We have officially been on the road 2 weeks! We have learned so much about each other and I feel like the Lord has been teaching us along the way. 1. Patience, lots of patience…. things will not always go like we plan. We have a 1 year old that needs naps and lots of other things that makes traveling unpredictable!  2. That He is in control and He provides always!! I’ve always known that but I feel Him watching over us BIG TIME on every inch of this trip…whether it’s close parking spots, awesome deals on lodging or equipment, putting super cool people to meet on our path, keeping us safe, landing new accounts for our business, all kinds of things! He is providing and protecting us, His kids! 3. To just go with the flow, life is an adventure! He is in control! Just trust him and He will take care of you!

On day 14 we prepped for our next leg of the trip. We had been in Oceanside for a week and were about to head to malibu the next day!  But first, we wanted to go to some tide pools to look around for sea creatures! My dad drove us all to Tides Beach Park to go explore. We found tons of crabs 🦀 and other interesting sea things! And some amazing rocks to boot! It was a great place to explore and find sea things!  Arthur Thomas is obsessed with water and just wanted to be in it as much as possible. Kian found a small tide pool and just started digging tons of good sized rocks out of it! He probably found 15 rocks in it! Lol! We collected our finds, then we went back to the condo to work on laundry and get ready for Sunset Market! When we checked into Wyndham Oceanside we had been told about the sunset market. It’s a market that sets up EVERY Thursday night! I didn’t know what exactly to expect. But we invited Chris and Carole, our cousins from San Diego to come and go to it with us! They came and met us, we walked to the market. Y’all it was so cool! It is worth going to visit if you are ever in So Cal on a Thursday! Tons, tons of food vendors set up selling food from all over the world, live music, tons of shopping booths, crafts, jewelry, a bounce house, you name it! It was so much fun! We had Filipino food and Hawaiian food! It was so good!!! We got Hawaiian pork and chicken, Hawaiian macaroni salad, lumpia, chicken adobo, and pancet. And they sold Coke Life (sweetened with cane sugar and stevia) in a can! I was stoked about that! You can’t get it in a can in Fort Smith! Then Arthur Thomas went to the bounce house and had a blast. Next we went shopping at some of the cute vendors! When we shopped we found a ring for me, sunglasses for the guys, and a phone cord charger! Then we headed down to the Oceanside pier to watch our last sunset there, it was a beautiful one! We will be sad to say goodbye to this lovely town! 

My parents met us in Oceanside for the week, so we were able to get a DATE NIGHT during our road trip! All of you with kiddos know how important it is to date your spouse!!! Those adult conversations and uninterrupted time spent together, is crucial to keep a marriage thriving.  I learned that from my mom and dad. They set a great example of that when I was growing up. Arthur and I try to go on a date at least once a month. But before our date night, I took the kiddos to swim at the pool and hot tub at Wyndham Oceanside. It’s such a nice swimming area! Arthur Thomas has learned how to swim on this trip and is holding his breathe under water! I’m so proud of him! I remember when Cade was about the same age and we taught him how to swim at our apartment in Fayetteville, now he is a great swimmer! Now Cade helps Arthur Thomas with his new swimming skill. It’s sweet! Then we went back to the condo and got ready for my date with Arthur. The boys were going to go on a date with Didad (grandpa) and Dede (grandma).  We went and saw Wonder Woman. It was such a great movie! I want to be an Amazon!!! Lol! Then we went to The Original Johnny Mananas And grabbed a margarita and chips and dip. We talked about our new business we a launching and our hopes for That! Then we went to Tin Fish, which was a little place to eat on the beach! I got a Mahi Mahi fish taco and Arthur got fish and chips! It was really good! Then we walked to a coffee shop stand on the beach. It was called bistro at Oceanside pier. If you could quote a specific memory verse from the Bible they would give you a discount! I didn’t have the verse memorized that they asked for, but I thought it was a cool concept. The coffee shop is used as a ministry by a local church. What a cool way to reach and teach people! #thegreatcommission Then we sat on the beach, had our coffee and chatted more before we headed home. My parents had taken the boys to Ruby’s, the cute diner on the pier, and they had seen us on our date and hollered at us. It was really cute! Then when we got home, we watched Moana with everyone. It was a wonderful date night with my love, Arthur! We’ve been together almost 12 years, that time has flown by!!!   #dateyourspouse ​

