San Luis Obispo and Big Sur

Wednesday, November 30

So in case you missed it, i've been recapping our little road trip up the California coast with our British friends. Having lived in California our whole lives, Kevin and I had so much fun showing Matt and Kate around our home state. We started in Southern California (Laguna and Newport) where Kevin's family is from, and then drove up highway 1 through Santa Barbara and into San Luis Obispo (SLO). 

Kevin's grandma lives in SLO and pretty much half of both our families went to college there, so we always love a good visit. SLO is a beautiful college town that was voted the happiest place in the whole of the USA. It's adorable and right on the coast. The first day there we met up with our friends Jarred and Lina and hiked Montana de Oro. The views were stunning! They graciously made us a delicious dinner that night, and we sat out on the porch for hours sipping wine (not me, i'm growing a baby!) and sitting by the home made fire pit that Jarred made! So fun! 

The next morning we drove to Pismo Beach, where Kevin's grandma lives. Since we are there a lot, Kevin's family tradition is to take a run on the beach and then eat at Old West Cinnamon Roll (a local legend). Kev and Matt took a jog, and Kate and Isaac and I walked (can't go too fast with a 1.5 year old, haha!). We then all got breakfast (Kev and Kate got cinnamon rolls, Matt got donuts, and I got a gluten and dairy free crepe, yum!) and we ate on a bench at the beach. It was so perfect! 

After we stuffed ourselves, we loaded into the car and drove up the iconic highway 1 towards Big Sur. We stopped off at the Elephant seal breeding grounds where hundreds of seals lined the beach, it was amazing! A local docent was able to fill us in on the elephant seal, they are crazy!! If you are headed up highway 1, it is worth a stop. It's a few miles past Hearst Castle in San Simeon! 

Leaving the elephant seals, we headed up to see the gorgeous waterfall on the beach (known as McWay Falls). Even though i've seen it numerous times, it never gets old and always takes my breath away! A few more hours north and we hit one of my favorite small towns in California, Carmel. We had coffee/tea/hot chocolate at Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting in the downtown, and then headed to our last destination…Santa Cruz (or more specifically, Capitola!). But that will be another blog post! 

I'm always amazed at how beautiful and wild the California coast is. As we were driving along the cliffs of the coast, I put on a random CD we found in Kevin's uncle's car….it was old hymns sung to the most epic Disneyland sounding music. We were cracking up at how perfect the music was for the scenery we were viewing! 

Hope you are having a great week:) xoxo 
ps- Thank you for your prayers for my poison oak. As you can kinda tell in a lot of these pictures, I was still struggling with the healing of the poison oak (my face, specifically my eyes, were super puffy from the inflammation), but I can now say it's almost totally gone. So grateful for that!! 
pss- Now you can really see my baby bump, ha! 






Hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 26


Hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving:) We had a lovely one filled with warm fires, amazing food, hilarious games, and good people. My parents had us for a big brunch today and we literally sat around all day by the fire talking and hanging out, it was perfect. Later in the evening, Kevin and I ran out to a few stores for black friday, and it was insane. I'm sticking with online shopping from now on, haha!!

Tomorrow we drive up to the mountains with friends to cut down our Christmas tree! We used to do this tradition as children, and i'm so excited for Kevin to cut down his very first tree:) It's supposed to be snowing all day, so it will be a bit of a winter wonderland…woo hoo!! I'm planning on making some peppermint hot chocolate to fill our thermos:) yum!

This picture has literally nothing to do with Thanksgiving (ha!), it was actually taken in Bora Bora this summer, and just found it on my hard drive and thought i'd share. I was about 2 months along with our baby, and all the old ladies on the cruise started asking me if I was pregnant. How they knew I have no idea (as I wasn't showing at all!), but they were so cute when they found out! A few of them offered to sew me blankets for the baby, ha! The dress i'm wearing is from here. 

I hope you all are doing well and had a beautiful Thanksgiving! Much love xoxo 

Southern California with our Friends

Wednesday, November 23

 The first stop on our road trip with the Brits was down to Southern California where Kevin's family lives. We stayed with his parents in Orange County, and we were all mesmerized by the sun…it was 85 degrees at the beach in November!! We spent the first day in Newport beach, and the second in Laguna Beach at The Montage. Being a Tuesday, there was hardly anyone on the beach which was wonderful.

We also ate at all our favorites:
Bear Flag fish Co
True Food Kitchen
Pressed Juicery  (my favorite healthy dessert place)
And of course, Kevin's family's restaurant which we ate at for almost every meal, haha! Kate said her sandwich there was the best she had ever had! woo hoo!!

Spending the day on Laguna beach was so relaxing. Matt and Kate swam in the ocean (I poked my toe in, haha!), we took walks, and we played a rousing bacce ball game (where Kev and I pulled out the win at the bitter end), and we just talked and ate and relaxed. Isaac was obsessed with the sand and water, its as hilarious! Beach days are so fun…no expectations, just sun and sand and good people:)




20 For $10