A Birthday to Remember

Leading up to my birthday, the plan was to spend a day at the Santa Monica Pier...so I thought.  Instead, a couple days before my birthday I woke up to find this...

I found out that we were heading out of town the next morning for a night in Solvang!  

On the way to Solvang, he made a surprise stop in Santa Barbara so we could enjoy a butterfly exhibit.  The butterflies were so pretty!!!

We made it to Solvang in less than hour from Santa Barbara!

There are tons of wineries in Solvang and so we hit up our very first wine tasting at a winery called Buttonwood.  It was very casual and laid back, which was helpful for us since we're not wine connoisseurs at all!  We talked with one of the employees and found out he's from the Big Island, which was pretty cool to talk about familiar things back home.

We ate some Danish food for dinner...meatloaf, sausage, and meatballs with Danish names and side dishes.  It was surprisingly good!  You know me and trying new foods...but I enjoyed it.

The town closes down by 8pm, so we were left walking the town with no one around and enjoying the cute  buildings!

This was our accommodations for the night, Wine Valley Inn.

We had breakfast at a famous restaurant, Paula's Pancake House.  The apple pancakes were to die for!

We enjoyed more of the town and shops...

I've been to Solvang once before with my family when I was probably 4 years old and don't remember anything about it, except this cuckoo clock shop.  I only remember the outside of it, not being allowed to go up to the top of the stairs (on the left not pictured), and waiting outside of the shop for an eternity for my mom to finish shopping.  Crazy what memories it brought back by just seeing that shop!

We then hit up an apple orchard....

a miniature horse ranch...

and another wine tasting with a vineyard tour at Gainey Vineyard!

This kind of weekend getaway was probably one of the things I had hoped and dreamed we would do to take advantage of living here, a place where you can drive to different vacation spots instead of having to pay  an airfare for.  Realistically though, it's not something we have the luxury of doing often (and hadn't since we moved here) so I was COMPLETELY surprised and grateful.  We have A LOT going on that a surprise getaway like this didn't even cross my mind.  So, I was trying my best to take it all in and savor the moments because I don't know when the next time's going to be.  It's probably the reason we tried to do as much as we could, but at the same time since everything was relatively close to each other, it was very relaxing.  It was one of those birthdays I'll never forget.

A Two Year Old's Birthday

My cousin's son turned 2 and was probably one of the best kid's birthday party we've been to.  He's learning to talk more and says the funniest one word liners!  He was genuinely excited opening and receiving each gift.  He also loves his chocolate cake, but who doesn't right?!

A Night to Remember

Went to my second Dodger's game on Friday with Rae and her co-workers. We arrived at the stadium a little late and missed the first inning where five runs were scored. The reason we were late was because there was a big accident on the I-5. So in my head I was thinking how this was such a bad way to start off the night - we'll spend more time on the road than at the game.

In the top of the sixth inning, the night got really exciting. A Marlins player (can't remember who) hit a foul ball back into the upper deck behind home plate and it was flying right towards us - towards Rae actually. So I just reached out my left hand to try and catch the ball but it hit my hand and deflected off Rae's co-workers knee and came to rest under Rae's seat. I picked up the ball and gave it to Rae who then gave it to her co-worker who would appreciate the ball a lot more than we would. Immediately afterwards, someone asked "Did you see something metal go flying - like a ring or something?" I quickly looked down at my hand and noticed my ring was gone. I panicked for a second and then everyone started looking on the ground for it. After what seemed like an eternity, somebody next to us pointed at a pile of peanut shells. There was my ring - mixed in with the peanut shells. Whew...huge sigh of relief.

I guess the backspin from the baseball must have caused my ring to fly off because the ball hit me right on my  ring finger. We couldn't stop talking about that for the next couple of innings. What a game. What a story. I'm just glad that the Dodgers won and I left with my ring.

My First Sewing Project

I always wanted to learn how to sew and saw an opportunity to get started.  I signed up for a first-timer sewing class at a local community center.  It was once a week for 8 weeks.  The task was to make this bag.  I wish I could say I finished the bag by the last class, but I didn't.  The teacher kept reminding me that things don't need to be perfect and I guess I was wasting my time trying to make it such.  Working with material is so different than working with scrapbook paper!  Sewing is not as easy for me as I hoped...but the teacher repeatedly advised that we keep at it and promised it'll get easier.  We'll see if there will be a second sewing project...

Ventura County Fair

We've heard so much about county fairs, that we couldn't wait to finally go to one!  IT WAS SO FUN! I guess it ended up being more fun than we anticipated because we didn't give ourselves the whole day and afterwards really wished we spent a whole day there!

It was so huge...so many exhibits, food, rides, animals, more animals, etc.  We had missed the sheep riding and the pig races, such a bummer!  We spent a lot of time looking at the animals and I loved every minute of it!  We did catch a rodeo, which was my first time.  Even though I was afraid for the animals (and the cowboys) half the time, I would go to another one.  One of the cowboys is also into motor crossing so there was a little motor cross show afterwards.  The tricks they do are out of this world!  It's a wonder no one got hurt.  I was screaming and clenching my fists as if I was the one doing those tricks! I can't wait to go to another one!

Molly & Sandy

We dogsat these two girls for a week!  They gobbled up all the attention and did test us a few times by doing things they knew they weren't allowed to...like jump on the couch and run through the garden.

One thing I was really looking forward to was taking them for a walk and had high hopes and dreams to do it every day.  On the weekend, one morning Justin & I thought we'd give it a try.  As soon as I went to get their leashes they were so overjoyed they were making so much noise and couldn't stay still.  Once I got the leashes on and opened the door, I couldn't even wait for Justin to close the door.  THEY took ME for a walk.  Justin had to take over and it was obvious these girls don't get out much.  They kept pulling him and were choking...we felt so bad so we turned around after only getting to the neighbor's house!  Good thing it was early in the morning and not many people out or driving by because it must have been a sight to see.  The funniest part was that when we got inside, they were sitting still in front of me expecting a treat like they were good!!!

Other than that they were well behaved and really fun!  Not going to lie...we realized dogs are a lot of work and know it's not what we need for now with our long days.

Fiesta!

Every Summer Santa Barbara has a Fiesta Festival that has been going on for 75 years!  The festival goes on for several days and the entire town embraces it.  Stores and restaurants are decorated.  Everyone talks about it and wishes each other "Viva la fiesta!"  meaning "long live the party".  While my coworkers and I went to Costco to get food for our picnic, they ran into people they knew and they said "viva la fiesta" like it was a normal greeting.

My boss came up and joined us.  We went after work and watched the dancing at the county courthouse.  It was so nice!  Another fun tradition is that you buy these empty eggshells filled with confetti from these vendors and you crush it on someone's head so confetti gets littered in your hair and everywhere.  Let's just say we were all into it and found confetti all weekend when we went home.  

Santa Paula Balloon Festival

We went with friends to this annual festival and I'll let the pictures speak for itself.  It was so cool!