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On the 7th day God rested. I believe there is definitely an importance to that. He needed a day of rest and wants us to take a day of rest as well! So on day 12, we cooked delicious food at the condo and took some major naps. Disney wore everyone out! Then when we woke up, we all got beach ready and went to the beach and rented surreys! Cade got the more hip 3 wheeled one! I can’t remember what the name was, but you had to be 16 to drive one. We drove the surreys around the beach area and then we went to the beach, just to hang out and play in the sand! It was such a nice, restful day with some awesome family time!  I love my little family! 

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

~Psalm 62:1-2 🌊🙌🏻☀️🌺🏝

Disclaimer: I have been to disneyworld in Orlando probably about 12 times and we LOVE it!  We are Disney junkies!!!  But This was my first trip to Disneyland so I had to write all about it!!! 
I set my alarm for 4:30ish, it was the first time that I was going to Disneyland and I wanted to be there when they opened! I packed everything we needed for the day: sunscreen, snacks, lunch, water, Disney autograph book, a change of clothes for the boys, diapers, wipes, sunglasses, you name it. We headed out. In Central and Southern Cali you have to add about an hour or more onto every trip because there is always traffic and more than likely rerouting. We got to Disneyland around 8:30. My first goal was to redeem points from our Disney cc into Disney dollars to spend at the park. We did that, and bought a one day park hopper, my dad rented a stroller for Kian and then we went immediately to the California Adventure line to get in. I knew if we wanted to ride the new Gaurdians of Galaxy ride, we had to get fast passes to that first, because it had just opened about 2 weeks before! The line to get fast passes was probably about 20 minutes, I guess everyone else had the same idea! Lol! Then we went to a little kiddy ride called Monsters Inc, which was right around the corner. It was anything spectacular but it was cute. The kids liked it, Kian could ride it too which was great!  Then we went to a super hero station which was right outside that ride. We all had to answer a series of questions to figure out which super hero we were. Arthur was spiderman, I was the avengers, Cade was Captain America, Arthur Thomas was Thor and Kian was honorarily hulk! Then we went to turtle talk with Crush, which is always so cute, it was similar to the one at Disney world. My kids love it because crush actually will have conversations with you, it’s an interactive show! Then we went and got fast passes for the worlds of color (or something like that, which was a show we ended up not going to). Then we went to Carsland. Carsland is amazing! Cade, our 16 year old, has wanted to go there for years and he was in Cars heaven! We rode a cute little ride called maters junkyard jamboree. And mom and dad went to get us fast passes for radiator springs racers that has a long wait. Then we went to luigis rollickin roadsters ride. It’s so so cute! The cars dance the mambo with you in them. Then we rode the little mermaid (it’s also a kiddy ride that all ages can ride on) it’s pretty much just like the one at Walt Disney world, it’s very cute! Then we went to ride Gaurdians of the Galaxy because it was time to use our fast passes. Arthur and Kian went to go get fast passes for Soarin’ while the rest of us went to Guardians. It’s super cool the way they remodeled tower of terror to look like Gaurdians of the galaxy. I was expecting the ride to be similar to tower of terror, the way that the ride is laid out. But it wasn’t, at all…. I probably would have thought twice about taking my 4 year old on it, if I would have known the way it would go. You basically go into the elevator and it takes you up and drops you fast, over and over and over and over again. Lol! Maybe 10 -15 times! It was intense! It was fun and there is a story to it, but I was watching Arthur Thomas to make sure he was ok. He