Cold day in July...

... was the metaphor the Dixie Chicks used in their song, but it really IS a cold day in July in LA! Brrr!! I have come to accept "June Gloom" living in LA, but come on... bring on the heat, baby!

Other than the chilly, gloomy weather, July is turning out to be a pretty awesome month. You already know that we bought a snazzy new car and next I'm going to tell you about our visit with Will and Josh.

So my best guess is that our apartment is around 500 sq ft. This is based on the fact that we stayed in a 231 sq ft cabin this past week, I'm thinking our apartment is probably twice that. Anyway.. this is really not enough room for one girl, three boys and a dog. Pee-yoo. Besides just being boys, Will is training for another marathon, so his sweaty clothes also resided in our place. Am I complaining? No way! I'd take a stinky apartment again for a week with my favorite brother.

They flew into the Long Beach airport on Wednesday night. We don't go down to LB much, so I looked for "restaurants" on my Google Maps and Five Guys Burgers popped up. I have seen people rave about this place on Facebook and also know it's an Obama favorite. They were down with going and Matt has since mentioned several times going back. Not impressed with the fries, but the burger was great!

Mmm.

On Thursday morning we all got up early and headed down to Santa Monica. This is where their "Ultimate Vacation" (as Will deemed it) really began. We first stopped by the Apple Store at around 7:15am, only to find two lines wrapped around the building. This was the day the new iPhone was released and Matt had one on reserve. So we ditched that and went to LAX to pick up a rent car. (This was before we sold our cars, but renting was cheaper than driving Matt's truck all over LA.) Now this next part is when things REALLY started heating up.... we went to the...

SANTA MONICA DMV!!!

I know, am I the best sister or what? But if you think the Texas DMV is a headache, you ain't seen nothin' like CA DMVs. Luckily, we were only there about about an hour, and Will and Josh were very patient. Will even found a S*bux nearby to pass the time. Afterwards, Matt headed to work, while we grabbed some brunch at Jack & Jill's. The weather was so beautiful, so we rolled our windows down and drove up the 1 to the Getty Villa. Next we kept driving north towards Malibu, went to the Country Mart (one of my favs), enjoyed a Crumbs cupcake, and finally headed back to Santa Monica where we met up with Matt at 3rd & Promenade. For dinner we picked up ingredients at Trader Joes and made homemade pizza on our grill.

View from our table at Jack & Jill's.

Getty Villa gift shop.

 Will chillaxin in the Bu

On Friday while Matt worked, the boys and I went to Universal Studios where we rode the Simpsons Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, Shrek 4D, the backlot studio tour and our favorite - Jurassic Park. That night we picked up Matt and met up with some of our friends in Marina Del Rey at C&O Trattoria - home of "That's Amore" and killer garlic rolls.

Ran into some of our favorite astronauts.

Will punching the shark ... me sharing my breakfast bar.

 I ain't skeered of no Jurassic Park ride.

King Tut O'Rear

Saturday morning we slept in, took it easy, made pancakes-- all while Will took a 10 mile run. The rest of the afternoon we mostly chilled before finally deciding to visit the Americana at Brand. We arrived just in time for happy hour at Frida's, then browsed through some stores. While we were there, I gently took my husband by the hand and led him to the kitchen section at Anthropologie. "This," I said, "is what I want my kitchen to look like. If you ever want to get a surprise gift for me, just come pick out anything here." And being the amazing husband that he is, he picked up this kitchen timer and said, "Well let's start here." I know, I know. He's the best. We ended our evening at the Holzapfels, or "Wooden Apples" as Matt likes to call them. (They are a whole other blog post, because I could just go on and on about how much we love them.) Anyway Will and Josh met them last summer before Miss Lyla James was born, so they wanted to officially meet her. We had a great time, listened to some Douglas James tunes, watched the in-progress music video, and mostly just oo'd and aah'd over Lyla. She and Will especially bonded.

Will & Lyla James

On Sunday we shared our beloved family, Ecclesia Hollywood, with them and then grabbed some Kitchen 24 with friends. Our afternoon plan was to go hiking, but their "Ultimate Vacation" kicked back in when we received calls from Craigslisters offering to buy our cars. So in one afternoon, we sold both of our cars and spent a few hours at our local Toyota buying our new one. I felt sooo bad for the boys at home, stuck in our house. When we finally got home around 7:00pm, we decided to go to get some dinner and see Cyrus.

Monday was our last day together - Matt went back to work, while the boys and I brunched at Aroma Cafe. That afternoon I took the boys hiking to Fryman Canyon. The fact that Fryman is located in the middle of LA seemed to concern the boys, as maybe they thought it wasn't going to be a challenging experience. Well... it was. And they learned another reason LA is so great -- not just beautiful beaches, but also gorgeous hiking trails smack in the middle of the city. That night we invited our dear friends, the Benners over for build-your-own quesadillas (only Rhi could come) and ended our evening with Menchies.

Josh was very brave!

Will... not so much (he takes after his sister)

WHEW!! Ok, I realize that was waaaaay long, and probably only my darling mother is still reading this. But I wanted to share all of the fun we had! Thanks Will and Josh for coming to see us! And if you, dear reader, would ever like to visit LA, we have two couches with your name on them.