#bestdecisionweevermade, pt. 1

It is hard to write about happy things and I don't know why. It has taken me entirely too long.

On the 2nd of May, Brittany and I tricked some boys into driving us to the SLC airport (donuts were the trick).

Juan was at the gate next to ours. He was headed back to Colombia. 

He hugged us and cried a little when he left. And asked us to take care of his boys (in our ward). He's great.

I then declared that morning, the airplane, the trip itself, everything, the best decision we ever made. And it stuck. I really couldn't get over it the whole weekend. For some reason (and the reason was not Disney Land), the whole weekend was ridiculously magical. Ridiculous.

Anyway. We got on the plane. I sat next to a young man who hates flying. Like a lot.

A short hour and a half later we landed in LONG BEACH! Which, by the way, may be the cutest and most magical airport I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of airports. It was all outside! And the palm trees! It made me miss home a little. 

Kyle, whose family so graciously let a bunch of college students stay at their house, picked us up from the airport and the party started continued. The rest of our group started driving when we went to the airport so we had like six hours to kill. (Target may have been involved once or twice.)

So we went to Huntington Beach! Magic! I literally could not handle myself. We barely talked the whole drive down the PCH. PCH! Anyway. We walked the whole pier, went and got tacos (fish for me, of course), then laid out for a while. I'm 95% sure that's what my heaven will be like. Pure joy. The other 5% is the guy who insisted on tanning his bum crack.

Then we went grocery shopping for our barbecue to welcome the others to CA. We're so domestic.

Even if we walk past the bread twice. Chippies!

Dinner. Pool/Jacuzzi. Aladdin. And by Aladdin, I mean, I fell asleep on the floor and somehow found my way to the air mattress.  

Friday we drove to Crystal Cove State Park. It was the rockiest beach I've ever been to and it was gorgeous. I got hot like I always do and we took a lunch break at the Shake Shack/Baja Fresh.

Then we went to a different section of the park that included a cozy walk under the highway. It was gorgeous again. But then it got cold, so we went home to change.

And we went to... (!!!)