California Here I Come...and Gone

  This last week I decided to go back to my home in Fair Oaks, CA.  I left the day after the Fourth of July and spent my dad's birthday as well as mine with my family.  Luckily for me, I also had my aunt and cousin from Pennsylvania there to hang out with me.  The week definitely flew by quickly, and there was so much that we did!  I probably should have stayed the whole month.  My mom would have loved that.  Day 1 we decided to get a little retail therapy in and spent pretty much the whole day shopping and eating good food.  This girl finally got a pair of pants that have been on the wish list for sooooooo long.  I just could never find a pair that had the right fit, color, and texture all the while being comfy and swingy, but still dressy and cool.  I'll see if I can snap a picture of them later to show you what I mean.  Anyway, we ended Day 1 with my mom's car breaking down!  Did I mention that it happened to be 112 degrees out that day?  Uhhh ya, beautiful.  We got a little help from the security guards and immediately went and bought a new battery.  All of this was done in time to get my sister to her golf lessons.

(Sister and cousin posing in the heat.)

(Checking out the car.)

  We spent the next couple of days relaxing poolside and enjoying the sun.  One afternoon I took my sister, her friend, and my cousin for a bike ride to Sunflower which is an amazing vegetarian cafe.  Their nutburgers are seriously one of my favorite things to eat.  Soooo good.  Well, this bike trip slowly turned into disaster and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I'd finally be reunited with my burger.  We started off our trip with having difficulty riding bikes that didn't fit all of us.  Being uncomfortable, check.  Again, it was probably 90 to 100-something degrees out that afternoon and we really should have drank more water.  Heat exhaustion and dehydration?  Check.  One thing to know about my neighborhood is that it's actually super hilly.  Treacherous obstacles (drama queen?), CHECK!!!  As you can see, all of this only called for disaster.  When we finally got to Sunflower, all we could do was pass out on the benches before we even decided to order.  Maybe we're wimps, but I think you would have felt the same!  That wasn't even the worst part.  Our ride back was going pretty smoothly until we hit the second to last hill before we got home.  We were going downhill and for some reason I decided it'd be cute to wear a straw hat that day.  Naturally, all the speed and wind did not fair well with trying to keep a flimsy hat on my head.  Next thing I know, I almost lose my hat (which was really my sister's, so I was extra cautious about not damaging it), which caused me to forget to steer and keep my hands on the handlebars.  Going downhill at such a speed then allowed me to lose complete control of what I was doing.  So, I fell off my bike.  Oh wait, actually, I FLEW off my bike.  Cars next to us dodged out of the way because they thought I would fly straight through their window.  Surprisingly, I only ended up with a little gash on my toe (because I was wearing sandals) and two bruises on my leg that I still have today.  Did I ever tell you that my dad is Mr. Safety and always tells us to wear helmets and buckle up?  I'm so stupid.  Thank goodness I didn't get more hurt.  I really didn't think that an afternoon bike ride in a quiet neighborhood would be so disastrous.

  During my trip, we did some less extreme activities such as making s'mores inside (because we have a s'more maker.  Thanks, Granny!) and playing Mexican Train, which is really just a super fun way to play dominoes.  We sort of created our own rules in that whenever you're starting to lose, or have to put your train up on the track, you have to wear a crown.  All of us wore the crown at some point.

(The 16-year olds making s'mores.)

(Dad thinks Smeagol is fluffier than any marshmallow.)

(I asked Dad to take a picture of me with Danielle and this is what I get.)

(Mexican Train when it's still a tame game.)

(Auntie Ellie wearing a crown.)

(Nan-sizzle wearing a crown.  Naturally, it's red because she's Ms. Rojas.)

(Dad wearing an orange crown because he likes to look like a safety cone.)

(Mama wearing a crown.)

(Rosey wearing the crown.)

  On Friday night, my parents like to go to their friend's house to play card games.  It was then my duty to watch over the girls and keep them entertained.  And what would three 16-year olds want to do on a Friday night?  Go get ice cream and do manicures at home.  I ended up taking them to Leatherby's which is a family owned ice creamery.  Cool fact: Laura Leatherby (one of the many daughters in the family) was my fourth grade teacher.  After these silly girls were all hopped up on sugar, I took them to the store to get new nail polish.  Let's just say that we got a lot of sparkly ones. :)

(The sundaes are so big!  We only got two to share amongst the four of us and still didn't finish them.)

(Ro and Kelly)

(Danielle and me making a sundae toast.)