Once our flight back to Orlando was cancelled (on the day that Irma was hitting Florida), we decided to head north to LA for a few days.  We sure know how to fit a lot of things in...in a short period of time. We strolled around Hollywood where we saw the "stars", Juliette picked up her new friend (Flippy), walked around the La Brea Tar Pits (STINKY!), went to an LA Rams game, walked around Santa Monica and had lunch at one of Uncle Matt's recommendations (True Food Kitchen...DELISH), and drove the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Santa Barbara!  We had a blast!  p.s. I am retiring to Santa Barbara :)

We had planned a vacation to San Diego last month BEFORE Hurricane Irma decided to head to Florida.  With Irma heading our way, we left our home secured in St. Augustine, sent our dogs with friends to Tennessee and drove to Orlando to catch our flight to San Diego.

Our trip was only supposed to be for three days to San Diego.  It ended up being six days and we visited Los Angeles for a few days as well.  We had a great time!  Juliette LOVED California!

​Here's the first leg of our trip in San Diego!  A trip to the San Diego Zoo was our first stop!  Followed by The Donut Bar in Downtown San Diego, some In-n-Out Burger, the classic Hotel Del Coronado, beautiful La Jolla (where we got to see the funny sea lions!) and Cabrillo National Monument.

Last week was a bit stressful for those of us in Florida.  As the week went by, Hurricane Matthew came closer to our beloved town of St. Augustine.  By Wednesday, officials were saying that the coastal areas were going to be under a mandatory evacuation.  Since I work at the beach, that meant no work...for at least a few days.  So, I left work early and got Juliette from daycare.  We packed up the car (including two dogs that don't travel well) and headed north.  We left Daddy behind (not our choice, but he refused).  I drove all night...which I cannot imagine ever wanting to do again...and made it safely to Grams house in KY.  Here's a little peek at out impromptu trip...

The headlines in The Kentucky Enquirer...a picture of St. Augustine under water. 

Monty finally got off my lap to sleep for a few hours in the passenger seat.  He won't be going on any long car rides for a LOOOOONG time,

After the storm passed and we knew our house was ok and Daddy was fine, we had some fall fun at Neltner's Farm.  We were so excited for a REAL pumpkin patch (no church parking lot for us this year!).  It was a beautiful day...it felt like Fall!  We picked some pumpkins, visited their farm animals, Juliette rode their train, we listened to a live Bluegrass band and took a short walk through their corn maze.  We'll have to go back!

We also got to see Granny, Pappaw, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Ryan, Cousin Olive, Grandma Betty, Uncle Andy & Aunt Maggie and a bunch of the Schroeder's.  We made lemonade out of lemons on this trip!  

Unfortunately, St. Augustine didn't fair as well.  Our little town is now recouping.  Lots of folks lost their homes on the beach and the coastal areas.  The houses around the Club on the beach are in rough shape.  Many had major damage...and quite a few are considered condemned.  But St. Augustine is resilient.  She'll be back in no time!

Here's a short video that pretty much sums up my feelings for this place!

After the Grand Canyon, we had two days left to explore Phoenix & Scottsdale.  We stopped by the Desert Botanical Garden.  We spent a good two hours walking around and seeing the native plants.  It's amazing how many types of cacti there are!  Following that, we had lunch at Flower Child with my good friend Amy.  She's been a great friend of mine since our Flagler College soccer playing days!  It is always wonderful seeing her and catching up!  Of course we had to hit up the local Sprinkles too!  Juliette is a big fan of chocolate right now!

​The next day, we took Juliette to the Children's Museum of Phoenix.  The museum is just darling and Juliette LOVED it.  We had a hard time prying her away!  She got to paint a robot pink...and some other kids helping paint the robot were so kind as to paint Juliette's hair pink too.  We had lunch at Matt's Big Breakfast.  Best bacon I've ever had!  Later in Old Town Scottsdale, Juliette nabbed herself a pair of shiny black cowgirl boots.  She's been obsessed with them ever since.  We finished up the day with a trip to Baked Bear.  Matt had told me that we would enjoy this place...and he was right!  I had an oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich that was delish!  Juliette had herself a chocolate chip cookie eaten with a spoon.  Weird kid.

Poor Jean-Luc

And she's outtttt...we had a wonderful trip!  Thanks Uncle Matt & Aunt Anne for letting us crash with you and for being great tour guides!  Can't wait to come back!

Our next stop, the Grand Canyon!  My first thought when we saw the canyon was, "This is fake"  It honestly is so amazingly HUGE that my brain was having issues grasping that it was a real place.  We spent the whole day traveling around the South Rim.  Every viewing area brought a new sight.  We brought a picnic lunch that we enjoyed at the Desert View.  I have to admit, Desert View, was my favorite viewing spot.  The tower was closed, but the Canyon was just spectacular there.  The first thing Juliette said when she saw the canyon..."So big."  This kid just loves being outside so we could have really taken her anywhere and she would have been happy!  Next time, we'll take Daddy with us!

After leaving Sedona, we headed to Williams, Arizona.  Williams is an adorable little town with proud ties to Route 66.  We didn't spend too much time in Wiliams, but enough time to grab some dinner and walk around some cute stores.  We also stayed in Williams for two nights in an adorable log cabin we found on airbnb since it was a quick 45 minute drive to the Grand Canyon.  Williams is definitely a great little stop while in Arizona!

This is the cute little cabin we stayed at in Williams...

The view from our little cabin...

We arrived in Phoenix a few weeks ago excited to start our Arizona vacation. We flew out of Orlando, picked Grams up in Cincinnati, stopped in Denver and finally into Phoenix (It was a LOOOONG travel day...and Frontier lost our car seat which kept us in the airport really late).  We finally arrived at Uncle Matt & Aunt Anne's house by 5AM EST.  The next morning we got our rental car and drove around Phoenix and Old Town Scottsdale.  Following that, we packed up the car bright and early and headed to Sedona for our Pink Jeep tour.  Before we loaded into our bright pink ride, we got to see some of the local peccary or javelina.  I guess it is not an everyday sight, but we were lucky enough to see about 8 of them!  The picture with Juliette and some pink looking pigs are what javelina look like (minus the pink color!).  We loaded into our pink jeep and headed to the ancient Native American ruins of Honanki.  It was a bumpy and chilly ride, but super fun!  We walked around Sedona afterwards and did some shopping.  Sedona is just GORGEOUS!