Thursday, September 5, 2013

California Trip: Best Trip Ever!!

California still feels like home to me, even though I haven't been back for years now.  The sunshine from the Sunshine state always puts me in a good mood.  We wanted to go check out our prospective wedding venue in San Diego and thought we'd hit up my home town on the drive down, so that I could introduce Mike to my roots.  We had such a blast, it really was the best trip ever :)
We stayed at our good friends' house, the Larges, and took a jog over to my old house, then continued on up the STEEP hill to catch this amazing view.  Down below is my old high school, Saugus High.
Love this family!  The Lightners :)  Seeing them brought back all kinds of memories.  They lived down the street from me and I spent a great deal of time hanging out at their house.  It made me so happy to get to visit with them.
And here it is!  My old house!  Looks the same... but different.
My FAVORITE place to get ice cream was at the Thrifty's down the street.  I always got chocolate malted crunch!  Thrifty's turned in to something else...but they still have the delicious ice cream!  Only it wasn't as cheap as I remember...
We also made a stop to visit an old cheer buddy from high school, my friend Courtney.  We got to meet her adorable daughter, Quinn, who called Mike "Mr. Mike"
Next stop:  Castaic, to visit another childhood friend, Karen... they were just moving in to this new house with their family and were super excited about it.
After we left Santa Clarita Valley, we headed south for San Diego to scope out the scene for a small wedding.  We stayed near Coronado Beach, at the Bayfront.  My app on my phone suggested we try breakfast at the Broken Yolk Cafe.  We witnessed someone eat an obscene amount of food there.  They took the cafe challenge where they got the whole meal free if they could eat it all in an hour.  Fail.  He didn't even come close.  The food was quite delicious though!  And I had the most handsomest of dates to accompany me.

I'm marrying him :)

The Bayfront hotel in the background.  Beautiful San Diego.  Favorite favorite place!

Smooch shot...what can I say, we're in love! :)
We snapped a shot as we drove by the famous Hotel del Coronado
A shot of the engaged couple standing on the very beach we will be wed!  Imperial Beach.  It was an overcast day, so we were a little apprehensive about the San Diego wedding idea in November... in the end we decided to just go for it and book the wedding here :)
Pure bliss
Imperial Beach shot
Hot guy shot
Coronado Beach, relaxing on the rocks, soaking up the sunshine
Mike likes to take shots like this one

Check out the sunset... La Jolla

All these cool birds were perched on the rocks overlooking the ocean.
La Jolla...right in front of the Crab Shack, where we ate the most expensive meal I have ever consumed (lucky for us, we had a coupon)
La Jolla cave
I'm in love with San Diego...and this man
Writing in the sand...
Playing on the beach at Coronado
Good memories...

Wow!  Lucky me... he's nice to look at :)

Working on our tans...

The seagulls scoped out the scene, looking for any unprotected snacks.
A shot in front of the famous Hotel del Coronado
..and another
Happy times!
Beautiful
A parking lot shot
We went for a jog along the beach.  Such a workout!
The best way to work out... on the beach, with your sweetheart :)
Someday I want to live here... when we are millionaires
Dining in style
Crab... my FAVORITE!!
Starbucks time, after our facials/massages.  Those groupon coupons were a fantastic idea!
The happy couple
Next we headed to Vegas for a show... the "ONE" Cirque du soleil Michael Jackson show.  Talk about an incredible show!!  Unbelievable.
Vegas show, MJ!
stopping for gas and cleaning the windows.  He's just so cute!
:)



Me being goofy, singing in the car to some Air Supply...couldn't get Mike to join in...

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Tony Grove

Picnic up the canyon with the girls and my love...perfect way to spend a Sunday. My idea was to take a hike up to the Polygamist cave above the lakes, and explore the cave.  It was a nice idea.  Bringing two little girls on a hike like that, we soon discovered, wasn't gonna happen.  They both wanted to be carried most of the way, which gets oh so tiring rather quickly, hiking up a mountain.
Instead we opted for taking the trail that goes around the lake.  The girls loved it.  They managed to get all muddy, which is always fun, and they took several stumbles tripping over rocks on the trail.  Nothing serious, they still had a wonderful time!
Picnic with my love :)
Enjoying the sunshine
Mike joins the girls for some rock throwing fun!
Stopping for a smooch along the trail... mwa!
Check out McKel's muddy bum behind us!
McKel ran most of the way... she's the little energizer girl!
Avril took lots of stops to pick up treasures she would find
One of my favorite Avril pics.  Big smile!  Happy girl :)