Benners Temporarily Displaced

The first night back from our anniversary getaway, I was sleeping and Benner was up writing. Apparently around 12:45am, water starting dripping through the ceiling fan in our dining room, and within minutes it was pouring!



Did a pipe burst? What could this be? Benner called our on site buidling manager who lives in the apartment next to us and knocked on the door but there was no answer so he lept into action, running up flights of steps to wake up neighbors and locate the cause of the problem.

It took some time, but Benner figured out the problem was coming from two floors up, and he tried for about an hour in vain to awake the person responsible. During the course of this, someone in our building called the fire department which is when Benner woke me up! I was confused because he seemed so calm and I couldn't understand why fire fighters would be coming into our apartment! When I walked into the living room, six of them were there.



I have to say I was glad they were there. Water was POURING out of our ceiling in 3 different places and was all over the floor! What a mess!



Eventually the firefighters got into the apartment two floors up and figured out the problem: the tenant had fallen asleep with the bath tub running. We thought the apartment above us would have been worse being closer to the source of the original leak but the fire department said our place was the worst!

Thankfully we have renters insurance (best $150 we have ever spent!) and they are paying for us to stay in a hotel while the water damage is being repaired in our apartment. We've been displaced for nearly two weeks now, but you shouldn't feel too bad for us as we haven't had to make our own bed or use the same towel twice for that long. And check out the view!



Not too bad. But of course are missing a sofa, laundry facilities, the ability to cook or drink free clean water.....the novelty is starting to wear off. We are so eager to be back in the comfort and convenience of our own home!

Surprisingly for this nice hotel they don't offer even basic cable. I am going through withdrawal without Nickelodeon to watch reruns of The Nanny. We don't have a mini fridge and the air conditioning wasn't working for one night. And of course the food here is expensive. We would however recommend this hotel for other reasons, especially for people who are visiting LA and don't plan on watching much TV. Check out the pool!



We are right by Universal City walk and of course the majority of people staying here are tourists. It's funny to see the tourist buses pull up and people taking picures of silly memorabilia in the lobby. Speaking of the lobby, it smells like cologne! Every time we walk in it smells the same way and it's a nice a fragrance! I just wonder how they do it....

Updates to come!

"Four More Years!"

This past weekend Benner and I officially celebrated our four years of marriage. We both agree that it's been an amazing adventure and we are so thankful to God for bringing us together. We have learned and grown so much together and look forward to decades and decades of experiences and memories to come.

What a gift to share your life with someone you admire, love, respect and enjoy so much! Benner makes me laugh every single day and is incredibly good to me. He is such a smart, thoughful, talented guy and I am humbled by the fact that he adores me like crazy! The feeling is mutual.

Living life together, in the exciting and mundane, the challenging times, fun times and every moment in between. I'm so thankful to share it with such an incredible man who does the right thing even when it's hard and loves me so well.

Anyway, I'll hit pause on the love fest and tell you about our weekend away to Mandalay Beach! We hit the outlets on the way there and then spent a relaxing time reading by the pool, enjoying the hot tub (it was a little cold), walking along the beach and eating yummy food that someone else made. I made friends with a horse named Charlie (ok, really just acquaitnaes but he was such a handsome horse). We laughed, reflected, talked about our dreams and sat silently with our books.

Here's a slideshow of some of our fun times there!



It's been a great four years! As we like to say, "Four more years! Four more years!"

Another Benner in the House

We just said goodbye on Friday to dad and father-in-law Ray Benner! He came out for a week of LA living and had a great visit! Thanks for coming to see us Ray!

He came in Saturday night and we welcomed him with a big steak dinner. You can guess who gets the props for that...thanks for cooking for us Benner! We had steak, asparagus and potatoes. Some of the potatoes were purple. I like purple potatoes. Ray had a bit of an annoying flight due to crying babies which we can relate to, but thankfully he made it here safely.

On Sunday Ray woke up first and brought us Starbucks coffee (that jet lag worked to our benefit) which little did we know would be a tradition for the week. Thanks Ray! Coffee makes me happy.

We started off the day with a hike at Griffith park and then fish tacos for lunch in Los Feliz.


Father and son. Doesn't Ray look so LA in those shades?


Father and son bond over throwing rocks.

