That one time we moved to Washington

Moving. We're amazing at it. Expert moving tip from expert movers: don't do it.
My friend, Naraah, and I tried counting the times Jas and I have moved in the last nine years of marriage... After some time and calculation and deliberation, the answer we came up with was "a lot".

Pulling into Battle Ground, just ahead of Jason in the Penske, a part of my heart felt like it got the hiccups and my mouth spread into a grin.
Home.
I found it! We found it! It found us.
My soul has felt like it's been searching for home ever since we left Southern California to begin our year of rotations before graduation. And from the minute of pulling into town... here it is. Surrounded by mountains and farms and houses and grass and hills and rivers and cows and rain and lakes and barnes and trees.
My lungs pulled in a deep breath of fresh, Douglas Fir air, then exhaled in exhausted relief. We found it.

Home for however long we get to be home here... home all the same.

Because I'd like to remember July 4th, 2014

I know it's October... but I didn't want to forget that 4th of July we went to the Rose Bowl stadium, watched some wicked motocross, tried my first funnel cake, and sang in the fireworks to Hey Jude by a rather smashing Beatles cover band.

The irony of hearing a cover band for a British sensation on a completely American holiday was not lost on me. And it was fantastic.

 Afterward we all met up at Sonic for hotdogs and slushies.

Two thumbs up for America.

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.

Adventures in climbing around rocks and trains and sand

Lately I've been hearing little voices. They've been insisting on going outside, finding trails, nearby lakes, parks, beaches, anything. They've also insisted upon Chipotle salads with guacamole and chips on the side. They say Don't worry about your hair, leave it fluffy, just hurry up and get going somewhere—maybe anywhere. So, like any slightly disturbed guacamole junky, I've been doing as I'm told and I've been dragging Jason along with me whenever his school/clinic schedule allows.

Last Friday was hot (ok everyday's been hot) so we decided splashing in the cool ocean water might be refreshing and a little hike around the beach trail of San Clemente at sunset might be the best cheap date we've been on in a while.

And we weren't disappointed on either account.

Famished, we set out looking for a burger and Biggie's Burgers hit the spot... but once we were less hungry and more able to make rational decisions on matters of taste we found ourselves bummed we didn't hit up Pedro's Tacos instead. Moral to story: in a street-fight between burgers and tacos, tacos always win. 

Sorry Biggies. You're totally cute though.

Daytrippin to Charleston, SC

So every three months we fly across the country to North Carolina for a *follow up appointment at Duke. Jas scheduled this last appointment during his week break between quarters at school... so instead of a quick, there and back trip, we put about a thousand miles on that rental car and made a week of it! Aside for the creeeeepy hotel I booked us in Wilmington (site unseen), it was incredible.

The goal for the week was Charleston, Boone Hall Plantation, a SC or NC beach, see friends and eat our favorite Durham treats.

Check. Check. Check–Check.

Charleston, South Carolina – Oh my goodness. This coastal southern town has this crazy blend of super old restored-historical awesomeness / huge breathtaking oaks / palm trees (what?!) / southern coastal beachiness. If we ever go back again we'll hook up with a carriage tour and a ghost tour...  (dudes! we're not the crazy ghost–chasing type of people talking about energy and such, I PROMISE, but we did a ghost tour while we were in Savanna in January and it was our favorite thing of the trip!... I don't know... just gotta do it.)

pssst! If you go to Charleston, do yourself a favor and go to Poogan's Porch (a restaurant in a charming yellow house built in the 1800s) and order the Buttermilk Fried Chicken (mind blown)—and if you happen to see the ghost of Zoe St Amand don't be frightened, she mostly just likes to wave, check out the bathroom mirror, and sing songs... nbd.

The Boone Hall Plantation – there's a reason this is the most photographed plantation in the US. It has something to do with Major Boone deciding that the way to tell people he was wealthy would be to plant oak trees on either side of the avenue all the way up to the house. A few hundred years later and those oaks, with Spanish Moss hanging down, are seriously magical. 

We spent several hours here, touring the plantation, the slaves quarters, the house itself, and sneaking a looksie at the Dock House (where Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had their top secret wedding) which was being set up for a wedding that day. Un. Real.

This plantation has also had quite the film career, including The Notebook where it was the summer home of Allie and her parents. In fact, our tour guide pointed out where Ryan Gosling took off his shirt and jumped out of the canoe and into the tidal creek. Mmmhm...

Bravo Major Boone! Well played.

Isle of Palms – So there's a big difference between the beach we're used to in Southern Cali and the beaches in the Carolinas... The sand is finer and softer, there are trails of beach grass and boardwalks from beach houses (very Nicholas Sparksy), people have southern accents, there is a relaxed/casual country/southern feel (could have something to do with said accents), and the water is warmer... and saltier. 

So dreamy.

But maybe not quite as dreamy as Jason ♥

*The appointment went really well—like so so so much better than we anticipated. And after getting the results back we learned that Jas doesn't have any rejection! Such a miracle after the crazy sickness he just went through. They did however find some organizing pneumonia, so they placed a PICC line the day before we left and he's back on continuous IV antibiotics. Hopefully a combination of high power antibiotics can do their thing and J can get back to normal real soon.