the reason behind the churro/beach comment

We spent last weekend in amazingly beautiful southern California, as part of Sawyer's Christmas with a few days at Disneyland/California Adventure, a day cruising around all of Matt's mom's Susie's old haunts (she came with us, and wanted to show us that she did actually-factually spend a portion of her formative years in Compton) and a paradisaical half-day at the beach in Santa Monica. Santa Monica has a big fat cushy soft spot in my heart from here on out. This dubious honor originally stemmed from a little place called Vanilla Bakeshop, what has the most unbelievable cupcakes and most gorgeous cakes of all time. But if you keep going west on Wilshire (after wiping the drool from their bakery case) and spending a week of your caloric allowance on key lime, blackberry passion fruit and bittersweet dark chocolate cupcakes, you'll find that you run into the most idyllic So Cal beach of all time. Not that it's all pristine & free of other people; it's packed, but the people are all either playing volleyball, playing with their kids at the playground, rollerblading with their dogs, riding low-rider bikes, flying kites, eating crazy good burritos, or jogging with their dogs, or playing Frisbee with their dogs. Let's just say it's a weeee bit more dog-friendly than Layton. And I love it. That is where I would go to sell my churros.
Anyway, the main point of the trip was to take Sawyer on her first Disneyland excursion, and we couldn't have taken her at a better time. She was just full of delight and joy the entire time, resulting in delighted, joyful parents & Grandma. There was actually a point where I honestly teared up from joy. Matt had the forethought to go ahead & stand behind Tinkerbell & when Sawyer came around the corner & saw her, he got these great pictures of her running up & nearly knocking the poor little thing over! Is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen?!?
The princesses that we met were totally the highlight for me as well as for Sawyer. They were so sweet to her & looked freakishly similar to their respective character. It was really nice that Sawyer is such an Amazon girl, she was tall enough to ride every ride & brave enough to as well. She laughed through the Matterhorn, held our hands on Pirates of the Caribbean and was only a little freaked out by the acid-trip that is the Alice in Wonderland ride. I think she mostly loved our "Dining with Princesses" experience.




Grandma Shoosie!
Look at that sky. The ocean. The grass. The soft yummy sand. If you squint real hard you can almost see my churro cart. Maybe I'll rent roller blades too, it looked like that would be quite lucrative.
My favorite thing Sawyer says right now is this: "Mom! I have a great idea!" When she followed it up with "make a snow angel! But in the sand!" I think I fell a little more in love with her.
Sawyer voiced my feelings upon leaving the beach very accurately (except for the fact that I generally wear my sunglasses right side up.) We all had so much fun & were so grateful that Grandma Susie was able to come with us. I think I've become an official die hard Disney fan, I just saw a Disney World commercial & got all excited to take her there. Maybe Grandma & Grandpa Miller would come with us? :)