A little ode to camping on the beach, a farewell to friends, and an If You Give a Mouse a Cookie kind of day.

Since we moved to southern California we've created a bucket list of sorts, and as our time continues on and will come to an end next August (gasp!) we've decided it's high time to start checking some items off... Camping on the sandy shores of the beach was one of the top things on that list and we were lucky enough to share that experience with our favorite family of Anderson's we ever did meet, just before they packed up and moved all the way to Maryland.

The whole time we were there we all kept saying "Why did it take us so long to do this?" "We've lived here for three years... and this has just been here that whole time... what have we been doing with our lives?!"

Ohhhh, that's right. We've been wasting our lives away going to school and work and getting transplants and stuff.
Like a bunch of idiots.

We should have been camping at the beach!! (and this is coming from the couple who has been camping twice throughout their marriage of almost 6 yrs—well three times for me if you count Girl's Camp... and that was a week of roughin it in the mountains with like a million teenage girls, so yeah, we're going to go a head and count that.)

It was THAT amazing.

So was Jason's hair, which got crazier and crazier as the humidity set in—but don't you worry, he owned that fro.

There are so many awesome things about beach camping that I could go on and on all day (or for roughly 37 minutes, just ask my sister Audrey who got the prize of hearing allllllll of it because she happened to be the first one to call me while we were on the way home, you're welcome Hepburn) but that could get mighty boring and redundant... so I've made a list.

The top most awesome things about beach camping are as follows (and in no particular order):

5. being all "at one with nature" and stuff without all those sick bugs and creepy crawlers

4. waking up, opening the door to your tent, and putting your feet directly into the soft sand—no shoes needed... EVER! (can life get better?? I mean really...)

3. hanging out by the fire, telling stories, checking tide levels and times, roasting marshmallows and starbursts, doing the Carlton Dance in the moonlight with super cool party people, then laughing until your stomach hurts because theres just enough light to know you should be pretty embarrassed, but you're with your bffs and that's what makes you happy enough to be dancing like a fool in the first place.

2. campfire food is good food, with a side of ash

1. leaving the tent window open and falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves and the gentle sea breeze wafting through the tent

While we were packing up we were dragging our feet at the thought of just going right back home to Fullerton. One night just wasn't enough! The fun can't be over just like that, can it?! So we asked ourselves: If we drove all the way to Point Mugu... we probably better drive the rest of the short way up to Santa Barbara...

And if we drive all the way up to Santa Barbara... we might as well find Wheel Fun Rentals, rent a Double Surrey, ride up and down the beach boulevard, and take pictures of everything we see...

And if we ride around on the Double Surrey (that turns out to be a little bit broken and comically difficult to peddle) for a couple hours... then we're going to be pretty pumped to take our helmet off...

And after we finally get our helmet off... we might realize that the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley is right over the hills and it's probably breathtaking this time of year (because really it's breathtaking, no matter what time of year)...

And once we're getting our breath taken away as we drive through the Santa Ynez Valley... we'll come to find that the sweet and sleepy Danish town of Solvang is basically at our fingertips and if we neglect to continue our adventure on to the windmills and delicious bakeries we'd need a swift round–house kick to the face...

And if we do all this and see all that... then we'll have lots of memories to share with three of our best friends in the whole wide world and a few more checks for our bucket lists.

So I'd say you can give this mouse a cookie any old day.