Insert Clever Title Here

We had a fun filled weekend this past weekend and are hoping for more like it in the near future! I just want to remind you (as I have to remind myself quite often) that we live in California. California! What the heck? Anyway, because we live in California, we have easy access to some amazing places. This week/weekend we took full advantage of some of these places! On Wednesday night we went hiking with a group from William's work. We had done the trail before, but it was still fun again. It goes up a mountain in Simi that once you reach the top, you can see all of Simi Valley. It was a fun, quick hike and a good start to spending lots of time outside.

Saturday morning I got up with Arden while William slept in (we rotate weekends so that one of us gets to sleep in on Saturdays). While we were playing (around 8:45) our electricity went out. Bummer. But I thought that surely it wouldn't stay off long so I wasn't too worried about it. William got up and we all got dressed and decided to take our tandem bicycle with child carrier on the back for a spin! Yes, it's a 3 seater if you will. Arden wasn't too fond of the helmet, but looked oh so funny in it! We just rode around a little while before coming back home for a nap. The power was still off and Arden was not interested in taking a nap so we packed up our things and headed to the beach. It was such a pretty day and we found a new beach that was really nice and not crowded at all. On our way up and down this crazy, curvy road, we drove past our friends, Zach and Anna. It was so crazy to pass them on this seemingly in the middle of nowhere road out of all the people in this state and at that particular moment. I called Anna and freaked her out a little asking if she was pulled over on the particular road and told her that we had just passed them. They were on their way to go hiking but joined us at the beach instead. We explored some caves along the shore and hung out for awhile before they had to head back. We tried to stay to watch the sunset, but figured we would head back before dark instead. Arden got car sick on the way home, but all in all it was a lovely day.

We got back around 8, hoping (and thinking that surely) our electricity was back on, only to find a pitch black apartment complex with lots of people out and about because everyone was without electricity. We lit some candles and went about our business as usual. I don't care what you're doing, but everything is more romantic by candlelight - doing the dishes, giving the baby a bath, picking up clutter, etc. The rumor was that we would have power by 10 that night, but when we went to bed around 10:30, it was still off. I had checked around to make sure that all of the light switches were off so that if it did come back on, we wouldn't be woken up with lights turning on everywhere. We went to bed and at around 2:45am the power came back on - along with our extremely bright bathroom lights. "WHAT THE???!!!" I was already sleeping poorly and the next thing I know, I'm being blinded by these lights and people outside are shouting for joy and Molly is scratching and panting. It was like a scene from a movie where they try to be funny by having people jump out of bed with all this crazy stuff happening at one moment. Well, it's not funny in real life when it is happening to you. William had no idea that anything even happened. Not fair. (and by the way - he was the one who had flipped the switch. Thanks dear.) Anyway, at least we had power back by morning.

Sunday we had a picnic after church with all of our church friends. It was so good to be outside almost all of the weekend and to get a little color on the skin as well!

.

Pictures of the beach to come soon!