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It will help me keep in touch with everyone while I am in China. Update on that later, but I won't have access to Facebook. BOO!!

Beach Days and Memorial Day

Have I mentioned that I love living in L.A. yet? Well, I do! One reason is because I am so close to the beach. I don't go nearly as often as I should or as often as I want to, but when I actually do get a chance to go I really LOVE it. These first few pics are from a couple of weeks ago and it was the first time I was able to really make it out this Spring.

If you look close, you can see the Santa Monica Pier in the background.

Another great trip to the beach took place yesterday on Memorial Day. Rachel and I decided to go to the beach and take advantage of the Awesome weather that we had. She had the great idea to ride our bikes to Santa Monica and I am so glad that we did because once we got there we discovered that parking cost $25!!CRAZY!! It was a great ride over (about 12.5 miles round-trip) down Venice Blvd, past Venice Beach and down the boardwalk to Santa Monica.

Patriot kites. They were HUGE, even though they looked really small in the picture.Unfortunately I got a flat tire on the way back. Luckily int was only about 2 blocks from my apartment. :(

How could you not love this little guy!

Introducing - Maxwell Trevor Erickson!

I had a great 2 week break back in April and I just HAD to go visit my new little nephew in Bountiful, Utah. I am sooooo in love with this little guy and couldn't stop loving on him every minute I was there. His name is Maxwell Trevor Erickson. Isn't he the sweetest little thing in the whole world!?

Tish and Max Proud Pappa!
Tish reading Max one of his favorite books Max the Minnow, cute huh?
We also had a great time sewing some table runners and this adorable height chart! It was pretty difficult to make and I actually had to HAND STITCH the measurements along the side, but I would love to make another one of these in the future.
One of the only pictures I was able to get with the two of us and the poor little guy wasn't too happy at the time. :( He was still so cute, even when he was crying!
I am so proud of you, Tish and Trevor, and I can't wait to see you guys again soon and see how much this little guy has grown!

While in Bountiful I was also able to get together with some of my best friends from high school, Brooke, Martha and Melinda! It was so good to see these girls. We've pretty much made it a tradition to get together every time I am in town. This is pretty much the 10th Annual Girls Get-together, but don't ask me why we've never taken a picture of this before...
I also made it to Provo and got a chance to visit with my mom, go wedding dress shopping with my sister, Kristi, and go to dinner with my brother Steve and his wife Stacey who are expecting a little girl this summer! So many nieces and nephews. Overall, this was a wonderful break from teaching and I loved having the opportunity to visit Utah.

The Excitement is Building!

An Homage to Julia Child

Living in Los Angeles for the past 2 years has proved to be amazing! I've really enjoyed all of the gorgeous weather, the sunshine, the beach and all of the things to do here but, unfortunately every once in a while work gets overwhelming and the traffic gives me a migraine. Luckily, thanks to some great friends I've met here, every once in a while I'm able to just enjoy myself and have fun. This past February when both Heather and I were feeling particularly antsy to do something interesting and different, she had a great idea to have a Julia Child Cooking Day. We chose 4 super delicious recipes from her cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Some of the recipes included Leek and Potato Soup, Beef Bourguigon, and Cherry Clafouti for dessert.

We literally spent an entire Saturday shopping, prepping and cooking, but it was all worth it! Especially the Beef Bourguigon, which took 5 hours all on its own! Annie made it just in time to help finish making dessert and help us eat up our yummy 3 course dinner. :) The boys enjoyed it soooo much that they continued to talk about "that one dinner" for weeks. Here are some of our really great cooking pics!

Thanks Julia, we couldn't have done it without you!

This is an apron that one of my very first students gave me!

Yay for Annie!

Our yummy soup with un-sweetened whipped cream.

The boys repaid us by cleaning the kitchen. Gotta love 'em!

This was so much fun and such a great way to do something different and even de-stress. We've already decided that we will have to have Julia Child Cooking Day every 3-4 months or so, and I can't wait for our next meal! :)

New Girl: Fall 2011 on Fox

Can I just say that I am sooooo excited about this new series that starts in the fall!!! I absolutely LOVE Zooey Deschanel. I can't wait for her to star in her own television series. Yay~!

Our Cat is Crazy!

Madame Tussaud and Jules Cobb

I told you I was REALLY behind on all of my posts for the last year, and this one is no exception.

Back a year ago this past February my brother and his girlfriend at the time came out to LA to visit. (He actually proposed on this trip and they were married last June...) We had a really great time seeing all the sites including going to Caffe Primo on Sunset, visiting Grauman's Chinese Theater and visiting Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was surprisingly fun and even a little creepy! It was fun having family out here and we'd like to extend and invitation to anyone else who would like to come and visit us here in Los Angeles. :)

Oh, this is just me and Justin Timberlake. No big deal.

