Let's face it... Phoenix SUCKS in the summer.
And the greatest summer holiday falls smack dab in the middle of the horrible summer months. This was my 5th summer in Mesa and the few 4th of Julys I've spent here were miserable and nowhere near fun. Some friends and I didn't want to spend this 3-Day weekend here, so we pulled together a quick road trip to California. My parents were out of town, but graciously let me and 6 friends take over their house for the weekend so we could have a much needed beach getaway.Thursday, we took off in two separate cars, just as soon as we could get off work and on the road. In my Jetta, we had our driver jeeves... err, I mean, Greg...
... a mission buddy Ryan and I in the very spacious and comfortable backseat
(if you've been in a Jetta before, you should be able to pick up on my sarcasm)
... and Kathy in the front.
But this is all I saw... the back of her head. And here's the fish braid I made!
(The other car left a few hours behind us and had Kim, Chris and Ashley in it.)
The most exciting part of our drive wasn't this, really....
My Jetta is amazing and Greg drives that fast anyway.
It was this:
... a mission buddy Ryan and I in the very spacious and comfortable backseat(if you've been in a Jetta before, you should be able to pick up on my sarcasm)
... and Kathy in the front.But this is all I saw... the back of her head. And here's the fish braid I made!
(The other car left a few hours behind us and had Kim, Chris and Ashley in it.)
My Jetta is amazing and Greg drives that fast anyway.It was this:
Do you recognize this? Its from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure. I had no idea this was on the road to California. And I felt like Richard on "Tommy Boy" when he realized he had just knocked Tommy Boy out right in front of a Pre-Historic Forest. "Hey! A pre-historic forest!"
On the 4th of July, we made our way to the Ventura Street Fair so that I could randomly run into people I haven't seen in years (Jodi & Kent and their new baby girl, my high school sweetheart Mikey, and Nicole Hardisty, who I haven't seen in about 8 years... Rasmussen girls, sorry I missed you all!). Oh, and so we could lose Kim. Has anyone seen Kim?
Oh, there she is... (with Kathy and Greg)
Don't worry, we consoled her (and the rest of us) with some good ol' comfort food from the fair!
Mmm, I'm picking corn out of my teeth...
Everyone was amazed at this huge tree in downtown Ventura... I'm not sure I ever noticed it before. I guess since I'm not a true Ventura native, it's excusable... I hope! At any rate, we had some fun playing on it.
No, Mom, we're not dating again, so don't get excited. But doesn't this picture kind of remind you of a different boy and a different tree in Ventura about 4 years ago??
In the afternoon, we spent some time on the beach near the Ventura pier.
Here's Kim and Chris:
It was kind of a crappy location and the sand was really rocky. I did get a battle wound from teaching Greg how to boogie board... I caught a wave that took me all the way into the shore that I had forgotten was full of rocks. So I scraped my right leg up in a few spots.
We then booked it home to have a BBQ before fireworks... after a detour at the new (or new to me) two-story Target at the mall to get an ice cream maker. The detour was well worth our while, not just for the yummy ice cream we had later, but also because I got a killer deal on some end tables (originally $70 each, I got them for $17 and they go perfect in my living room!)
AND we got to play with the cart escalator. You've never seen a bunch of twentysomethings so excited about using a shopping cart. Unfortunately, we left our cameras in the car.
But back to the BBQ. We stopped at Vons in Santa Paula to pick up food and for some reason, Greg was a little upset with me for parking his passenger door right next to these dead birds!
I don't know what he was complaining about. There was actually another one under my trunk. So, what do you call two dead birds in one parking spot?
STUPID.
How many twentysomethings does it take to go grocery shopping?
Seven, apparently. Although this picture only shows 4 of us.
Here's our BBQ master Chris, grillin' up the burgers and brauts:
and the group enjoying the foods in the woodsenisn (Brian Reagan reference...):
We decided to stay in Santa Paula for fireworks. I was a little nervous they'd suck because it is Santa Paula. But I was really impressed! And the best part was that we didn't have to stake out a spot hours in advance. We got there about 20 minutes before the show and were able to lay out our blankets in a nice comfortable spot.
Oh, there she is... (with Kathy and Greg)
Don't worry, we consoled her (and the rest of us) with some good ol' comfort food from the fair!
Mmm, I'm picking corn out of my teeth...
Everyone was amazed at this huge tree in downtown Ventura... I'm not sure I ever noticed it before. I guess since I'm not a true Ventura native, it's excusable... I hope! At any rate, we had some fun playing on it.
No, Mom, we're not dating again, so don't get excited. But doesn't this picture kind of remind you of a different boy and a different tree in Ventura about 4 years ago??In the afternoon, we spent some time on the beach near the Ventura pier.
Here's Kim and Chris:
It was kind of a crappy location and the sand was really rocky. I did get a battle wound from teaching Greg how to boogie board... I caught a wave that took me all the way into the shore that I had forgotten was full of rocks. So I scraped my right leg up in a few spots.We then booked it home to have a BBQ before fireworks... after a detour at the new (or new to me) two-story Target at the mall to get an ice cream maker. The detour was well worth our while, not just for the yummy ice cream we had later, but also because I got a killer deal on some end tables (originally $70 each, I got them for $17 and they go perfect in my living room!)
