California... HERE I CAME!

Road trip with the sisters: mmmmmmhhhhmmmm.

Day #1: Vegas

Soy Milk, Ice, and Straw. It's all I need in life these days.

Meet Aunt Julianne. She is fabulous. She welcomed us into her beautiful home on our way passing through. This women raised one awesome family and gave me some seriously sweet cousins.

Michelle was getting us invites to clubs all day long. She was looking so dang hot! Of course we flashed our blings and said "No thanks" ;)

This is the girl who inspired us all to come on this trip. She fed the excitement the entire time and kept us on our toes. 

Day #2: Shopping and then the Beach!

I sure love these girlies. Although at times it is definitely nice to have our husbands around for a little bit of emotional regulation, we kept ourselves busy with tons of sister fun!

When we were walking down the beach, we saw a guy out in the ocean in his kayak. Some of you may not know, but Jessica is a legit and hard core kayaker. She ooood and awed and envied, and as we walked back along the beach after our long jaunt, we just happened to come across him getting out of his boat. I watched Jessica closely, and instantly recognized her intense yearning to paddle her way out into those ocean waves. It wasn't too difficult to persuade the young student who was on break from Stanford to lend these three excited girls his kayak. We invited him over to our little mat and offered him a plethora of snacks as we sat and watched Jessica paddle her little heart out. 

Sarah spotted the seal first, and then the rest of us. We watched with awe as it swam closer and closer to Jessica, and I could almost feel her heart race as she paddled frantically away from the moment that she saw it. When she came back into shore she said that her thought pattern went something like this- "Seal?! Sharks eat seals! SHARKS!". Haha.

Oh hey! This is the headband that I got at Forever 21, and the earrings too. We went to Target before the beach and that is where Sarah got her sun hat, and me my sundress that I've been looking for for a long, long time. I also finally got some new suits! It was due time for those swimming suits. Good bye Lime Ricki! I am sticking with cheap from now on ;)

Day #3: The land of Disney! Princesses Galore!

Churros! Who doesn't love churros! This was our main source of sustenance on this day.

The wishing well. It is meant to make a girl's dreams come true, but when I admitted that I had actually forgotten to make a wish in the excitement of the moment, Michelle and Sarah confessed that they had too!

I was grateful to wait in the long line to see Rapunzal, because I was in dire need of a rest. We had arrived early to the park, and went on lots of rides, running from place to place before the lines got big. By the time 11 o'clock rolled around I was exhausted and completely out of steam. Sarah was better than a little kid, dragging us around everywhere and persisting on never stopping. I managed a good thirty minute nap while waiting in this line!

After seeing the first few adorable little princesses running around, we decided to try to get a picture of every princess. We managed to get most of them before my camera died. Let me know which ones we missed . . . 

 

It was so fun meeting some of these miniature princesses because we ooooohhhhd and awed about how pretty they looked, and then asked if we could take a picture of the oh-so-pretty princess. They were always flattered, offering a shy smile and sweet little 'thankyous' to our generous compliments. We had a ball with this project, and had to chase down some of our princess's before they disappeared into the crowds.

Have you ever seen the Disney Land parade?! This is when I was better than a little kid! I sat on the sidewalk and couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear at these performers. They were amazing! There were princesses and princes, mickey and minnie, MARY POPPINS! Oooh I just loved it. In fact, I loved it so much (and the other girls too) that we went back to the watch it again at the 6 o'clock time. It appealed to my senses so much with the music in my ears, the beat drumming up through my feet, the smiles all around me, the twirling, dancing, waiving, laughing, colors! I was so impressed with Disney Land, their workers, and the park in general. Although I won't go back until I have kids (it's not quite my style of entertainment), I can say that they have done this place right!

Day #3: A dream come true! Surfing!

  

Can you tell that I am ECSTATIC to try surfing? So were the girls. We couldn't wait, and Mike (our wonderful host), provided us with wet suits, boards, and excellent instruction. Mike is the father of Emily, who was Jessica's room mate for a few years in college. Elan is his wife, and they are one legit couple. They invited us into their homes for the entire week, and showed us how to party in California!

 

  

Ok are you ready for my number one tip for surfing? NEVER, EVER, let go of your surf board when it is floating in front of you and a big wave is about to crash into you. This makes for a huge object flying at you with no control! How do I know? Yup. Because I did it, and my surf board nearly crushed my trachea. It knocked the air out of me for a few long seconds, and I nearly passed out from the pain! I didn't swear though! HA! I have spent the last week taking i-bprophen consistently (my doctor calls it the 'I' vitamin) so that I can breathe, and have nearly swallowed my swollen tonsils several times since. And don't worry, I might be being just a little dramatic ;) It was NOT a fun experience. On the other hand, SURFING was FANTASTIC! This was by far the highlight of everyone's trip, and we all want to try more! I am going back to California with my Husby in a few weeks, so I will post pictures of Mike and Elan, and hopefully fine tune my mad surfing skills (that is, stand up for more than like 2 seconds;))!

Overall the trip was lots of fun, and involved late nights, early mornings, and very little sleep. And you know what that does to a bunch of hormonal girls right? Right ;). We had a great ride back, driving the 15 hours mostly straight through, and stopped only for many bathroom breaks, soy milk, chocolate soy milk, chocolate, and maybe even more chocolate. Oh, and I guess that we could through some fruit in there somewhere. We had a great time together, and started the tradition to do a sister trip once a year. Next year we will take ALL sisters and our sweet mother. We missed them on this trip, but are excited for the many memories to come! This is a big shout out to sisters and ladies! WOOOOOHOOOOO! What a blessing to have such wonderful women in our lives.

P.S. Out of the many lessons that I learned on this trip, there is one that hit me hard. On the drive down to Cali, Michelle gave us continual lectures on being safe, and we received several phone calls from some concerned husbands who felt the need to advise us on how to drive in traffic and ect. It rolled around 1 o'clock AM and we were all getting very sleepy. We tried to be safe, but each driver ended up doing ridiculous things to stay awake like slaps in the face, freeze outs with the AC, and really loud music. It was at this time that I realized how badly I wanted to live out a looooong goooood life with my husband. It might sound weird to some of you, but I have never had a moment in my life when I have been so afraid of dying! I have lived my entire life having a calm acceptance of death, partly because of my deep knowledge of the afterlife and a testimony of Christ. While riding in the back of that little red car, and with a little bit of homesickness in my heart for JeddLee, everything that I have to live for hit me like a ton of bricks. There is so much in this life that is so wonderful, and so many people that thrive off of the love of those three girls that I had in the car with me. I make memories everyday with the people that I love. I learn and grow. It's not ok with me to die young (again, it sounds weird, but I always have been really comfortable with the idea of dying before now! Maybe it is similar to a new mother, who suddenly finds herself being more careful than before because of who and what she has to live for). Needless to stay, when this moment hit I was sleepy no more, and drove the rest of the way without a problem as the gravity of the moment settled in my heart. I was determined to return home to my husband safe and sound, and return my sisters to their sweethearts and loved ones.