handled it like a champ. At one point he said he wanted off. But other than that, he was proud he rode it and was stoked to buy a Groot Tshirt in the gift shop when the ride was over! We went ahead and bought Kian a Rocket shirt, and Cade a Gaurdians shirt. They look so cute wearing them on the same day! ​Then cade, Arthur and I rode California Screamin’, it was my favorite ride of the day for sure! It’s a big roller coaster but it’s so so smooth! I would’ve ridden it again if we didn’t have any kiddos with us on the trip! Arthur even loved it, and he is usually not a huge roller coaster fan! Then we rode toystory midway mania with all the kids, it’s always a Green Family fav at Disney world. The ride itself is the same as Disney world. It’s basically like a 3D video game ride… so much fun! Then we headed over to Disney Junior Dance Party and Kian was in love with the music and characters! It is the perfect place to rest and let the kids watch an awesome interactive live show! Then we went to our fast pass at Soarin. Kian and I stayed in the gift shop because he was too little to ride! Everyone else loved it! It’s a hang glider simulator that simulates flying all over the world. Next we went to the Radiator Springs Racers and used the fastpass from earlier in the day! It was a fast blast!!! We loved it! Next we caught the Pixar parade and they shot us with water hubs lol! They kept shooting poor baby Kian in the face😳! He was just stoked to see his favorite toy life size, woody from toy story.  We were all exhausted, but had bought the park hopper so we were determined to park hop, even if it killed us lol! So we then around 6:45pm we finally made it to Disneyland! It was fabulous and a lot smaller than Disneyworld! First stop was dinner, we hadn’t stopped to eat the entire day! We had just had snacks throughout and we were all starving! I ran to get fast  asses to Matterhorn while everyone else waited in line for food. We had heard that Plaza Inn had delish fried chicken and it did not disappoint! We all enjoyed the rest and the calories! Then we went to the finding nemo submarine ride. It was incredibly cool. I remember the 20,000 leauges sub ride at disneyworld in the 80s and so I wasn’t expecting it to be awesome, but y’all it was! The kiddos were mesmerized and so was I, so much to look at under the sea while riding a submarine!! Then we went to it’s a small world, a Disney classic ride. On the way there we caught the end of the electric light parade, which is always gorgeous (they do one at Disney world too). Disneyland’s was better than Disneyworld’s version! They even put Disney dolls throughout the ride! We all loved it! It’s a beautiful ride! We walked out of the ride and they were shooting off the end of night fireworks! Disney knows how to do parades and fireworks better than anyone! Then we headed to the Matterhorn that we had fast passes to use from earlier. I was expecting something similar to expedition Everest from Disneyworld, but it was more like 1970s yeti meets space mountain but with really cool views of the park at night! I didn’t know this until I got on it, but the ride was first started in the 1960s! How cool is that?!?! I had no idea! Then my dad, Arthur and the 2 little ones were ready to call it quits, so they went to the car. My mom, Cade and I wanted to ride the Indiana jones ride. Disneyworld didn’t have that one and I love some 1980s Indiana jones, so I had to check it out! The ride didn’t disappoint it was a unique concept, a bumpy hero ride with lots of twists and turns, adventures and skulls! I liked it alot! The ride was first started in the 90s but was still really a cool ride, hence the hour wait time at 11 pm! Then we grabbed a Starbucks and some souvenirs and headed out! We definitely got our money’s worth! We closed the park down! I loved Disneyland and California Adventure Parks but next time I will spend 2-3 days doing the parks so that I don’t feel like I’m killing myself trying to do everything or that I’m missing out on seeing something awesome! I can’t wait to go back!!!! 

