Keep Santa Cruz Weird

Ready...set....let's go tour Santa Cruz!!!

After a great party we came back to Taylor and Ian's for an old school slumber party! It was so much fun to have us all watch movies in our sleeping bags until we started to fall asleep. It reminded me of back in elementary school. We didn't waste the day though, we got right to our sight seeing!

Here is the Bell Tower at the end of the block. Santa Cruz is an adorable little town that has a "downtown" that consists of about 3 blocks that's filled with local restaurants and boutiques. I love the charm in this city!

Anna posing real quick before heading back up the other side of the street. She didn't want to miss out on anything! It was hilarious until our all day shopping began to wear Bobby thin. He was a good sport though

The girls on the pier with a bit of the boardwalk in the background. We tried to do the hand on your waist pose but Anna missed that memo because she didn't want to block me out of the picture. She is always looking out!

Beneath the pier are seals and lots of them! I was obsessed! You can't tell from the photos but they're MASSIVE!

Anna asked me how I think they get up onto those planks because they're a good 6ft above the water. I said I didn't know, but probably during high tide. Right then a seal jumped out of the water onto the plank...question solved

They were finally able to pull me away from the seals and over to the boardwalk. I felt like I was in a movie. Their boardwalk is 10x better than Balboa! I'm going back to visit on a Tuesday when the rides cost 50cents!

The store was our continual stopping/meeting ground. Every time we'd come back, I'd find something else to try on. Here's Taylor and Ian and their beautiful store! Congrats again Tay Tay!

Check out her store at: shimmybang.blogspot.com

also on facebook

P.S. The title of this post came from a bumper sticker I ran across. I really do like Santa Cruz!

Shimmy Bang

My little Tay Tay is all grown up! I'm so proud of Taylor for opening her very own store!

She has just recently opened her own boutique in Santa Cruz and named it Shimmy Bang.

Last weekend was the opening party for family and friends so Anna, Bobby and I headed up because we wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Here I am checking out all the cool clothes and accessories! It's funny because a couple weeks ago Taylor was down in LA buying merchandise for her store and let Anna, Eliza and I tag along. I didn't think anything was cute enough to buy then but I wanted 10 things from her store! Great marketing skills Tay ;)

Taylor's boyfriend, Ian designs these sunglasses. They're pretty sweet but a little difficult to see out of

Here is the inside of her store.

Taylor and Anna in front of Shimmy Bang after a very successful opening. (It's much colder in Santa Cruz than down in OC but, no it's not snowing)

She has the cutest store around! It's the only one that has charm and character that matches her clothing. Next time you're in Santa Cruz, go and check it out!

We're so proud of you Tay Tay!!!

Eliza's last day

After 6 Flags, Eliza and I met up with my guy friends from high school to wish Stone good luck at Law School! I feel like all my friends from high school are going places with their lives. I just need to find the motivation to join that bandwagon!

Anyway after a fun day and night, Bobby and Hiro were kind enough to let us crash at their place. This saved us driving time and years on my life because I hate the drive to LA with a passion :) We woke up and headed over to Santa Monica. We found a super cute cafe to eat breakfast at and then enjoyed some shopping! Then we checked out the pier and more roller coasters!

Every time we'd take a touristy picture, I'd always make Eliza ask because it didn't feel so weird with her accent. One lady said we looked like sisters...she was from Vegas and I just think the matching outfits threw her off!

After Santa Monica we headed over to the LA Temple for baptisms. The San Diego Temple is gorgeous but I just have a special place in my heart for this one. I think it's because this is the first temple I was able to go inside.

The temple grounds are beautiful! It felt like a perfect day! (just try not to look off the temple grounds and see the billboards for Hos and Pimps TV show)

After the temple we saw The Time Traveler's Wife and then headed over to Hiro's restaurant where we'd end an amazing holiday together with a fabulous meal! If you ever come to LA please let me know and I'll get you hooked up at Hiro's amazing sushi restaurant!

The entire day ran so smoothly. Everywhere we went we found easy FREE parking. We couldn't have asked for the day to run any smoother!

I'll miss you Eliza but hopefully be over there sooner rather than later!

More Flags, the Better

While Eliza was in town she really wanted to go to Six Flags and experience some roller coasters, and boy did we! I haven't been since high school so I didn't remember anything about the rides let alone when they took your pictures. My photo for X2 epitomized fear! It was pretty hilarious :)

It was blazing hot that day because 6 Flags is located in the desert of no where so we took a break to rehydrate ourselves and caught a bit of their parade. Clearly no Mickey Mouse but it was interesting to watch :)

It was a fun day but definitely could never spend 13+ hours at 6 Flags

Cinderella's Castle

After a long day at Disneyland we packed some breakfast and decided to have a picnic down at the San Diego temple because the baptismal font wasn't working. Rachelle was interviewing for jobs down south so met up with us. It was a nerdy thing to do but it was a ton of fun. 

Here is the view from the freeway... breathtaking right

This is one of my favorite temples. It's location is perfectly placed so everyone can see it driving down one of the busiest freeways in Southern California. It's what sparks the conversation for a lot of investigators, "Oh so you go to that temple in San Diego that looks like Cinderella's Castle?"

I love this picture of Eliza! Now we just need to insert a return missionary next to her!

