a fabulous week around LA

Missy was here this week!! For those of you who don't know her, Missy is one of my great friends from college and my church in Seattle, and will be one of my bridesmaids in March. She is an amazing person who is a pediatric nurse at Children's Hospital in Seattle and loves people and life so much :) She flew down on Monday and leaves early tomorrow morning but it was so fun to have her here for a couple days, especially with yesterday being my birthday! I got to celebrate with a lot of different people and she was able to be there for all of it! We've had a busy week, so here are some of the pictures so far.

Monday night she, Chuck and I went hiking in Monrovia Canyon (my favorite hike around here). It was so fun to watch the two of them get to know one another, as they had both heard a lot about each other! This is Missy on the beginning of our hiking trail, she looks ready to go!The Monrovia Canyon fallsHere is Missy at the end of the trail.Me at the end of the trail.

Chuck and I at the waterfall.

Missy and I.

For my birthday on Tuesday I had lunch with friends from Fuller at Thai Dishes, a great Thai restaurant.  Then Missy & I went and looked at wedding invitations at the mall for awhile, before going to dinner with my small group from Chuck's church.  We didn't get any photos from lunch but here is my small group at dinner. 

We were also celebrating Nancy's birthday a month late, so this is us with our birthday pazookies (fresh baked, still hot chocolate chip cookies with melting ice cream on top--yum!) 

Laughing over their ridiculous version of happy birthday.

This morning, Chuck, Missy, Jenn and I went to the beach for a morning of water, reading, sunshine, and sand (and surfing for Chuck of course!) 

Here is Jenn, looking very excited to be on the beach! 

My adorable fiance ready to hit the waves.

Jenn and I 

Missy and I

Jenn built quite the sandcastle...

She also chased away the sea gulls that ate my sandwich, she was quite a presence for them to reckon with.

We stopped to overlook the Pacific for some amazing views.