{ LA Film Festival }

A few weeks ago my friends and I attended the LA Film Festival, hosted by the Santa Monica 3rd and LA 1st wards. It was an absolute blast and I was so impressed by the mad skills of so many of my talented LA friends. Enjoy a few favorites from the night...

#1: WINNING FILM - "Jane Austen's Fight Club"

#2: BEST ACTORS - "Dan And Mike: The Movie" (watch it to the end....trust me)

#3: BEST ACTRESS - "New Spice"

#4: JUST LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY! - "Tom Cruise On Home Teaching"

{ Back-to-Back Wedding Weekend }

I survived the weekend! Barely. Here's just a little sampling of what my weekend was like: bridal shower for one of my best friends, designed wedding flowers for 2 weddings, snuck out on a blind-date, attended my Mom's college graduation, stopped by one of these gorgeous wedding receptions, and went to my 10 year High School reunion! Wow! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Be sure to check out the posts I put up on my floral blog, Design By Aubrey, to see just how gorgeous these wedding flowers turned out. All the exhaustive hours were well worth it! And can I just give a little shout out to my fantastic interns who helped the hours go by so much quicker: my ever faithful Mother, Corey Cooper, and Juliann Payne. Thank you again! I wouldn't have made it through the weekend with you!

{ DHHS :: 10 Year Reunion }

Has it really been that long? Oh my gosh I feel old. I swear I thought I'd be married with a bunch of babies in my backseat by now. What the heck have I been doing with my life? Kidding. Sort of.

{ IDI :: Mom's Graduation }

Look who graduated from college! So proud of my Mom for her accomplishment in earning her BA in Interior Design from the Interior Designers Institute in Newport Beach. Did you know they are ranked #7 among all the design schools in the US? Pretty impressive. And so are you Mom. Congratulations!

{ Home Away From Home }

If it weren't for the extreme heat and the absence of the Pacific Ocean, I think I could stay in Arizona forever! But until someone can solve those two problems, I guess I'll just have to be content with my monthly visits to the Grand Canyon State.

This last trip was mostly about helping my sister and brother-in-law unpack all the boxes in their new house, and of course to spend some more time with Little D. But all of my free time was spent with my favorite AZ friends...

{ Summer . Blockbuster . Hits }

I've seen some pretty amazing movies so far this summer! And lucky for me, Little D has been my date for a couple of them. Last month in Arizona we loved seeing Toy Story 3 together, and just a couple weeks ago we saw Despicable Me here in California. If you haven't seen it yet, it's seriously a must. Steve Carell was awesome, but those little minions were our favorite! We laughed our way through the entire movie.

Another summer blockbuster not to miss is Inception. OH. MY. GOSH. Go see it. It seriously blew my mind. And Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing. I'm kind of dying to see it again so if anyone wants to join me, let me know!

{ The Beach House :: Summer 2010 }

When I was growing up my grandparents owned the most beautiful house on the sand in Capo Beach. Every summer we would spend hours and hours enjoying the surf, sand, and sun. Although my grandparents no longer own that house, they always like to rent a beach house for the week so all the kids, grandkids, and their friends can come and enjoy the fun on Beach Road.

You may remember the Beach House from SUMMER 2008 and the one from SUMMER 2009. It's kind of fun to see the progression of D: starting out as a bun in the oven, to a little chubster rolling in the sand, to the handsome mini-man he is today.

This year was a blast (minus the overcast weather). We were so happy that Mark was able to sneak away from his brand new job in Phoenix to join us for the weekend. He's such a good Daddy to my little nephew. I just love their happy little family.

What would a week at Grandma and Grandpa's Beach House be like without lots and lots of junk food? I'm pretty sure one of Dallen's favorite memories was all those "possicles" as he calls them. Isn't he such a ham? I love when he says "CHEESE" for pictures.

Little D found plenty to do while at the Beach House. Sandcastles with Mimi, skateboarding with Uncle Scotty and Auntie Aubrey, and celebrating our independence by eating as many roasted marshmallows as we possibly could.

How can so many people have so much love for such one little guy? Your Uncle Scotty, Auntie Aubrey, and Aunt Kellie love you so stinking much Dallen! Can't wait to play at the Beach House again next year!

{ Making Memories :: Beach Road }

This picture makes me so happy. In case you can't tell, it's little Dallen and his Grandpa throwing rocks together at the Beach House on the 4th of July weekend. Takes me back to a time when my grandparents owned a home on this stretch of sand. I remember every summer my Grandma and Grandpa would join me as I gathered all the "pretty rocks," made huge sandcastles, and went on long walks to look at all of the amazing houses along the coast.

My grandparents don't have that beautiful beach house anymore, but those memories will certainly stay with me forever. I hope that someday Little D will look back on all his summers at the beach with his Grandma and Grandpa and remember all the good times. More pictures of our amazing week at the Beach House soon to come...

{ Vanilla Ice Cream Cone }

Kinda makes you want an ice cream cone, or at least a slobbery bite of his. Love that little munchkin of mine!

My little sister Jacki invited me to drive back to AZ with them to keep my favorite nephew company and then bought me a plane ticket to get back home in time for the Bachelor try-outs. Isn't she a good sister? It was honestly such a fun trip (despite the 115 degree heat) and we got a lot of things put away in their new house. There's still a TON left to do, but don't you worry Jack, I'll be back!

