birthday!

i am now 23.

to celebrate, i took a four day weekend.

july 12 (THE BIG DAY)

my mom & my sister came out. we went to brunch at a great cafe in downtown culver city, and to the getty center.

it was a beautiful day. the architecture, the views of the ocean and the city, the cool art...i highly recommend a trip if you'v never been. we even took a guided tour to learn more about romantic and realist art.

we finished up the big birthday with dinner at tito's, another trip to the kwik e mart, a visit from my cousins and treats from the homemade magnolia bakery.

JULY 13

brandon and i saw transformers, ran errands and i learned how to cook onion chips, an authentic ghanian recipe, from my african friend. sure beat being at work.

JULY 14 - 15

we drove down to "the o.c." for the weekend. not only did we find many homes and neighborhoods we would like to inhabit, we also squeezed in a trip to the newport beach temple...

...before proceeding south to our hotel. we stayed at the very lovely laguna cliffs marriott in dana point. one of my friends from rancho is a manager there and got us a sweet birthday rate...we had a great time!

our view of the harbor:

we had time to hang out by the pool, walk out by the ocean, relax, etc. we even used one of my birthday presents (gift card) to have a lovely dinner at cheesecake factory. even though we were only one hour away from home and only gone for two days, it was a perfect getaway.