Then we went to Malibu and stumbled on the Malibu invitation surfing contest. Those guys make it look easy. The waves were great that day. As big Benner and little Benner went for a walk along the beach, I took a cat nap on the beach and then we went to Beachcomber restaurant for dinner.



Here we are on the Malibu Pier. It was a beautiful day.









A table with a view and good company to boot.



One big happy post dinner Benner. :)

My friend Katie had reccommended the place and what a great spot. It's walking distance from my fav stretch of Malibu beach and the waves crash literally beneath you. There is a big glass panel offering picturequse views of the ocean. We so enjoyed it! Ray treated us for our anniversary and it was delish. Cheers!

On Monday Mike and I had to go back to work, but Ray entertained himself with trips to Venice beach and swimming at our pool. He makes friends with strangers everywhere he goes, its pretty funny. Kids in our apartment building that he met in the pool are asking where "the big whale" went, strangers at the Hollywood Bowl gave him beer, and we're sure there are some guys at a Venice Beach bar who miss Ray Benner from Narberth. He's always cracking jokes, making us laugh and our apartment is pretty quiet now that he (and his big loud cough) are gone. Rhianwen is missing the coffee that effortlessly made it's way into her hand before work each morning. Ray happened to be here the week that we had a murder in the neighborhood and potential bomb scare (both tied to the same event) and we slept a little easier knowing the big dude in the living room was with us.

Anyways, on to more highlights from the week:

Monday night, Ray and Mike hit the Phillies/Dodger game for some father son baseball watching. The Phillies lost but it was nice for Benner to enjoy the game with someone rooting for the right team! And Ray agrees with us that Dodger dogs (the official team hot dog) are totally overrated. It's refreshing to have some Philly perspective around.

Tuesday night we took Ray to Hugos Tacos, one of our favorite places in LA and then watched some of the early material of the show Mike has been working on. The animation isn't finished yet, but we all laughed heartily and it was cool for Rhianwen and Ray to see what Mike has been working on these past 9 months. I can't tell you guys how much you will enjoy this show when it comes out in January!

Wednesday night, Ray took us to see Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl. Ray got us in the mood by playing Watermelon Man - one of his favorite songs from high school - on Youtube. What we didn't know is that it was Herbie's 70th birthday that night, so there were special guest appearances all throughout the night. It was a great show and Herbie is one talented guy. It was a cool multil cultural experience with musicians from various genres and countries came together to jam. I particularly enjoyed the dancers and when the crazy annoying girl sitting behind me left early. Ray applauded and I sighed a sigh of relief.







Our camera isn't great but this shows the venue.

Thursday night we got sushi, tried to go bowling and ended up crusing in Ray's rented Dodge Charger. Benner enjoyed driving a car with actual pickup and Ray enjoyed having a chauffer. I enjoyed sitting in the backseat and hearing Ray's philosophies on family, work, politics and life. It mostly boils down to: "Be liquid and don't owe anyone anything." We agree!

Thanks for coming Ray!

Benners at a monastery

Earlier this month, Benner and I were feeling the need-to-leave-LA itch. It's pretty common: sometimes the city just leaves you feeling slightly irritated. Maybe its just city living, (not that LA really feels like a city but more like lots and lots of strip malls and development), maybe its "the industry," which people out here like to pretend is harder than any other job out there. Whatever it was, we were needing an escape. We also happened to be wanting a marriage conference, so we were lucky when we discovered a marriage retreat at a monastery in the desert the very weekend we were needing to go. We booked the weekend based on a five-sentence description of the retreat. We didn't know what we were getting into, which I think was part of the allure.... adventure!

We arrived on Friday night and wondered for a moment or two if we had the right place. We didn't see other cars and there was no one to be found. We wandered into a building that said "retreat in progress" only to find an empty room with the lights out and complete silence. We saw a doorway with light which we approached as we talked amongst ourselves, ("is this the right place? where is everybody?") and found a room full of people and monks who looked up at us for talking since they were in silence. I thought it was pretty funny.

We have many things to say about this I'm just going to give you the highlights for now:

1) The peace at this place is palpable. Great facility, beautiful grounds, including a pond with a duck we named Leonard. He likes to eat. And you know our love for mid-century modern architecture. Eating in the dining hall and looking out at the mountains through this window was so lovely.







There are turtles on that rock out there.



Leonard!

2) Delicious food. No pictures of this so you'll have to take my word for it. And you don't have to cook or do dishes. Love that.

