So it's been two weeks, so what? I like to take time to recover from my awesome trips and soak in all the good times I had. Also, if I feel required to blog about it, which I do because I had such a good time
and remembered to take some pictures, I will procrastinate for the simple fact that I am a procrastinator. All that being said, this post will be about my trip to SoCal with Dom at the end of July.
To start off, we drove down........yuuuupppp, we packed ourselves up in the car with a buttload of snacks (almost all of which were sweet because I made the mistake of taking Dom with me to the store), pillows, beach towels, and an audio book. It was cheaper this way, although after bringing along Nibisco, Little Debbie and the Wal-Mart brand, this might no longer have been true. Our first stop was the Woods' place for dinner. We got to hang out with Sam too. The Woods were watching this adorable little mutt puppy that happened to have ears like Scram and the body of a wiener dog. Her name was Mika..........I'm pretty sure, I just kept calling her cutie. Behold the adorableness:
Dom wouldn't allow me to kidnap her, which I think her parents appreciated. Dinner was great and super fun, as time with the Woods always is. I hope we can see them again soon, it's always such a treat. Next we hit up our final destination, The Mahlers. We would be staying at Andrew and Allison's the whole week...........jealous? You will be after this post. They greeted us with a blow-up mattress, a cute apartment, and A Ticket To Ride, which Dom and I had never played before. It was pretty fun but made even more fun by the fact that we were playing with good friends.
The next day we collected Tony and hit up the beach, unfortunately Andrew couldn't join us since he had to work but Dom, Tony, Allison and I had a pretty good day in the sun. Reading books, eating junk, soaking up the rays, dipping our toes in the water and digging our feet into the sand, what could be better? If that stupid wave wouldn't have come and washed away Dom's wedding ring it would have been perfect. He was quite bummed but we have pictures of it, it was special when I got to place it on his finger when I committed myself to him but now it will be buried in one of God's most beautiful creations forever. Also, since he does own a jewelry store, we get to make him a new one that will hold special memories of its own. :)
Dom and I enjoying a beautiful day in the sun.
That night we all had dinner together, provided by Allison and her wicked culinary skills (Yum) and then went to Dave & Buster's for some half off fun (Wednesday's are half off everything). Love that place, especially with a group of people who appreciate how awesome a grown-up arcade is. :)
The next few days were quite a blur of fun, and since I didn't take any pictures I will just give you a run down.
Thursday: hit up the Rainbow Factory and bought myself some new flip-flops. LOVE the ones I got! Yep, that's plural because I had to get a fun pair as well as a traditional pair. ;) Next time I am definitely getting Dom some. I figured out I was definitely getting him some as we got on the on-ramp to leave. I believe indecisive is my true middle name. The rest of the day was a girls day. The boys were gone for the night at the bachelor party, did I mention we were down for one of Dom's old roommate's weddings? Well, since the boys were doing their thing us girls decided to do our own. It was me Allison and Allison..........I think it might have been entertaining for them every time I paused after saying Allison to try and specify it by adding a last name and then tripping over it as I then had to correct it mid-pronunciation to their new last name. I need to come up with a better system, I gave up after an attempt or two and just stared them down before I decided to talk to one of them. It worked quite well.
Us girls did the night up right, talked about boys, clothes, home decor, cooking, baking, marriage, family, frustrations and praises, we watched A Walk To Remember and cried, ate chocolate, and then talked some more. I think if a boy walked in the room he would have suffocated from all the estrogen floating about. The night was epic and one of the best girl nights I've ever had! I feel so blessed to have met these girls and to able to get to know them even better is such a privilege. :)
Friday: Went shopping in the morning and Allison.......Will-......Mahler! You see? I need to come up with something better. She got new boots, gorgeous, brown, on-sale boots. I refrained from spending anymore money as I was currently rocking one of my new pairs of Rainbows. Then, we hit up Del Taco since we both like it and never get to have it. I know there is one down the street from me but since Dom doesn't like it I only have it on the rarest of occasions.
Then, we went home and watched Pride & Prejudice (the new one) while we waited for the boys to come home from the bachelor party. Once they got home they took a short break to rest and then reconvened to play Frisbee golf while us girls got stuff for dinner. We had another big group dinner with the Mahlers, Parisis, Patrick and Tony and his girlfriend Kaitlin. She is great! So laid back and cool, basically the female version of Tony, which makes them one of my new favorite couples. We all went and played games at the Mahler's church after dinner until we were too tired to carry on.
Saturday: This was rehearsal for the wedding so most of the couples from our group were off to that for the day while Dom, Patrick and I stayed back and had an adventure or two of our own. Adventure #1, Quiznos...........right? Oh come on, who doesn't think eating at a place that will probably be extinct in 5 years is exciting? JK. Adventure #2, The Arboretum. Plants, dirt paths, beating sun, racial exhibit, turtles, dead rabbit, and a wedding. Quite the adventure. I thought this was pretty though:
Dom climbed up in the tree in the background of the wedding videographer.
Annnnd Adventure #3, Yogurtland. Dom LOVES Yogurtland and since we don't have one it's a huge treat for him when he goes. We haven't had it in about two years and he finally got to have a bowl. Nothing could disturb him right? Wrong. You know those huge green, black beetle things that fly? Well, one came after Dom.......no really, it had a vendetta out on him and when it was unsuccessful at clobbering his face it decided that it would ruin his long awaited treat. It pulled a kamikaze right into his bowl of delicious yogurt. No lie, see for yourself:
Dom took it like a trooper, but I think when you are involved in such a bizarre event you have no choice but to laugh at it. Later that night, when all the couples got back, we played Pitt, which is a loud, crazy game. Then we hit up Dave & Buster's again (Yes!!!!). Once everyone had their fill of ticket winning, we went to Johnny Rockets for some grub and then headed home.
Sunday was the wedding. We went to the Mahler's church in the morning and then the girls and guys split up and got ready. The wedding was in Chino Hills and at a beautiful location. Here are a few shots from the day:
The wives and the most-likely-will-be-a-wife girlfriend (too much?). From left to right: Kaitlin, Allison Mahler, Allison, Me and Melissa.
The Guys, from left to right: Tony, Patrick, Joey, Andrew, John and Dom.
The girls impersonating the guys (standing in correspondence to their other half).
They did sparklers for the send off. Dom got a little carried away. :)
The next day, our last day, was spent packing up and eating lunch one last time with the Mahlers. Well, Andrew was waiting on the rest of us while we ate lunch since he happened to be working at the restaurant we chose to eat at. It was a great send off, then we hit the road for a long 8 hour drive home. What a great trip right? Such great people and such wonderful relationships formed and enriched.
P.S. After such a long trip I got to come home to a package waiting for me from my swap buddy. It's sort of like a pen pal with another knitter. We send each other packages with knitting stuff and I got my first one when I got back. :) And I thought the trip couldn't get any better. Here is what she sent:
I think Dom likes that I play with him now rather than tagging along yelling about how I have no idea which one is his mid-range or how I can't finish my text in time before the next hole. :)
It was a lot of fun laughing about how I hit it into the water twice or how my ball stopped on a hill half way to the hole (below). It was a great time with the little sister.
Later, Angelo and Jenn came over and we finished up an episode of SYTYCD, where we promptly tried to learn one of the beat-boy moves. We all failed until Dom showed up and got it on his first try. :) Then Havi drove us to In-N-Out, she just got her permit and it was quite fun being packed into a car on the freeway, on her 5th time driving ever. We finished up the weekend by watching Lake Placid. Not a bad way to spend a three day weekend.
