Ojai!

Late February, my girlfriends and I decided to take a weekend trip up to Ojai. Ojai is in Ventura County, about 1/2 way between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. On Saturday morning, we drove up through the canyons and mountains to Ojai Valley.

It was a cold, but beautiful day... as you can see from the photos below.

The main reason for the getaway was that me and several of the girls had celebrated birthdays recently - within the last month. We spent the weekend spa-ing - in hot tubs, steam rooms, massages, relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

While in Ojai, we experienced lots of different weather - namely hail - which you can see here! There were small balls of ice, about the size of a tic tac that fell for nearly 3 hours and actually stuck to the ground until the next morning.

I was able to capture some photos of the most beautiful light. All in all a blast and I'd love to go back to this quiet, relaxing town, with Paul.

Riley's Birthday!

Wow - I can't believe it has been more than a month since my last post! There is a lot to catch up, so here we go.

On February 17th, 2011, Riley celebrated his 3rd birthday. Surprisingly enough, he woke up - like any other normal day, but then became so excited when he realized it was his birthday (no not really, but I like to imagine that happened).

It was a day like any other, except that Paul and I bought Riley some birthday toys for his enjoyment. I will never forget the first day we brought Riley home.

Like most parents, we were emotionally exhausted after the first day. We didn't quite know what to do with him, he definitely took advantage of our ignorance a bit by being so darn cute... but several years later, Riley is one of the most amazing things that has happened to us in California. He is smart, loyal, super affectionate and playful. Despite being 3 years old (or 21 people years), he still has the personality of a puppy.

We love our little monkey. :)