Taking the long way there...

I decided at the last minute that I wanted to go on the Women's Retreat at my church. So, last Sunday, I signed up online, put all my info in and got super excited!!

During the week, I was asking everyone if they were going, and learned that quite a few of the girls from my homegroup were attending. Knowing that, I arranged for some of us to ride together. I took a half day at work on Friday, and we were off at 2.

Elizabeth met me at my place, we stopped to get Juliann, and then Maegan too in Carp. The roads were going fine traffic-wise until they weren't anymore. Ugh. The traffic was pretty terrible...BUT....the silver lining is that it gave us 5 hours to get to know each other better.

We finally made it to Murrietta a little after 7, and met up with the 700 women that were there for their retreats. There was only about 250 from Reality, but two other churches were at the same spot.

Dinner was decent....and then we went to meet up with everyone for the evening activity and session. The worship was amazing....as it always is. It's only of my favorite parts of Reality. Britt was our guest speaker, and he recounted that it was his first time to speak to a room full of ALL women. The weekend's theme was Father Heart of God, and we were reading from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I loved the message, and the way that Britt so passionately told us.

Afterwards, Elizabeth and I found our room, met our other 4 roomies, and then proceeded down to the Hot Springs. We stayed at the Murrietta Calvary Chapel Bible College, and the campus was so beautiful. I'd never seen, or been in a hot spring before, so I was excited about the chance. It was so unreal how wonderfully hot the water was, and that it was all natural.

I could only be in it for about 15 minutes before I called it quits. I settled into my twin bed and looked forward to resting up for tomorrow's day!

Where are all the girls going?

Ugh...all the girls are leaving!!! Well, not ALL of them....but enough to warrant an "Ugh". Amy is moving to Idaho, Suzy is taking off to Portland and Tara is headed North. I'm so sad to see all of these girls go, but I know they'll all be back, and this won't be our last times to be together! Woohoo!

We had a girl's night in on Thursday to celebrate each of these women. I made up some pasta, Janey whipped up guac, and Summer brought over veggies and dip! It was all topped off with the brownies and ice cream with strawberries!! All so good, but not as great as our time spent together.

Going to miss all of you!!! xoxo

Showering LB with Love

My lovely Laura is getting married......and she's leaving us - boo!! Leslie and Jen hosted a wonderful shower before she and her mom, Ruth, took off for their East Coast road trip.

The girls cooked up a delightful tart, some super tasty cookies, and oh....the brownies....they were SO good!!

Leslie and Jen decided that it was to be "cocktail attire", which was so much fun! I hardly ever get dressed up...and so it was a nice change to have to pull out and dust off a dress for the evening. :)

We had a wonderful night of fun times, good conversations, and some other girly activities! Let's just say that we set Laura up for her honeymoon and then some. :)

I had such a great time with Laura's friends. I've been so lucky to call some of these women my friends too by knowing Laura. I'm so sad that she's leaving Santa Barbara, but am so, SO, excited about her future with Benny.

Of course we had to get all of the girls in a group self portrait!

I can't wait to be there when Laura becomes Mrs. Sears!! That Benny, he's a lucky, lucky guy!!

Cupcake Hangover

Brett and I went for our cupcake tasting this morning at Whodidily. We decided that we are going to have cupcakes at the wedding, instead of a traditional cake, and so we got to try out all the different flavors to know which ones we liked the best.

The owner, Wendy, goes to our church, and so we thought we'd like to try out her business.

We were greeted, and Wendy wanted to learn a little bit about our story. :) Then we were treated with 14 different cupcakes to taste. Oh my!!!

Brett's favorites were the ones with the peanut butter candies. I really liked the vanilla ones. We decided that we'll probably just go ahead and get a couple of each kind so our guests can then decide which one they want to eat. :)

We brought home a LOT of leftover cupcake....which I'm sure won't happen at the wedding!! Fun morning, full of sugar and pink! :)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

At home group last night, Juliann invited anyone that wanted, to join us for breakfast at 7 am at Jeannine's this morning. It was a great way for some of us girls to get to know each other a little better. I couldn't imagine a more perfect reason for getting up earlier than I would have to for work.

We had a nice time chatting, sharing stories, sharing testimonies, and enjoying each other first thing in the morning. I took off on my way to work a little after 8, feeling so much more refreshed than just driving straight there. I look forward to more morning meetings with some great girls.


Right after work I went to grab Brett so we could go visit the newest girl in the SB gang - Piper Jane! She was born on March 3rd and was ready for some visitors. She was so tiny and cute!! It was great to see Janey and Mark - they are super naturals at parenting. Janey has the swing down pat - I still need some practice!!


After that, I met up with Amy so we could hang out on one of her last nights in SB. Everyone is moving!!! She came to get me, and we ended up at Edomasa for sushi. She had been there the night before, but it was my first time.

We found a spot at the sushi bar where we got to see the chef roll our sushi. I had a few tuna rolls and they were super tasty. I learned that this place is open late, so I'm sure that Brett and I will be back sometime soon. So good, and a great time hanging out with Amy!

Oh, Santa Barbara

I grabbed Brett on the way home from work and told him that it would be great if we were to catch the sunset by the beach. It was a beautiful day.....a few of us from work even ate outside on a grassy lawn to enjoy the sun.

We ran into Laura at her favorite beach. She was relaxing and watching one of her last Santa Barbara sunsets on a neat little wooden formation. I sat down next to her for a bit, and when I stood up, Brett pointed out to me that I just had sat in tar. Oh, boo!!

The three of us watched until the sun left us for the night, and then headed back on our ways. Laura was brought to tears thinking that this would be one of her last ones in SB....and if I think about it too much more myself, I'll be in the same way. It's just not going to be the same without her here.

It's a Day Date!

I've really been enjoying getting to know Juliann over the last few months. We've had some really great conversations over a few dinners, and I always leave feeling more joyful after spending time with her. When she texted me yesterday to see if I wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens after church, I thought it'd be good to have a picnic while we were there too! So, our day date was planned!

I met her after the 10 service this morning and we stopped to get our sandwiches at The Daily Grind. We found our way up Mission Canyon Road to the spot, and Dana gladly accepted our passes and gave us the quick lowdown on the park. We found a nice sunny spot, put out the festival blankets and enjoyed our lunch.

After we had enjoyed our lunch and the sun for a bit, we took off for the mile hike around the park. I loved that we stumbled across this hollowed out stump that was in the shape of a heart.

The flowers here were in full bloom, and we both claimed that this was a spot that both of our Moms would love!

Before we got to the Redwood part of the park, there were these interesting statue-ish figures of parts of tree trunks stacked together. People had written on them, and we agreed that whoever wrote to thank God for all the beauty had it spot on!

I was floored to find a stone that looked to have my birthday carved into it....11-7. How funny!

The Redwood part of the park was pretty cool! The trees weren't as big as they are up near Yosemite, but they were still pretty hefty!

We stumbled across a few turtles that had their necks turned towards the sun...of course (Lora!). A few ducks, and some rather large acorns too! It was a lovely, sunny, stroll around the Botanical Gardens! So glad to have done that in SB!

On the way back towards my house, I mentioned the stairs at Mesa Lane, and Juliann hadn't seen them before. So, we took a quick detour and went down and then slowly made it back up. The waves were crashing and the beach was filled with people out enjoying the lovely weather.

I had a super great day date with Juliann and then came back to the casa to relax in the living room with Laura and enjoy the sun shining through the open windows! A wonderful Sunday!