AND we got to play with the cart escalator. You've never seen a bunch of twentysomethings so excited about using a shopping cart. Unfortunately, we left our cameras in the car.But back to the BBQ. We stopped at Vons in Santa Paula to pick up food and for some reason, Greg was a little upset with me for parking his passenger door right next to these dead birds!
I don't know what he was complaining about. There was actually another one under my trunk. So, what do you call two dead birds in one parking spot?STUPID.
How many twentysomethings does it take to go grocery shopping?
Seven, apparently. Although this picture only shows 4 of us.
Here's our BBQ master Chris, grillin' up the burgers and brauts:
and the group enjoying the foods in the woodsenisn (Brian Reagan reference...):
We decided to stay in Santa Paula for fireworks. I was a little nervous they'd suck because it is Santa Paula. But I was really impressed! And the best part was that we didn't have to stake out a spot hours in advance. We got there about 20 minutes before the show and were able to lay out our blankets in a nice comfortable spot.Me and Kathy
Ashley and Chris, self photo...
Poster boy, Greg
Poster boy, Ryan???
Kim, on the phone... I'm hoping Kathy will blog that aspect of our trip. She knows Kim better.
And the oohs and aahs were a plenty...
(and yes, these are real firework pictures we took)
No, Mom, we did not light fireworks in the backyard...
I don't care what this picture makes it look like!
The next day we all just wanted to chill on the beach all day. I was rather disappointed with the quality of the Ventura beaches, so we headed up to Carpinteria where my sister's family likes to go. The beaches were a little more crowded, but MUCH better. Among our activities of the day were playing smash ball (here's Kathy and Chris in action),
swimming out to the floating dock,
making sandcastles,
torturing sand creatures (the big one's name is Fransico, apparently),
eating our picnic lunch,
and reading the Book of Mormon.
Alright, that was an unexpected side note. Back to the trip.... oh, and what would a trip to Santa Paula be without a stop at El Preferido-- the best tacos in town! I think the only complaint of the newbies is that they didn't order enough!
The next morning, we got up at 4:30am so we could get back to Mesa in time for one of our remaining 3 Sundays in the University 7th Ward. I thought for sure we had lost Kim, like she had gone the wrong way out of town, so I was quite shocked to see her pass us on the 10 around Ontario.
Ashley and Chris, self photo...
Poster boy, Greg
Poster boy, Ryan???
Kim, on the phone... I'm hoping Kathy will blog that aspect of our trip. She knows Kim better.
And the oohs and aahs were a plenty...(and yes, these are real firework pictures we took)
No, Mom, we did not light fireworks in the backyard...
I don't care what this picture makes it look like!
The next day we all just wanted to chill on the beach all day. I was rather disappointed with the quality of the Ventura beaches, so we headed up to Carpinteria where my sister's family likes to go. The beaches were a little more crowded, but MUCH better. Among our activities of the day were playing smash ball (here's Kathy and Chris in action),
swimming out to the floating dock,
making sandcastles,
torturing sand creatures (the big one's name is Fransico, apparently),
eating our picnic lunch,
and reading the Book of Mormon.
Reading the Book of Mormon was the highlight of my beach time. Five of the seven of us are in the same ward... a ward that is being dissolved at the end of the month for reasons that I don't want to get into right now. Long story short, we're being farmed out to our local family and singles wards (a family ward for me since my home stake doesn't have a singles ward) and our awesome Bishop wants us to go forth armed with the gospel, ready to serve. So, he issued a challenge to our ward to read the Book of Mormon during the last 30 days of our ward and focus on likening the scriptures to our personal lives. That's about 18 pages a day, which ends up being a lot of time, especially if you take the time to ponder and apply things. I've loved every bit of it and was even happier to see that my fellow ward members were also diligently taking on (and keeping the challenge) even on the beach. I'm sure we looked like some Bible camp kids to onlookers!
Alright, that was an unexpected side note. Back to the trip.... oh, and what would a trip to Santa Paula be without a stop at El Preferido-- the best tacos in town! I think the only complaint of the newbies is that they didn't order enough!
The next morning, we got up at 4:30am so we could get back to Mesa in time for one of our remaining 3 Sundays in the University 7th Ward. I thought for sure we had lost Kim, like she had gone the wrong way out of town, so I was quite shocked to see her pass us on the 10 around Ontario.I think they were proud to see us in their rearview!
Thanks to everyone for making this happen. It was tons of fun. And a special thanks to Mom and Dad for allowing us to take over the house. You rock, Bud and Lucy!!
Thanks to everyone for making this happen. It was tons of fun. And a special thanks to Mom and Dad for allowing us to take over the house. You rock, Bud and Lucy!!
3 comments:
Once again, great post. You do have a way with blogging.
i knew that the girl in the little black dress was you! i kept yelling your name, i even think some of those boys with you heard it as the looked my way! Sorry we missed you!
I loved all your pictures. It looks like you had such a good time. I think your end tables look great in your living room. I know you and Greg are't dating, but a Mom can hope. Yes, I remember a picture of long ago by a tree just like that. Mom
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