Here's the 3 of us after breakfast. It was a cool experience bringing Rachelle along with us. She said she has always wanted to go but never had a reason...one of these days we'll get her dunked ;)

We decided to keep Rachelle with us as our San Diego tour guide. We drove through Pacific Beach and then stopped at Mission Beach. It's seems like a fun beach city. Very different from Newport or Laguna but somewhere I wouldn't mind living.

We couldn't leave without feeling the water. I'm such a wimp for cold water though! Pinedale has scared me; unless I've got a wakeboard strapped to my feet there is no way I'm getting in

First timer's at the beach ;)

(love it cuz we've all lived next to the beach for years!)

Such a difference from the beginning of Eliza's trip with all boys

Happiest Place on Earth!

Having Eliza visit has been a continuation of my vacation! It's been a blast especially because we both share a love for Disneyland! I gave her the choice of not going but we couldn't resist!

Tea cups!!!! 

haha we didn't ride them but they do make for a classic picture :)

We did however ride Indiana Jones. They said the wait was 40 min so we got in line....2 hours later we weren't so sure we should have waited....2 hours and 3 minutes later we had smiles on our faces again! It's one of my favorites!!!

A trip to Disneyland just isn't the same these days without making an appearance over to California Adventures. How can you come all this way without going on Soarin' Over California? I mean it actually smells like the ocean and orange fields!

We also watched parades

...and we liked it :)

Space Mountain is another favorite but look at Eliza's face, that is purely priceless

We ended up staying for over 13 hours loving every second, well minus about 1hr and 45min of waiting for Indiana Jones but everything else was top notch!

Mormon Night

Eliza and I flew back from Zion just in time for Mormon Night at the Angel's game!

I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to show Eliza one of America's favorite past times. We got hot dogs and peanuts for dinner. I tried my hardest to explain the game to her but all either of us cared about after awhile was the firework show after the game :) We did have a blast singing along with the 7th Inning stretch and all the different cheers throughout the game. After awhile I started hearing Eliza yell "charge" (insert her Aussie accent in there, it makes it much better!) along with the rest of the crowd.

When we were at lunch in Salt Lake, I told the girls about our baseball plans and Kristi got a kick out of Mormon night so I promised her I would take a picture when they posted all the different stakes that were in attendance. Here is your picture Kris, sorry it didn't really turn out but that's what happens when you sit in the nose bleeds :)

For Kristi :)

I love coming to Salt Lake for so many reasons but one reason that's rather high on the list is going to lunch with the girls! It was very last minute/I didn't have good cell reception to help plan and organize this lunch so we didn't have the best turnout but we still had a blast!

I love the mountains in the background of this shot...they're everywhere :)

It was so much fun catching up with Linds and Kristi! I promise, I'll try my hardest to come back if you have a bbq. And thanks to Eliza for taking the photo! Miss you girls!!!

Mountain Woman

Every summer I make at least 1 trip up to my cabin in Pinedale, Wyoming and fall in love with it all over again. This year we had a couple visitors so we made the time to show them the view from up-top. I forget how beautiful this remote place is! It's such a difference from Southern California :)

I met Eliza when I was traveling in OZ and this is her 2nd time over since. I wanted to share one of my favorite places with her. The cabin is right at the mouth of the wind rivers and we don't have a TV, any internet access, hardly any cell service and it's a 20 min drive on dirt road into the "city"...she more than embraced this trip!

Before Eliza came up we had some family friends. Here I am sharing the view with Boyd, who is actually Brynn's uncle :)

When we were up there with the Paxtons the chipmunks were loving the attention. They are some pretty bold fellas; they would come up to my toes to make see if they were food or not. Note to self: do not wear bright colored toenail polish! We fed them our last couple peanut M&M's in hopes of distracting them

A trip up to the cabin wouldn't be the same without boating, and I sure did get a lot of this in! My body is so sore from wakeboarding and skiing at least twice a day! 

This trip I really began to drive the boat more. I launched the boat and pulled it into our dock slip (I definitely had beginner's luck cuz I nailed it on my first try!) Here I am pulling my dad up on his 1-ski. He gets up fairly easily depending on the driver ;)

He is 63 and still tearing it up! I hope I'm still going strong when I'm his age!!!

And of course I couldn't let him show me up so I got out there for a little bit on the 1-ski also

I'd never not wakeboard though! I did really well this trip and cleared the wake a bunch, but then the last 2 days I sucked it up and just kept stacking it! I felt like I had gotten into a gnarly car accident.

Eliza has never really been on a boat and hasn't even tried wakeboarding but she was a great sport and gave it a shot!

Look at her all smiles even though the water was only 55

Due to some good coaching she not only mastered the art of getting up but started to go outside of the wake!!!! ....we're still working on the getting back inside part though

Dan and his girlfriend Tiffany came up with their dogs. Here are Cody and Duke fighting for the ball. The dogs LOVED the outdoors! Duke loves swimming in the water but Cody hates it so it was funny to watch Duke do all the hard work of actually fetching the toy and then Cody would steal it once he got up to shore. Such teamwork those 2 demonstrated 

Here are my parents with Dan and Tiffany about to head out for some more boating. Notice that in all the pictures you never see another boat in the background. It's our own little secret lake!

My mom has a bunch of other pictures on her camera, like the ones of Eliza and I borrowing the cute neighbor boy's ATV's. Yeah I discovered a cute guy next door. It was the perfect cherry on top of an already amazing break from reality :)