say they are right! Incredible!

Walking back down to the town/pier for dinner.

Tuesday the drive home was unbearable. I took one photo Tuesday, of this, in Solvang. I just wanted to be home so badly! I sat in the car all the way from Santa Barbara to LAX, crying non-stop while Brad just held my hand. He didn't know whether to keep driving to the airport, or take me to the hospital!

The flight was awful, but I had an emergency dentist appt the following morning, so it was there I learned of my new wisdom tooth & its' awful infection. Some antibiotics and a couple days of a Percocet haze and I was good to go again! The tooth is coming out on Tuesday, can't wait to be rid of it. All in all, amazing birthday...some great times, and also some less fond memories, but I will surely never forget the way I rang in 30 :)

I'm back back from Cali Cali...

Woah...I'm 30. And a whirlwind trip that weekend was.

A wedding, a roadtrip, the WORST f-ing tooth pain I have ever felt, sunshine, sand, meeting more of B's family, 90's music for hours on XM radio, hot tubbing & looking up to stars and palm trees against the night sky, rooms w/ocean views, talks about the future, laughs, tears (from the wisdom teeth pain), getting lost, things working out perfectly, pulled pork sandies everytime we turned around, coffee bean & tea leaf, hot springs on a hillside, an amazing massage, and the best bread bowl of clam chowder either of us had ever had.

My birthday was amazing...I honestly couldn't have asked for a better day. Well, maybe I could have. I could have asked my wisdom teeth to possibly have come in about 12 years ago, WHEN EVERYONE ELSE'S DID!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, one popped up, then got terribly infected, which resulted in the most unpleasant day of travel I have ever experienced on Tuesday. But all is well now after an emergency dentist appt, the swelling is going down & I'm on antibiotics...the tooth will be out shortly.

Pics from the trip to come soon, just wanted to thank you all for all the emails, texts, sweet words and of course FB posts. And that included my dad, who did post "Happy Birthday Michelle!" on my wall, and I honestly thought that was going to be it until he finally called me around 9pm, ha. Oh Richie...gotta love him ;) Anyway, thanks again friends...love you!

Yellow Brick Blog-Summer Essential Series

A few days back my darling friend Lyndsy featured my picks on her blog, in her fun "Summer Essential Series" for a bunch of our blogging friends. This is my second time being featured for this, I love that she has started doing this fun summer series! It's so cool to see what all the other girls are loving for summertime! Here are my picks! Thanks again Lynds, love you!

We're off...

Heading to LA tonight for a wedding, a little R&R and to celebrate my final days as a twenty-something.

Brad has a little surprise getaway planned for the big 3-0...hopefully he won't make me wear this again!

Have a lovely weekend friends!

Family weekend in Chelan

This past weekend Brad and I headed over to Chelan to my mom's house to meet up with her, my little brother Kevin and his girlfriend Kate. We had such a fun & relaxing weekend, lounging around in the sun, swimming, BBQing, playing games and drinking margaritas! Can't wait to do it again hopefully sooner than later!

Kevin doing his famous "Who's next?" jump he LOVES to do. I don't really get it, but it makes me laugh :)

Brad and I cooling off in the pool (It was 97 degrees that day!)

Back up at my mom's, getting ready to BBQ salmon!

Kevin, Mom and I

Kevin & Kate

Self timer pic!

4th of July weekend!

This past weekend we celebrated the birthday of our country, and the final days of terrible weather here in the PNW. As of yesterday, July 6th (which is also the birthday of my bff Kris) summer officially arrived!!!!! YAY!

So back to the weekend...we headed a little east over to the Lake Easton/Suncadia area to a "cabin" (read: very large, amazing house) owned by Brad's friend Patrick's family.

Jello shots? Why not! Adriana, Angie & I decided to kick off the weekend right.

Brad and I before he headed out on a crazy 4-wheeling excursion around the neighborhood.

Friday night Poker game!

My favorite plaid couple, The McDonalds.

After our boys vs girls Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture match (yes the girls won, duh) we BBQ'd burgers, hot dogs, & steaks w/some corn on the cob...yum!

Saturday night was really fun...a heated game of Catch Phrase (girls dominated yet again, but possibly due to the boys drinking all day & being a little off their game) followed by a bonfire w/smores & some hot tubbing! Fun weekend out of the city :)

On Sunday morning we headed back to Seattle. We saw our girl Charlotte Grace get baptised, and enjoyed a lovely 4th of July BBQ at the Juhls following the service.

Apparently all of us WW girls (Kris, Courtney & myself) had the same idea this 4th of July! Court and I just combined them to provide LOTS of patriotic cupcakes for dessert!

Charlotte & Aunt Shelly.

This poor kid might actually grow up to believe my name is actually Shelly?

Court and I

Miss Adelaide enjoying either her 3rd or 4th cupcake here :)

Happy 4th of July!

I made these last night for this weekend, they will be topped with American flags when I serve them. SO cute. And I tasted one too (oops), delish! Not trying to give my girl JOAT a run for her money or anything, but Stars & Stripes funfetti...uh, yum!

We're heading a little bit east this weekend to the Suncadia/Lake Easton area to a cabin with friends. Hope everyone has a safe & fun holiday weekend!