Strawberry Fields Forever

Wednesday we headed to the strawberry fields in Fallbrook for some strawberry pickin! I let Lucy do all the picking. She did pretty good, but I had to chuck a couple white ones out before we left haha. Such a perfect toddler activity. We went with my friend Annie and her two boys and my friend Erin and her cute baby. Lucy loved running through the rows and gathering up the strawberries. I ate all of them all by myself in less than 2 days! Here's our pictures and here is to hoping I can hop back on this blogging train!

A Day in the Sequoias

We made a last minute decision to visit Sequoia National Park over Labor Day weekend. The sequoias were beautiful and incredible, but man it was a doozy of a trip!! You just can never predict what a trip will be like with a toddler. The drive up is about 5 hours and Lucy just was not having it the day we drove up. It was pretty rough and I was honestly about to lose my mind by the time we got to the hotel. It ended up being a very very very hard day. I was emotionally taxed from all of Lucy's crying and when we made it to the hotel our dog sitter texted me to let me know Winston wasn't behaving well at her house and I needed to find him another place to stay. 

It was so strange because Winston is normally a very well behaved dog! She said he was marking her house and had bit her puppy. I believed her but it didn't sound like Winston at all! Trying to find a dog sitter from 5 hours away ASAP is incredibly stressful. I was honestly ready to just turn around and forget the whole trip! But we had driven up with Duke's brother and mom and I didn't want to ruin the whole trip over my emotional mess. After a few hours I found a very very kind lady who loved English Bulldogs and told me she'd watch him for free.

I'll write about how that story with Winston ends in another post since this one is supposed to be about the sequoias. We spent just one day driving through the park and drove a smidge into King's Canyon as well. I'm so grateful we have the national parks that preserve these gorgeous pieces of land! America is awesome. There is so much diversity in land in just our country. Our goal is to hit up all or at least as many of the national parks in California as we can while we are here. So Lucy had better start learning to enjoy the car a little more!

Lucy and her cousin Jack running full speed ahead

Lucy looking at the biggest tree in the world-General Sherman

General Sherman, pictures do not do it justice!

favorite picture of the trip^

Lucy looking out at the "big trees" and she spilt water on her shirt which is why it's off (typical)

cool, hallowed out tree on it's side you ^could walk through

Quick stop in King's Canyon National Park

I love visiting national parks! The earth is amazing. 

Malibu

We spent a day in LA visiting the California Science Museum and ended the day with a drive up to Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu just in time to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I may have ever seen in my life. I couldn't put my camera down because i honestly could not get over the beauty of it! Also I have to mention I'm blogging this while listening to the old OC mixes and it is making me so happy!! I suggest listening while reading this but I can't force you. When is Netflix gonna pick up the OC? I'm still waiting for that day. And now I give you a very trimmed down version of all the photos I took. California is full of beauty. 

 My favorite little explorer

 I love when I can capture a real smile from Duke. They are my favorite.

It's almost strange how happy looking at a photo of your husband and daughter together can make a person.

Until next time California.