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Sunday sweet Sunday, we woke up and went to a small local church in Oceanside to worship our Heavenly Father! Then we came home and I made an Italian feast for the family. That day there was a music festival right on the beach. We could see the stage from our balcony! #freeconcert So from 3-10pm we heard some awesome bands! Colony House, HeyDaze, and Franz Ferdinand were a few of the bands that played!  Franz Ferdinand came out with “Take Me Out” about 12 years ago and I was obsessed with it!  So it was really cool to be apart of the fest! It was another chill day! We were planning our intense trip to Disneyland the next day, so we were resting up lol! That evening we went to the beach and hung out and the little boys played on the playground that was on Oceanside Beach. We could hear the bands playing awesomely! It was a great night!​​

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Oceanside is a great place. It’s truly a place to just be and just relax.  We woke up and walked to breakfast at Swami’s and y’all it was seriously the best food of our trip so far! Lobster Benedict and pineapple upside down pancakes were what Arty and I shared. And… they have a full coffee bar for all the coffee junkies (including me)! Lots of sweetener choices, lots of milk choices, and lots of coffee choices and you make your own concoction and get free refills! I made a hazelnut coffee with coconut milk and sugar in the raw and it was the bomb.com. Our condo has a big kitchen and dining room, so mom and I made a giant grocery list and hit up Super Target! I go to super target any chance I get! lol! I was excited to have a kitchen to cook in for a whole week! And we utilized it like crazy! That evening we walked up and down the Oceanside pier and saw lifeguards testing and lots of surfers. It’s such a cool place! There were tons of fishers on the pier and so Arthur Thomas got to see some fish in the buckets up close. Then for dinner we went to the pizza place downstairs. I think it’s called zigzag pizza. And it was Delish! They had a fun classic  rock n roll theme! We loved it! Then Arthur took Arthur Thomas to get his hair cut at a barber shop in Oceanside ! ❤️

The day came when we had to leave San Diego. I woke up around 4:30am to pack things and prepare to leave at 6 to head to UCLA. We had a tour at 10:15am that we were trying to make. Cade will be a Junior this year and has talked about going to school in California. So we booked 2 college tours for him to take while on our adventure. FYI: Y’all traffic to LA is crazy! You basically map it on your GPS and then add an hour or more to your journey… especially if it’s rush hour…we stopped and fueled up on Starbucks and continued on our journey to ucla. We got there literally just in time for the tour! We had an overview first (which Kian and I had to dismiss ourselves from because he’s almost 2 lol), then we toured the campus. I had NO IDEA this UcLa had a gorgeous campus. It was a 2 hour tour and we didn’t see everything. What we did see was fantastic though! And they have 10 libraries on campus. One library we saw had all kinds of way for the students to study. They had couches, desks, stand up desks, a coffee shop, and more in that one library. It was the perfect college students study place! After the tour, we went to IN N OUT 🍔, because it’s the best and they are all over Cali! Then we headed to Costa Mesa to Hawleywoods. A little back story, back when we had our lovely retro shop, Beauty’s, we sold a ton of Layrite hair pomade. It was a water based men’s pomade that smelled like angel food cake. Layrite was started at Hawleywood’s, a sweet old school style barber shop, in a California. One of Arthur’s dreams, was to get his hair cut there. We finally made that dream a reality! He had his long lucious locks chopped off and now has a clean cut fade with a little length on top. He looks good😍❤️😘, he looked good with long hair too, but I think I’m a bigger fan of the new cut. Then we drove to Oceanside to check in to our condo at the beach! It was beautiful! Our balcony has an ocean view. After a week in one bedroom accommodations, I was looking forward to spreading out in a 2 bedroom condo! My parents met us in Oceanside. It was great to see them and share our adventures thus far! 

We woke up and had a leisure morning. Arthur had a business meeting with the hotel manager and then we all went and enjoyed another breakfast at the Waffle Spot! All I have to say is: the huevos rancheros was amazing! Then the hotel manager gave us a tour of one of their remodeled suites, now called the Gidget suite at the hotel. I’m posting pics of the room in case anyone wants to reserve it! It’s fabulous!!! Just call the Kings Inn in San Diego and ask for the Gidget suite if you want to book it! Then we gathered the troops to go check out Cabrillo and the lighthouse. About Cabrillo national park, As per the NPS website: Climbing out of his boat and onto shore in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped into history as the first European to set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States. In addition to telling the story of 16th century exploration, the park is home to a wealth of cultural and natural resources.  We were able to use our America the Beautiful pass to get us in. Woohoo! First of All the views are amazing! And the lighthouse is super cool. The inside was preserved from the late 1800s and its beautiful! Then we went to check out the tide pools, it wasn’t low tide but it was our first contact with the ocean on this trip, so we were happy! The boys loved it! Then we loaded up and headed to La Jolla to the children’s pool to see the sea lions! Apparently it was a designated are for the children of La Jolla to swim in, and the sea lions took it over! We were not disappointed! There were so many in their natural habitat, just laying around sunbathing! It was awesome! Next we headed over to my cousin’s house for dinner and hot tub time. We have maybe met once or twice. But I contacted them and made plans to hang out! They were super cool to hang with and get to know! They were great hostesses! His name is  Chris and his wife is Carole. They have a lovely home in San Diego with the most Amazing view overlooking the city! The boys had a blast in their pool and hot tub. Then We called it a night and went home to rest up! We had to be all loaded up and packed up to head to UCLA for a 10:15 tour the next morning and so I can to get up at 4:30 to make that happen. It was another great day in San Diego!​

