Newport Beach.

Hey, there.
It's been awhile.
I know.

Let's just skip back to um let's see...THREE weeks ago.

We went to Newport for a some sea breeze and before that we went to dinner in Pasadena at BLAZE Pizza! for some pizza building. i loved being able to have your very own pizza with anything you wanted! no need to split with your picky eater husband cause your very own pizza is only $7.

Crockett are you taking notes?

can you guess which one is mine? 

good point. 

just about every friday we are taking to Arclight for some film critiquing. we don't have one in the desert, in fact our theaters are pretty sad. so when we get to go to Arclight it's a real treat!! thanks uncle mike and aunt jacquie . 

Having the beach two hours away is a luxury and I'm not taking for granted. I never lived close to the beach, beside the Oregon Coast and that doesn't count because you need 5 layers of clothing to keep you warm and it's windy and rainy. 

At the beach we watched the mr. and uncle mike get dominated by the 5-8 foot waves AND watched the dolphins side by side in the rip-curls it was AMAZING. one of the coolest things ever! 

we walked around newport. long walk.

how bad do you want to live here? 

finally got to go to Balboa!!! check that off my CA list. 

of course a beach trip is always ended sweetly with Sprinkles cupcake sundae. 

Living in California is...great! it really is. I was scared and still a little scared sometimes.

I was worried about the traffic. the gas prices. the people. the wages. the taxes. the unemployment. andddddd well just about everything you think of when someone tells you they live in California. It's not that bad. for right now it's perfect for us two.

We pay $175 more here for our house then our apartment in Salt Lake AND that $175 is well worth BECAUSE we have 200 more sq. ft. And a backyard (with fruit trees), a two car garage. a pool. a hot tub. tennis court. basketball court. volleyball court. gated community. a mailbox thats right outside and you don't have walk 5 hours to it like at our UT apartment. we don't have to hike 4 stories with groceries AND we don't have to deal with weirdo neighbors fighting so loud below us 4 days a week for 3 hours. and we don't have trains and the track station shaking our house, thinking it's an earthquake while your sleeping. AND we don't have to deal with taking a dog out 4 flights of stairs in the snow or having to clean a nasty smelly "potty pad".

Are you convinced that the extra $175 we pay is worth it?