Road Trip

  Warning: possibly the most photos in one post ever.

We had yet to meet Miss Averi Lydia Whittier

and so we decided to take a little road trip.

We left right after work on Thursday and went as far as Cedar City.

Got up Friday and drove into sunny California to Drew and Alicia's new home in Ventura.

It is a sweet house and has a LOT more room for their growing family.

Check out the amazing flower covered trellis out their backdoor. 

The blooms were lovely. 

 

And there is a lot of space for kids to play. 

They have only been in their house for a few weeks but already they are making it their home.

But, we didn't go just to see their fun new home.

It was all about spending some time with family.

 Meet Miss Averi in her sweet red Dorothy shoes :0)

(Obviously it was NOT about gramma dressing up or fixing her hair or anything).

Miss Eliana was pretty excited to see us, though she likes to play shy at first. 

Korven who is not so shy, was thrilled when he saw 

the amazing outdoorsman vest grandpa Chuck had brought for him.

 And look grandpa! 

There are all these cool things you can get to go with the vest too!

He wanted to wear the vest 24/7...

(as you will see in the 7 billion photos to follow)

 Korven is a very helpful guy. 

He knew grandpa needed some help with this puzzle.

 Eli was more interested in putting raspberries on her fingers.

Korven put his gardening gloves on to help her .

 Drew and Alicia had lots of activities planned for our quick visit. 

And on Saturday morning we set out for Solvang.

 It's a little town that was founded by 4 Danish people in the early 1900's 

with the intent of sharing/maintaining the Danish culture and heritage.

 It is very picturesque...

with traditional architectural details and products.

 Not the least of which includes... 

PASTRIES!!! 

There were at least 5 different pastry shops we saw 

(probably more, we didn't see the whole town 

as there happened to be a half marathon in progress that day).
 

 We tried out some of these bad boys...

.

and also shared some of their traditional asbelskivers.
(Try saying that three times real fast).

Aebelskivers are served warm.

They are small, soft baked pastry balls dipped in powdered sugar 

and served with a raspberry fruit concoction.

We were so excited to try em out

 that I "almost" forgot to take a photo til they were all gone. 

And they went fast. 

After the sugar fest we for a short little hike to a "waterfall" .

Korven scouted ahead with his trusty binoculars for the best path.

Eliana wasn't too sure about the walking business... 

So grandpa gave her a ride. 

 Averi slept most of the time.

 

  
Except for when dad stuck her hand in the "waterfall".

 

 

  It was not exactly a massive waterfall. 

More of a water trickle with a mini pool at the bottom. 

Apparently there has been enough water fall over the years

that the mineral deposits have built the drop off out quite a ways though. 

No need to fear anyone drowning in it at least.

Here's a cool little caterpillar we saw along the trail...just cause.















When we finished with our little hike we loaded into the van and headed to the miniature horse ranch.

 Not to be confused with ponies or dwarf horses, said the pamphlet...

 Korven and Eli got to pet them and as you can see they are pretty small alright.

(the horses...well the kids too).

Then on to a Danish themed playground.

Korven and Eli had a great time.

 

By then we had worked up a fierce appetite so what did we do?

Yep, you guessed it. 

 More pastries.

Where we saw this street car pulled by horses...

 With poop bags under their tails.

Nice.

How do you top all that one might ask!?!

 Here's a hint...

Let's check out some exotic birds!

And feed em. 

These are the emus.

 So these long necked guys are actually pretty intense about their eating.

I was very impressed that the kids fed them. 

I was not about to put any of my body parts in close vicinity.

Ok. 

Maybe I was scared...

a little.

Here are some baby ostrich. 

Which are crazy striped little guys. 

Kinda hard to see behind the wire fence.

The fun wasn't limited to merely feeding the birds though...

There were some great photo ops...

Work it Drew baby!

 Oh yeah!

Nice.

 My Fav!

 Though the sexy look in this bad boys eyes is pretty sweet too.

We "thought" about buying an ostrich egg and cooking it up. 

One egg is supposed to be the equivalent of 18 to 24 chicken eggs and very healthy.

But when we learned that the cost was $35-$40 dollars per egg...

We opted to take a photo of the kids touching the egg.

 Just in case you were wondering about any other random facts.

Now you want to go huh!

It was great.

But exhausting! 

We drove home and finished the evening with a lively card game of Monopoly.

OK. 

It is WAY more fun than the board game version.

 I think maybe Drew and Averi were plotting a winning move here.

 

 Drew and Alicia were fantastic hosts and we had a wonderful time...

And that was only Saturday!

 Sunday was Mother's day and Alicia was kind enough to let me take a photo 

of her with the "doodle bag" she got. 

At church Drew blessed Averi and grandpa stood in too. 

It "looks" like she is giving grandpa a smile

But really she was not into the whole photo op deal.

In fact, she got bored with it.

 And then she got downright ticked about it.

 So we cut her a break and headed to the beach.

 

The beach is a pretty short drive from their house.

 

 Drew and Chuck were the first ones in the water and proceeded to mine the sand.

For what?  

Little crabs.

  Korven made at least a thousand trips back and forth from water to shore 

ferrying buckets of water, sand and crabs.

Kind of reminded me of Fantasia with Mickey and the brooms carrying water.

Korven was building some good muscles.

Eliana was not too sure about the whole live crab business.

But she did like playing in the sand.

Korven was excited about his new pirate beach towel with hood.

I tried out that "hold the camera at arms length and take a photo thing"...

Somehow doesn't seem so charming when you're old though.

But here is something that IS charming!

 Just before we left Miss Averi decided to give us some smiles!

Kinda half way at first.

Then full on!

It was SO fun to go see family.

We left Sunday and drove straight through to home.

By the end we felt a little like this...

 But in a good way.

Thanks Drew and Alicia for a great time.