Girls Just Wanna Have Fu-un!

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it."

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of thinking."

"You should live everyday like it's your last, because one day you're gonna be right."

Friday, the girls and I decided to go on a spontaneous trip to the beach! Of course, with spontaneity it doesn't always work quite like you planned and there are bound to be road bumps and obstacles that stand in your way. But, those can also be some of the best times of your life, and this trip was definitely one of those for me. I think we all just needed to get away from our town and forget about everything at home and enjoy ourselves. We're young; if we can do something like this, why not go for it??

Playlist for this trip (This doesn't necessarily mean we listened to them, these are just songs that described the trip perfectly for me):

• Live It Up-Lee DeWyze
• How Will I Know?-Whitney Houston (we heard this driving around town)
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-Cyndi Lauper
• Walking On Sunshine-(Heard this as we were pulling into Venice...perfect timing)
• Good Life-OneRepublic (Heard this one)
• Soak Up The Sun- Sheryl Crow
• Feelin Alive-Jonas Brothers
• Dancing In The Moonlight- Jessie J (Heard this on the way home)
• I Wanna Dance With Somebody-Whitney Houston
• Sweet Serendipity-Lee DeWyze
• Our Lives-The Calling
• This-Darius Rucker

We hung out at Hillary's for awhile before we were all ready to go, then as soon as Makenzie got to the house, we packed up the car and hit the open road. We listened to music, talked and did all the things girls, or anyone for that matter does on road trips haha. We got to Venice just in time for the sunset! We unloaded everything, and found the perfect spot on the beach. We made sandwiches, dipped our toes in the water (which was freezing) and just sat there enjoying the beauty of what was in front of us. There's really no way to put into words how incredible a sunset is-God is the ultimate painter and always gets the coloring just right. It was beautiful, inspiring, and REALLY cold! I always forget how cold our California beaches are; you always picture it being really warm and perfect like in the movies, but that's not always the case. I had a sweatshirt, jeans and everything...what more do I need? LOL. We also had fun chasing down the birds when we realized they'd started attacking our food when we looked away for a few minutes. Oh, good times!

We were only there about an hour or so, then decided to head back towards home. Venice/Santa Monica is such a cute place with lots of boutiques and coffee shops! I'd love to just try a random place sometime and people watch at a sidewalk cafe with my laptop, paper, and pen; I find it inspiring. And it looked magical at night with lights all lit along the streets. LA traffic is always crazy, so we got stuck for a little while. But, it's much more enjoyable when you have amazing people that will help you pass the time. 

We stopped in a town called, Valencia (where Magic Mountain is located), to explore a little while. We drove by this really cool studio called Melody Ranch Studio that is like an old west themed lot, with parlors and saloons. We weren't able to go in, but I checked out their website online later on and it's really cool! I'd like to check it out sometime. There are also a lot of houses near the property, and they were gorgeous. We were all daydreaming about our future houses and calling the ones we'd like. I found a beautiful Spanish style that I'd really like (of course, I'll have to get a job and all of that first lol). Before heading home we grabbed a Starbucks and hit the freeway! We had so much fun blasting music, sharing stories and laughing along the way with the windows rolled down until it got too chilly.

It was such a fun day, and something I will never forget. It was more than just a beach trip to me, though. to some degree it reminded me that I'm getting older and how life is starting to change. It's both beautiful and scary at the same time. It's weird leaving childhood behind and being faced with more decisions, and that now the shots are up to YOU. It's weird having said goodbye to one chapter in my life, but looking forward to all the rest that are coming up. I couldn't be happier than where I'm at right now. I thank God for everything that has brought me to this moment in time.

Ceci also told me about this amazing photo editing app for your iPhone (I'm kind of obsessed with those), so here are a few photos that were edited from there!

I love this one!

Vintage!

Ceci did this one :)

That's all for now,
Shelby
xoxox