San Diego is in the super southern part of California, almost all the way to Mexico! I had never been there before and was stoked to be close to the ocean. Someday I will live near the ocean, someday, it just calms my soul. We made plans to check out the San Diego zoo. We had been told it was the best zoo there is. And we LOVE zoos, so we had to check it out.  We took our time and had breakfast at the Waffle Spot, which is a cute retro diner at our hotel, and then we packed all the snacks and things for the zoo. It was a cool and overcast day, which was perfect for zoo exploring! When we got there, there was a beautiful gate at the entrance. We went up to the cashier to pay and our total was almost $200… for the zoo. Oops I didn’t check prices beforehand!! We were expecting like $100 for our family! Lol!  We decided to go in and check it out, after all, we had told the kiddos we were going to the zoo! Y’all this zoo, it was amazing. It definitely lived up to its hype! Tons of volunteers   everywhere, that were super helpful. Every exhibit was beautifully clean and perfect for the animals to thrive in. We saw all kinds of snakes, birds, wild cats, koalas, wallabies, pandas 🐼, giraffes, hippos, polar bears… basically any animal you can think of!  The little kids both picked out polar bear toys.  Kian picked out a stuffed polar bear and Arthur Thomas picked out a transforming polar bear that transforms into a robot!  They had a gondola that had amazing views!! They called it skyfari!  The zoo was super hilly which is good because we need to burn off all the vacation food we’ve been eating lol!  Thankfully almost everyday that we aren’t in the car, we’ve been super active! I Highly recommend that zoo! In fact, I can’t wait to go back! Plan on spending an entire day (open to close) there! We were there for about 5 hours or more and didn’t see everything! Enjoy the pics! It was my favorite day so far on the trip! ​

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A Joshua tree looks like a twisted and mangled palm tree. So unique and beautiful in their own way! This trip is educational for our boys so we googled where the Joshua Tree got its name. This is what we found: “The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree’s unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.” Isn’t that awesome?

On day 5, We woke up and packed up at the echolove casita. We then started our journey into Joshua Tree national park. The only thing we knew about Joshua Tree was that it was the name of an awesome U2 (one of our favorite bands) album. So we wanted to check it out!!! Y’all it’s so hot there that you just drive through it and then pick our sites throughout the park that you want to stop and take pics at. Throughout the park there are TONS of Joshua trees and super unique rock formations. How did these crazy huge piles of rocks get out there!? I have no idea. But they are cool to climb on! And take pictures of! Our first stop in the park, we met a couple from Fayetteville, AR! They were super sweet and they took a pic of our whole family in front of the beautiful scenery. We stopped a few places throughout the park. We were looking for skull rock! It was one of the last rock formations to see before we left the park. You’ll see pics of it below. So many cool rocks y’all! The boys loved it!!! Arthur Thomas could have stayed and hiked all day!!! Then we made our way back to Joshua Tree for delicious burgers at the Joshua Tree Saloon. I Definitely recommend their sweet potato fries and cheeseburger 🍔!  Then we loaded up and headed west to San Diego. This was a short car ride of about 3 hrs, compared to the rest of the traveling we  have done so far. And it was a beautiful drive through the mountains! We saw this area with tons of windmills and a random piece of 🌈 in the sky!  Rainbows are a great reminder that Yahweh is faithful and always keeps His promises!  He is so good!!! We reached San Diego and  we checked into the Kings Motel, which was in the middle of everything and it has been completely remodeled to a beach theme mid century wonderland! Totally adorable and affordable! I’ll post pics of their rooms soon! We were stoked to be in one place for 3 nights and beds were super comfy!!!! 🛏🛋🛁​​​​