I L-O-V-E Audrey Hepburn. P.S. I really miss my long hair. :(

My brother Steve making Jim Carrey laugh.

Grauman's Chinese Theater

And for anyone else who is a fan... The Real Estate office of Jules Cobb on Cougar Town. I am a pretty big fan of the show and I came across this when a friend of mine and I went to the movie. It was literally right next to the movie theater. I love living in LA because you never know what/who you are going to come across.

Disneyland!!

Wow, this trip was A LONG time ago, but I wanted to share it.

Michael's niece Kaitlyn had a cheerleading competition about a year ago and her parents and a few siblings came along to enjoy Disneyland. Being that Anaheim is less than an hour away, Michael and I took a trip over and had a blast staying with Richard and Terry and their kids in a great condo within walking distance to the park!!

I love Disneyland and would get season passes if I could, but since Michael isn't such a huge fan, I really have no reason to go. (Even though I did go by myself right after we moved here to LA. You can read about that here.)

Luckily, MIchael will do anything as long as family is in town, even go to the most magical place on earth. :)

We spent two whole days at the park and I pretty much rode on every single ride that I could. Even the kiddie rides like Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland and especially Peter Pan. (Thanks Tyler and Jordan for tagging along with me.)

On the last day before we left, we went to Denny's and afterward said our goodbye's before heading back home.

We had such a great time, even though we missed Stacie and Becky not being there as well!! But I'm sure they are having a blast, as they are at Disney World right now in Orlando!

We ate dinner one night at Johnnie Rockets and chowed down on some yummy burgers. This is Tyler REALLY enjoying his. :)

Michael and I just before seeing the fireworks. They were really great!

Oh, and thanks Grizzly Bear Rapids for making me walk around for two hours looking like I had peed my pants...

A Much Belated Update! ( A.K.A. The Bike)

Okay, this post is about 8 months late, but I wanted to put up the pictures from my 29th Birthday and the AWESOME gift that Michael got for me!! Referring back to THIS POST, you may recall my wanting a new bike to ride around LA. Well, here it is! These pics are from my birthday party back in September, and although I don't ride my bike as much as I wish I would, I LOVE it!

Sporting my new bike!!

All the girls - me, Heather, Rachel, Sarah, Hope and Annie! Love these girls!!

Somehow, all the guys managed to guys managed to stay out of all the pictures...

I also recently got the other birthday gift that I wanted from THIS POST. A new pair of TOMS shoes, and they are soooo comfortable and what's even better, I can wear them at work to teach in! These were from my mom and I LOVE them almost as much as my bike.

Summer Plan...

I've looked back over my blog and it struck me that I've hardly posted more than couple posts over the past 8 months or so! I am so disappointed with myself mainly because my blogs are my outlet as well as my way of journaling the most interesting events in our life, but I'm also disappointed that it has become apparent that my teaching job has completely dominated my life!! How upsetting this realization is to me!

But the bright side to this rant is that I actually have something pretty worthwhile and important to blog about in the hopes that it will also kick my butt back into the blogging world.

Well, here's the big news (no we're not pregnant...) we're moving to BEIJING, CHINA for the SUMMER!! YIPEEEEE!!!!

The facts are that Michael has the summer off before his last year at UCLA in Architecture Grad School and it is really important for him to work this summer at a really great firm that will not only look good on his resume, but also help him in his efforts to find a great job after graduation. Originally, Michael was thinking about going on his own, but then he presented me with the idea to go with him and there really wasn't a way that we could deny this amazing opportunity!! I mean, come on, really!?! Say no to a summer in China!?

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things that I am worried about, such as the complete culture shock, a completely new country, food, language, way of living and not to mention the fact that Michael will be working and I will have to find ways to fill my days, but I am so excited for this life-changing event!

I can't even express how overwhelmed, excited, nervous, scared, curious, happy I am about this decision that we've made but I know that it is the right decision and that we will have a wonderful time even though I am sure there will be some pretty interesting things to blog about here.

Thanks for listening to my rant and if you have any advice, words of encouragement or anything else that may help, I would LOVE to hear it!!

Coming soon - A recap of all the great things that have been going on here in LA for us since last September or so. See, I told you I was really behind in my posting!!! :)

Just a few pics of the sights that I am really excited to see:

The Watercube and the Bird's Nest built for the 2008 Olympics

The beautiful gardens as well as the Forbidden City

The Great Wall of China