a week in may in cali

whenever we get a weekend here or a two-day deal there, we usually end up taking advantage of the spare time and go on some type of adventure. always to come back wishing we had a little more time to just be. with each other. with family. with our dreams.

we love to travel. heck, we are not even married yet (cue the sideways looks and judgments... we know, we know, we GET it) and we already love the fact that road trips are kinda our thing. so when i heard that my boss (aka daddy dear) was going hunting for a week, leaving me jobless in his wake, we jumped on top of the opportunity to go spend 10 whole days with the irwins in la habra, CA.


the best part about our adventures are the adventures within the adventures. the side adventures. while we were entering las vegas we decided to look up how that quaint little town (hahaha) got started. trav said he thought it was a mormon settlement and guess what? it kinda was. the remains of the old mormon fort (one of the first settlements in the valley of meadows) are still standing at the intersection of washington ave and las vegas blvd. we were tired because we had literally left friday night after kara's dance concert and only stopped in saint george to crash on granny's couch so we decided to take a pit stop. it was good to get out of the car.

the fort is a really cool little piece of church and state history. it is a state park, so not owned by the LDS church, but there are still cool gospel lessons to be learned. you can walk around the ruins and visit exhibits in the visitor center. it costs $1 to get in but it is worth it, especially because they are pretty much the only place with a restroom (and a nice one at that) on this side of the strip. it was a wonderful little pit stop.

There was even a "hemp con" going on across the street. Awesome. 

our first day in california was sunday and we spent it with family for a baby blessing. and we watched the movie "big eyes" which we loved.

the second day, trav and i did some exploring in downtown fullerton, which was really fun. he had to get a root canal that morning so we did not want to do anything too crazy. we did want some type of good shaved ice or ice cream. so why not try shaved ice cream? this is an interesting dessert that i am not sure we will be trying again...and least from the little shop we bought it from. but it was a wonderful adventure to try it anyway. and now we know.

tuesday we ended up at our happy spot. bet no one would guess where that is.

again, i love our disney trips because there is no rush. it is all relaxed and happy. and so much more magical with a little 2 year old boy who finds everything so wonderful and astonishing. carson was so fun to carry around all day. this is why disney was invented. no! innovated. (wouldn't walt be proud?)

 

wednesday we were going to spend some time at the beach but the weather would not hold up. instead we got the most amazing $20 foot massages (i mean, literally full body massages. it was almost more magical than disneyland) and chilled at home. i think we went to dinner at bj's, which i love. trav had to get some readjustments made to his root canal and ended up taking a long nap during the day so i guess the beach was out of the question anyway. we never did make it to the ocean this trip.

we did make it to LA thought. we spent thursday morning in the flower and fashion district buying flowers and fabric for wedding stuff.

wedding stuff...right? like, ciarah, all those flowers are going to die before july 10... well... we made a movie and so here are some still frames from the footage.

a big thanks to allyson for helping us with some of the shots. we ended up spending the evening with her. she took us to the japanese dollar store (which i was obsessed with, obviously) and we made cazookies and stayed up talking.

friday also tried the shopping thing, finding some good wedding finds in irvine. we went to the secret disney discount store (lucky no one actually reads my blog) that only cast members can get in to. this was a pretty sweet experience. then we ended up having dinner with greg and danielle and their darling baby boy. it was a really wonderful, pinterest-inspired meal and we had a great time.

saturday was cold and gloomy too. the weather never was great while we were here. we visited ally at work and i took a bubble bath, which felt amazing. i found this funny book called "bridesmaids" that is a collection of wedding horror stories pretty much. i found a lot of joy in reading them throughout the day. so funny! we had dinner with jessica and rob to celebrate jessica's birthday,  a little late but better than never. we made her a fantastic dairy-free chocolate cake. her baby, andrew, gets sick when she eats dairy and then breast feeds so she is off milk and cheese and all things wonderful. just kidding. because now we have learned that super good chocolate cake does not have to have dairy in it to be mouth watering. it was amazing cake.

sunday we got up, went to church, came home, took a nap. trav made me some delicious chicken tortilla things. and we had a family dinner to celebrate greg's birthday. we had really good enchiladas. then we made the slow, agonizingly painful process of packing up our car. it was FULL i tell you. we drove all through the night until we were in saint george once again. we dilly-dallied all day long though in the sunshine with my grandparents and grabbed a delicious memorial day salad at teriyaki grille for dinner before finally heading home.

i hate when vacations end. we joked about how we used to wish for a whole week to spend in cali but once we got a whole week it did not feel any longer than the little three day weekends and things that we are used to spending down there. but it was so fun. i just love my california boy. i love our taco runs, our errands, our trips to see mickey, the lemon picking from his tree so we have gifts to bring home. we have so much fun together, no matter what we do. I hope it lasts forever, the euphoria of traveling with him.