{ The Bachelor :: Open Casting Call }

I did it. Can you believe it? After all these years of talk, I finally put my money where my mouth is and went to the Open Casting Call for The Bachelor this weekend. I even gave up an entire Saturday of wakeboarding to go. Now that's true sacrifice people! But I knew if I didn't do it now, I probably never would. And might always regret it. So I went....

I know a lot of you have been dying to hear the story of what went down that fateful Saturday afternoon, so, here it is:

I showed up to the Westin South Coast Plaza around 2:30pm and was immediately greeted with a 10 page questionnaire to fill out about myself. Next, it was off to the photo booth for a few quick pics. An awkward head shot and a full body shot. I hate having my picture taken. I know, I'm weird. Next came the waiting game. They grouped us all in a large conference room and separated by letters: A, B, C, and D. I was a "B." Not sure what that meant, but I'm guessing it had something to do with where you were from. I could be totally wrong.

After about 2 hours of sitting around, chatting with all the hundreds of girls there (yes, there were hundreds!) they finally called me into another room that was completely empty except for a camera, a chair, and one of the producers. I walked in, handed the interviewer my questionnaire, sat in the chair, was hooked up to a mic and asked a series of questions about myself and my dating history. They asked questions like: what do you do for a living, what do you like to do for fun, how many times have you been in love, tell us about your most recent break-up (that one was FUN!), and then they asked if I was watching this season of The Bachelor and if so, who I was interested in. Uh, Roberto! She didn't seem too surprised. Before we ended, she had me tell the story of how I got my name (she thought it was cute that it came from a BREAD song in the 70's), and then told me I was a beautiful girl and was really great on camera, and sent me away with a rose.

I walked away happy and satisfied and kinda worried that they might actually call me back and ask me to be on the show. Haha. But not to worry, I don't think I could ACTUALLY go through with it even if I did make it through the grueling screening process. I just know they'd splice and dice the footage to make me look like someone I'm not. And well, I don't think I could handle that. But it was such a fun experience to go and be apart of the Casting Call and hey...I made a few new friends...ones who might even end up on the next season. You never know? So there you have it.

{ 4th of July :: HB Style }

This blog post is dedicated to my Arizona BFF's who made my 4th of July weekend in Huntington Beach the BEST ever! Truly, I could not have asked for a more perfect weekend...well, a little more sunshine would have been nice. But even that might've been a little greedy. It was THAT good people.

Friday morning we all slept in late (well, all but me...I have issues) and then cruised over to one of my fave brunch spots in HB, The Park Bench Cafe. Their omelets are seriously the best! After brunch the day was ours so we decided to drive down the coast and visit one of my favorite beaches in Laguna, Crescent Beach. I think the rest of Laguna had the same idea!



Next stop was Balboa Island! I took the girl's to try their first Balboa Bar and it was a smashing hit. DELISH! There's no denying this hypoglycemic one of those delicacies.




Friday night we hosted another "Happy Hour" at our place and invited friends and out-of-towners to come over and enjoy a virgin drink before hitting the town. We opted for a local Thai Restaurant and pretty much took over the place, followed by some dancing at The Pierce Street Annex. It was a VERY good night.



Saturday was amazing. I snuck away for a few hours to visit my nephew Dallen and the rest of the fam out by the pool, but was back at the beach with my ladies by mid-afternoon. We stayed as long as we possibly to could to soak up every last drop of sun and then headed out to grab some burgers and enjoy a soak in the hot tub, followed by a friend's party at the Beachwalk Clubhouse, and then a late night movie. We may or may not have watched Hannah Montana. Saturday was such a great day!



Sunday morning, the Day of Independence, we "reverently" walked down to Main St where we joined some friends to watch the World's Largest 4th of July Parade." Who knew? The rest of the day was spent attending our church meetings and then I drove down to Capo Beach to spend some time with my family at the Beach House. (Pictures of my week at the Beach House are coming soon.) All in all, another FABULOUS day!





Monday, our fourth and final day, was spent exploring the streets of Huntington. We "watched" some friends play beach volleyball, took a stroll down the pier, and enjoyed lunch and an ice cream on Main St. Not a bad way to end the trip. Do you love how I'm acting like I went on "vacation?" Because that's what it felt like to me! Thanks girls for coming to play! Come back soon!!!


If you're up for a little video action of our weekend and you have a Facebook account, click HERE, then HERE. Love Andria's editing. Girl's got mad skills!

{ Words to live by... }

{ Monday Night @ Angel Stadium }

I've been a bad Angels fan lately (not to mention a BAD blogger). Only 2 games all season? Wow, I'm ashamed. Anyway, here's a cute pic from a month ago when our Singles Ward cheered on the Halos. We may have lost but the girls and I had a great time pigging out on nachos, hot dogs, and Diet Cokes. Aren't baseball games the BEST?

{ Alumni Cocktail Reception :: Balboa Bay Club }

A huge "THANK YOU" is in order to Shannon Keany of Knobbe Martens for allowing me the opportunity to think up these creative arrangements for their Alumni Cocktail Reception held Thursday evening at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. I can't tell you how wonderful it is when I ask a client what they would like me to design and they simply say "Just do your thing." Thanks again Shannon, for letting me create outside the box.

Click HERE for the full post on my floral design blog, Design By Aubrey.