my brother and sister-in-law recently moved to santa cruz (and gave birth to their beautiful baby girl on monday night!) so this means lots of road trips up the coast are in my future and i am very excited about this. i love road trips – especially up the coast of california. my love for this state continues to grow as i see more and do more and create memories with all of the different experiences it has to offer. california is so vast and diverse and unique and there are countless little nooks and crannies that i am dying to explore!

a few weekends ago on taylor’s due date, we drove up to santa cruz in hopes that we would get to meet our sweet little niece! parker babe was cozy in mama’s belly and didn’t make an appearance all weekend, but we had so much fun hanging out with the parents-to-be, seeing their life up there, and visiting their adorable cottage. we also got to spend time with laura, who lives only a few blocks away from my brother and taylor. this makes me really happy because 3 of my favorite people in the world now live within walking distance from each other! another perk of the weekend was driving into san francisco on saturday night to surprise one of my best friends and her fiancé at their engagement party. i’m so glad we got to be there for the special celebration and having a reunion with all of my college roommates was the best ever! love those girls so much. sidenote: i am completely fascinated by the fog situation in sf; seeing it roll in like a blanket on our drive into the city had me snapping a million and one photos. we cruised around the city in the morning and couldn’t leave without stuffing ourselves with burritos from la taqueria that are ohmygosh so good. we made our way back down the coast late sunday afternoon and stopped in beautiful big sur just as the sun was setting. we hadn’t been back since this trip and goodness gracious, that place is breathtaking! it’s definitely worth the extra driving time in my opinion! this weekend was one for the books for sureee and i’m thankful for many more trips up there real soon!