Girls California Trip-with no kids!!!

  Keith's family does a so-called "man trip" every year or so.  Generally they attend a sporting event of sorts and drive around the clock to do so and come home.  They even take all potty-trained "men" on these sort of trips.  Us girls have been feeling left out and have always wanted to do a similar affair-however, we did not want to see a sporting event or bring any small or large child with us!  Haha!  We finally got our wish.  Keith's sister Amy has a friend who owns a beach house in Cayucos, California that they graciously offered to let us use for free.  After careful planning for a long time, we finally succeeded on having our very own kids-free-girls-only vacation.  It was amazing.  It was everything we dreamed it would be.  I want to go back.  Right now.

We all flew to Los Angeles and met there.  Sadly, Janelle couldn't attend, but we figured 6 out of 7 wasn't all that bad.  Plus I am pregnant enough to count as more than one.  :)  The airplane ride was evidence enough that we would have a good time.  We laughed and laughed.  We got our sweet mini van and we were on our way.  First, we stopped at the infamous "Patrick's" from Diners-Drive-Ins-and-Dives.  At least I think that is what that show is called.  I got the Avocado Burger and sweet potato fries.  MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm.  My hamburger literally had a whole avocado on it.

Dangit, Alisha's eyes are closed.  But aren't we cute? 

Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger eats here on a regular basis.  Mary sat in his "throne," which makes sense since she is so large.  HAHA.


No high chairs!  Yay!!

Soon we got to our sweet condo and bought a few groceries (aka candy) and settled in for the night.  The next morning we toured Hearst Castle.  It was very interesting and has lots of priceless works of art in it.  The best part was lunch afterward.  We ate so good the whole time we were there, which is all I really care about.



This is Keith's mom, Carol.  She is basically the best mother-in-law that ever existed.  She paid for a lot of extras, which made the trip more affordable for us all.  Plus she is hilarious and loads of fun.  I just could not say enough good things about her really.

This is me doing the "Duck face."  I know, don't be jeal if you don't look as awesome as I do.  Did I mention this trip would have been a tiny bit more fun if I wasn't 33 weeks pregnant?  

Here is all of us at Hearst Castle.  What a fun group of girls.  I love them all like I love my own sisters-which is a whole lot.  What a miracle to marry into such an awesome group of women.  It makes me excited for all of my boys to get married some day and finally have some daughters.

Here we are inside Hearst Castle.  We sang the Newsies song the whole time.  That guy sure was a freak.  We saw lots of naked statues and tapestries.  Every square inch of that place was covered in priceless art, amazing.

Next we set off to check out the Elephant Seals (actually we ate amazing sandwiches and salads first, not to mention peanut butter cookies).



I would say that Elana loved the seals the most.  She pretty much dictated our trip because she is a published author and the rest of us are not.

Please don't confuse me with the elephant seals-they are the ones on the beach.

Next we finally got to put our toes in the sand and water and hit the beach.  It was liberating to say the least.

Yay!  The Beach!!!


Proof that I could bend over a week ago.  I can't really do that now.

The beach was beautiful and we spotted seals in the water.  We walked around a tide pool and saw a few star fish.  It was a little chilly, but so much fun.  Afterwards we got candy and hot chocolate and watched the sunset.  And laughed really really hard.


Elana enjoyed some grape Big League Chew-nothing beats it.

Some of us enjoyed hot chocolate and diet coke.  Oh yeah, and onion dip.

I don't know what was so funny-but it was.  

The view from our balcony.  Oh so peaceful.

The next day we rented a surry and nearly wet our pants peddling it around Morro Bay-a great memory.  

I was the only one who had ever ventured on one before and let them know that it would not be very much fun, but it would certainly be funny.  We laughed and laughed and actually managed to survive the trip because we could take breaks! We also had some awesome mexican food when we were done and some window shopping.

Really, I could have spent the whole trip doing this.  Who doesn't love the beach?  And talking with some of your favorite people on the planet?  And eating delicious food?  We had an amazing trip and I am so grateful that Keith watched the kids so I could go and enjoy myself.  I just wish I could go back!

Also-thanks Amy and Carol for all of the cute pictures.  I didn't take any while we were there because I was too busy relaxing!!