Caaaalifornia, here we coooome!

Look, 2 posts in one week! Things are looking up for me and the blogging world. I felt so terribly about getting off track I thought I'd try and make up for it a little bit. So, here we are. Post 2 of this week. Now, don't get used to this. This is just me trying to make myself feel better. Hopefully, I will post again next week and if I do I have a really great idea for it! I just need to make it happen. Normally, I would tell you my idea to get you all excited but I don't want to let you down so we'll just have to wait and see if it really happens. But if it does, it's going to be good.

As a lot of you know, I went back home to Texas for a little over a month. If you were unaware check out the last couple posts, it pretty much sums up my time at home.

Let's start with the day after Christmas. On the day after Christmas my BFF's and I loaded up a rental car and headed west to Camp Pendleton...

Me, my besties, and the Govenator. (That's the name we gave the rental car. None of these people have the nick name "The Govenator".)

The luggage situation was tight but we made it fit.

Even my wedding dress got to come!

Our plan was to take pictures with all 3 state signs. Here's New Mexico.

Here's Arizona.

And this is where California should be. But... this was how we were feeling at 4am. You see, we decided to drive straight through.

Of course, our driver was all good. We had a rotation system. Don't worry, all you moms out there, we were safe.

22 hours later, we made it to Cali! After our naps this was our first stop, duh.

The next day, VENICE BEACH!

These are my favorite street performers at Venice. They are so funny. And talented! One of them was on America's Best Dance Crew.

These are rings we found in Venice. They were on sale. Wonder why?

Sadie came to Cali only to fly out of LAX to Aussie Land! Have fun, Sades. Miss you!

And this is her college roommate, Katie. They went together. You can read about their adventures here, on Sadie's blog.

With Sadie gone we decided to chill out for a few days a recoup from our drive. One of our relaxing days consisted of a walk down to the beach. (And a fun new iPhone app...)

We also decided to buy beer and watch football. How cool are we? We're all finally 21! After getting home with the goods I realized that I do not own a bottle opener. Thankfully, my Reef sandals came with a bottle opener on the soles. Thank you, Reefs.

The rest of the events are in no particular order. Mostly because I cannot remember what order they are supposed to go in.

We went to the Sunset Market in Oceanside.

A majority of our time was spent decorating my new house. Yes, I force my guests to do house work. Got a problem with that?

On New Years we figured we should go out. So we put on our best clothes and went down the street to a Mexican restaurant. They needed to experience authentic Mexican while in Cali, right?

One night, we decided to walk down to the beach and have a picnic at sunset. Sounds nice doesn't it?

Wrong. Everything is flooded. It turned into much more of an adventure than we had expected.

But it all worked out great! We got the sweet pics we had hoped for and our food was delicious.

We went to Hollywood and saw all the sights. We even went to Hard Rock Cafe! I had not been to the Hollywood location, it just opened a few months back.

We did the Walk of Fame.

And we got to see the Hollywood sign!

Whit and I went back during the day to get a better shot. Sorry, Lauren!

We spent a day in Laguna Beach stalking high school students.

And we saw many beautiful sunsets.

On Lauren's last day we had a picnic at Balboa park in San Diego.

We ran into this puppy.

We were so sad to have to say goodbye to Lauren but so excited to say hello to Braxton!

After we got Lauren outta there we hit up Universal Studios!

That's right, VIP tour.

Um, OMG.

For more pictures of the VIP tour check out my facebook album, here.

Los Angeles, look at that smog.

I just had to throw in another picture of Baby Braxton.

Some of the wives of guys from Scott's platoon decided to come out for the weekend and visit. We had so much fun! It was awesome to get to know them.

Now for the good stuff, the food. Hopefully, I will have more cooking things to show y'all in the upcoming posts. I'm not so great at cooking with him being gone but I'm trying to get better. Any suggestions on how to make food for one person?

Lauren and I went on a bit of a food spree, here are the products of it:

Cheese-less lasagna. So good.

Roasted pumpkin seeds. Obsessed.

Carrots, celery, and hummus. Always.

Lentil-ness for our lentil tacos.

And homemade pico de gallo for our lentil tacos.

Our first meal together. Lentil tacos.

The infamous, Fudgey Wudgey Blueberry Brownies.

And a new fav, chocolate raspberry cookies.

Dairy-free, homemade fudgesicles. I like them! Disregard Whit's face.

This is the best part. We learned how to make kettle corn from actual kernels! Ya know, where you cook it on the stove. I am so excited to make this every night.

Oh yes, and black bean burgers from our picnic on the beach.

This is a mushroom tofu burger from a taco stand in Laguna. It is my second time to get it. I know it doesn't sound all the appetizing, but I love it. Don't judge me.

My time spent with my friends was amazing. I haven't gotten to hang out with them as much this past year because, well... I got married and moved to California. But nothing has changed and I know it never will. I am so happy they got to come and see where I live and experience life on a Marine Corps Base. Ok, geez. I'm so sappy lately.

Thanks for reading. See you all next week with a super great post! I think.