3) Silence at meal times. Anyone who knows me might think this could be a challenge but it was actually refreshing. Breakfast was entirely in silence and then only part of lunch and dinner. A monk would read something out loud and then you would enjoy your meal in silent meditation.

4) Our little cabin. We dig the windows!



5) We both took a Meyers Briggs test and learned about our personalities. Very insightful! God is pretty creative when he makes people.

6) We watched a RIVETING documentary about called "Messages From Water". Yes this may seem random but it was to illustrate the power of words. Everyone is getting a copy of this documentary for Christmas. You're welcome!

7) My favorite part of the weekend was a talk by Father Francis on Friday night about repentance and confession. Pastor Steve Weed would have dug this guy.

8) What a diverse group of couples! All ages, from all over the place and man were we all different. It was interesting to hear about other people's lives and their thoughts of marriage. Kind of cool that we all left our homes to spend a weekend with total strangers. There were only 7 couples so it was fairly intimate and we got to know each other a bit.

9) Benedictine Mass. We were the only protestants that weekend, but with 6 masses (yes, there were 6!) we learned the drill. Once we figured out how it all worked out- the bowing, the chanting, the silence - we were able to "enter in" and it was a special time of worship for us. Oh and they had a harp, too.

And that wraps up the weekend!

Yummy

This is one of the most delicious meals I ever had, and my husband made it for me!

Man, I sure am blessed.

And hungry.

A Withington Weekend to remember!

We have fallen quite behind with blogging in the busyness of summer, so apologies for the lateness of this post! We're excited to tell you about a wonderful visit we had just a few weeks back by our dear friends Maureen and Chandler. We were thrilled when we heard they were coming for a visit and had all kinds of socal fun with them!

You may remember Maureen and Chandler from their beautiful wedding last October which we told you all about here. Maureen is my oldest friend and a dear one at that, and you can see she was a beautiful bride! Not that you should be surprised. They are such a great couple and we are happy to see them enjoying married life and thriving!

Mo and Chan man came in on a Monday night and stayed with us before hitting the road for SF the next day. After Alcatraz, some golf along the coast and seeing some friends up north, they came back and spent the weekend with us. We hung out at the pool, went out to dinner, hit my favorite Malibu beach spot and then ventured to Six Flags Magic Mountain. All made for a great weekend.

Maureen and I have a mutual friend from highschool who lives just a few minutes from me with her husband and darling little girl, Avery. Avery is such a ham, seriously adorable and constantly entertaining! We got to hang with the whole family that weekend and it was fun reminisincing high school memories and catching up.

Here are some shots from our Withington Weekend:



The marsh we pass on the way to the beach. Can you see the pelicans?


Pausing for a pic.


Cuteness!








Maureen in the back of our Saab convertible! Maureen has always had a thing for convertibles. It seems that nine times out of ten, if I'm in a convertible it belongs to Maureen. But now we own the convertible and she's our passenger!


Here we are at the Americana in Glendale. There was a giant chandelier outside for some reason.

The following Sunday, we were off to Six Flags Magic Mountain.


More cuteness!


We ran into the fresh prince of bel aire! Haha, sorry honey:) Benner is not a fan of this picture.


Are we seriously doing that?

So Maureen and Chandler love roller coasters. Benner as well. Me? Well, I needed some persuasion and I got plenty of it! Maureen and Chandler's preferred method of persuasion was to withhold as many details of these scary ass rides as possible until the very last minute. Which is how I found myself hanging from a harness, facing the ground from 100 feet up as we swooped and dipped and loopdy-looped on large steel machines with names like Goliath and Tatsu and the Vomi-tron.

I don't know how I let myself go on those things. Maureen and Chandler must be especially charming.


This is the one ride I opted out for. It promised a "4D" experience. I didn't care to find out what all those D's stood for, thank you for much, but Maureen, Chandler and Benner seemed to think they were worth it.

During all the long lines, we played rounds of "Spot The Worst Tattoo" and "I Spy An Ill-Advised Hairstyle." We were also entertained by Chandler, who has a funny story for every occasion. Maureen, however, seemed distracted at times by her throbbing need for funnel cake. Thankfully, we were able to locate some on our way out of the park at the end of the day and she was a happy lady.

Aw, man! This post is making me miss you guys. Thanks so much for coming out! Can't wait for our next visit!